BERNARD BROGAN THINKS it is great that other sportsmen are coming in to the GAA — and he’s not ruling out the possibly of David Gillick being called in to the Dublin senior panel.
Gillick made his return to the GAA last weekend, lining out at midfield for his club Ballinteer St. Johns in the Dublin senior football championship.
According to Brogan, the former Olympian has got the one asset Jim Gavin loves the most — pace.
“I don’t know (if Jim is interested), but if he’s able to play ball, he loves a man with pace.
“I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how he goes over the club championship.
“As you know he’s the fastest man in Ireland [over 400m] so he’s a nice asset to have on the pitch.
“You see it in Mayo too [with Gavin Duffy]. It’s great to see other sportsmen like that coming back into the game, back to what they grew up with.”
Gillick lined out last weekend at midfield while his brother John lined up at full-back.
The 30 year-old stood out as Balinteer won their first round game 3-13 to 2-10 at O’Toole park.
“It’s interesting. John, his brother, is with AIG, and I was talking with him about it. He played midfield and got up and down the pitch,” explained Brogan.
Meanwhile in Mayo, former Connacht rugby captain Duffy is in training with the James Horan’s senior football panel.
According to the man who scored 2-3 against them in last year’s All-Ireland final, “It’s great.”
“These lads grew up playing ball and are well able to play it, and it’s great to see them coming back.
“Playing a professional sport is a great life, and seeing that Duffy wants to come back and give his time to GAA just shows his respect to the game and how much he loved it, obviously.
“Hopefully he gets a good run at it and it will be interesting to see how he goes.”
Dublin had their very own rugby convert back in 2006 when former Leinster and Ireland player Eric Miller lined out for a development squad match against Louth.
“I actually played under him — and I mean under him! — as a corner-forward when he played full-forward, I think it was against Louth.
“He was the go-to man and I was meant to come around on the burst.
“It was interesting to see — a big, powerful man and well able to win ball in the air. We’d a good bit of craic that day.”
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Bernard Brogan helped launch AIG’s Dublin Jersey Promotion at Parnell Park today. AIG is rewarding customers who take out a new car or home insurance policy from www.aig.ie or on 1890 27 27 27 with a free kids’ Dublin jersey, or €40 off an adults’ Dublin jersey. The offer runs from May 19th to June 30th. Vouchers are supplied by AIG and redeemable on the O’Neills’ website before July 31st.
