BERNARD BROGAN MAY be a three-time All-Ireland winner, a four-time All-Star and a former Footballer of the Year but the Dublin forward still feels he lacks natural ability compared to Dublin’s next generation of superstars.
Brogan took the long road to join his brother Alan in the Dublin senior setup in 2007, at the age of 23. He wasn’t picked for the Dublin minor footballers, featuring instead for their small-ball counterparts.
And to this day that seems to have left a mark on the man who scored 6-21 during Dublin’s run to All-Ireland glory in 2015, all bar one point coming from play.
He had to do plenty of legwork to make to the leap to senior inter-county football, something which he feels hasn’t been such a challenge for the likes of Cormac Costello, Ciaran Kilkenny and Paul Mannion.
Brogan is almost in awe at the ease at which these youngsters have adapted to the elite level, something which he attributes to the underage structures in the county.
“Some of those lads are much more naturally gifted footballers than me,” Brogan admits.
“The guys are amazing footballers. Paul Mannion, Cormac and Ciaran came up through the ranks and are a lot mentally stronger and physically able for the senior setup and were able to come into a team and just roll into it.
“I obviously went the longer route around and it took me a while to break into it and get my head right to be able to offer something on the pitch.
“I didn’t play underage for Dublin, I didn’t get picked. I played minor hurling. I played a little bit of 21s, then I got injured.
“So I didn’t have that kind of upbringing and that high-performance training setup that these boys came through and it just meant that when they came up to senior level they were comfortable in the surroundings.
“They were used to training, used to that atmosphere.”
Brogan may be 32 years old, one of the county’s most important players over an incredibly successful five-year period, and approaching his 10th championship season, but the St Oliver Plunkett Eoghan Ruadh man still pinches him every day.
He’s living his childhood dream and that’s something he refuses to lose sight of. And he knows that under manager Jim Gavin, no player’s place is safe.
“I’m a Dublin fan, I love playing for Dublin and every time I wake up in the morning I give thanks that I am able to be in the situation I’m in.
“I go out in every training session to make sure that I’m good enough in Jim’s eyes to get my place.”
Despite such a lengthy involvement in the Dublin panel, Brogan has yet to play a championship game outside of GAA HQ, something that has not gone unnoticed by many who have been calling for the Dubs to play more games on the road.
That remarkable run will likely come to an end in the night of Saturday, 4 June as Jim Gavin’s side head south to Nowlan Park, Kilkenny to take on Laois in the Leinster SFC quarter-final. And Brogan can’t wait to finally tick that box.
“It will be a nice thing yeah, then nobody can ever say ‘the Dubs always play in Croker’ that we can play anywhere, go out and put in a good performance.”
He may have been a relatively late bloomer on the inter-county scene but that hasn’t stopped Brogan putting serious miles on the clock.
As a result, he has eased off on weight training to focus more on agility and injury prevention; yoga and pilates have been essential in this regard, he explains.
“A couple of years ago, I played every O’Byrne Cup game. I went into the League, played the Railway Cup, went into the League again, played 13 or 14 games on the trot and the body broke down.
“I like to think I’m a young lad but at some stage you have to just plan it and be a bit more smart about it and the medical staff and physios we have are at the top of the game.
“We have Bryan Cullen there, S&C (strength and conditioning), he’s conscious of the players and where you’re at in your careers.
“I think the game is gone like that, trying to tailor stuff to individual lads. It’s smart training, you know. It’s not about everyone going out and running 20k in every training session, it’s about doing the right thing for our body.”
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