DUBLIN FOOTBALL:A GOOD start and a good battle suggests Dublin are more serious than recent years about winning the Allianz National Football League, and forward Bernard Brogan admits it's about time they did.
Saturday’s first-round win in Armagh was notable not just for Dublin’s attitude but also their new-found strength in depth, which can only serve them well in that quest to win a first league title since 1993.
Brogan made no secret of Dublin’s desire to win the competition outright, saying yesterday manager Pat Gilroy will be fielding his strongest possible team over the coming weeks, and has emphasised the need for maximum performances every day they go out.
“I think the league and the championship have a huge correlation now between the successes of both,” said Brogan. “Dublin have been so far away for so long. As a team Dublin should be contesting it more often. I know in the 1990s they contested two or three finals before they won it. I think we need to get up to that level.
“We’ll be going out to win every game, and of course that’s what you have to do to win the league. But we really do want to win it, to get some silverware this year. We’ve a lot of tough games, and if we do make the final we’ll really be going hell for leather to win it.
“And I think Pat is putting more emphasis on it, because we’ve a more settled panel now. It was still Pat’s early days last year, and he had to find out what he felt his best team was, and the players he wanted. But it is more settled this year, the panel that bit more solid.
“So I think he’ll be putting out a stronger team, because he knows his players, and probably doesn’t need to develop as many by putting out more experimental lads, as he would have in other years. Give or take two or three lads, Pat knows now his best 25 players, so he can go for it.”
Armagh made Dublin work for their victory, drawing level with 10 minutes remaining before Brogan’s deftly-finished goal turned the game firmly in Dublin’s favour. That was important too, he says, in that it suggests Dublin’s mental fragility of recent years is no longer an issue.
“I think the confidence of the team is much stronger now. Maybe in other years we would have folded. But I think the last 10 minutes now we can get it right, put the foot down, put the pressure on, and not let teams catch you. I think that has been the main reason for our downfall the last few years. If we get that right I think we’ll be a tough team to beat.
“So Saturday was a great start, a tough place to go to get a win. Both teams looked fit and were strong. And it was a great one to win, to beat a northern team, which we don’t do very often. When they came back at us we would have wilted a bit in the past. But we stood up and got the next three scores and went five points up, so that’s a good sign, that when teams come back at us we can finish things off.”
With four home games in Croke Park, starting with round two on Saturday week against All-Ireland champions Cork, an opening victory was fairly crucial for Dublin, in terms of drawing maximum crowds to GAA headquarters.
More importantly, Brogan feels Dublin have strengthened their winning attitude, and that’s ultimately what drove them on.
“In the past we might have gone and said ‘we’ll give this a lash’. This time we said we were going up to win this game, and never for a second did I think we were going to lose up there. I think that might be a different mentality this year.
“We’re more confident and we know what works for us. We know that hard work works for us, and we got a lot of results from it last year. That’s why Kerry and Tyrone have won so many games over the past 10 years – they feel like they deserve to win and when it comes down to the wire the team that believes wins. We’re really starting to believe in ourselves.”
Although he bagged 1-3 on Saturday, Dublin weren’t over-reliant on Brogan, and that, says the footballer of the year, is only a good thing: “I think it is a very strong panel. Diarmuid Connolly has come back in, a natural scorer, and I’d see him as one of the most talented footballers in Dublin.
“Mossy Quinn and Kevin McManamon have got off to good starts this year. We have loads of lads who can score and I don’t think it’s going to be a problem this year. Eoghan O’Gara too, he’s a brilliant talent. He’s something different that defences don’t really know how to handle.
“There are a lot of expectations on me this year, so I’m trying to work harder than I did in other years. Compared to last year and other years the tempo and intensity in training has been brilliant. Everyone is really putting it in. There are a couple of days Pat is trying to give out, but lads aren’t giving him much excuse. There’s a very professional attitude out there . . . There’s no whingeing.
“We’ve done the few early morning sessions, and people just get out there and do it. There are no questions asked. The atmosphere in the camp is really good and hopefully that will be a big thing for us this year.”
