AS THE MATCH ebbed away in Celtic Park on Saturday night and the RTÉ Radio commentary team of Pauric Lodge and Martin McHugh were doing their summing up, McHugh made a point that, “Brian Fenton hasn’t done a huge pile today.”
He added the point that he had taken his scores well and gone about his business efficiently.
But in a world where Fenton has marked himself out as the greatest midfielder in the game, it’s worth drilling down on his overall contribution to see what an evening merely stamping the clock entails for the Raheny man.
From the throw-in, he stabbed at the loose ball to get it to Brian Howard, the late inclusion who played a sensational game and won Man of the Match.
As the game sorted itself out he took up advanced positions as Dublin attacked, posting himself around the opposition ‘D’. It might have felt that he was clogging up a central channel for taking scores from, but then you examine where the likes of Ciaran Kilkenny and Ross McGarry’s scores were coming from and they were from out wide.
Fenton was drawing players inside on him.
On eleven minutes, he suffered the indignity of guarding Shane McGuigan only to be caught out with a swivel of the Slaughtneil man’s hips and he promptly upended McGuigan and conceded the free, which was converted.
He had a kick pass cut out by Diarmuid Baker on 24 minutes and gave the ball away on 58 minutes.
They were the only mistakes he made.
Altogether, he had 34 involvements in the game. The majority of those were linking the play around the fringes of the Derry defence, but what stood out is his appetite for tidying up the work of others and appearing at opposite ends of the field within seconds.
As an example of how tuned into the gameplan he is, on 19 minutes Dublin emptied out the entire left wing for David O’Hanlon to float his kickout. In a straight race between Emmett Bradley and Fenton, he got there first.
From then, his contributions became ever more handsome. Ten years after making his debut, he is in the sweet spot of experience and energy.
He does not make a virtue or beat himself up if he doesn’t make some heroic plays early on.
The idea beloved by managers from the old school that your first involvement sets the tone for the rest of the day, gets no purchase among the composed Dublin players and management.
On 25 minutes, he set up Ciaran Kilkenny for a point from play. Two minutes later he opened his own account.
Just after the half-hour, he forced a turnover in his defensive ‘D’. Just before half time he teed up Ross McGarry for a shot that fell short.
When Derry emerged for the second half with reinforcements and possibly an ultimatum to do better, he was an architect of the period where they purposely lowered the pace of the game.
For Derry to mount a comeback, they needed momentum. Dublin took that out of the question by retaining the ball. In the first ten minutes of that period, he linked the play eight times.
On 48 minutes, after Shane McGuigan had narrowed the Dublin lead to two, they had another chance. In the first half, Peader ÓCofaigh-Byrne had done a brilliant first half’s work by blocking Brendan Rogers’ runs and shots, precisely the move that worked for them in this fixture last year when Rogers burst past Fenton to kick the winner.
This time though, and with ÓCofaigh-Byrne off the pitch at the break, Fenton closed the shot down and made it difficult for Rogers. The effort tailed wide.
On 53 minutes he added his second point. Within 60 seconds a Ciaran McFaul shot was coming off the Dublin upright and who was there to gather up the rebound? Fenton.
On the hour mark, a ball ran loose and he won the race to gather it up and transfer on before a quick squaring-up session with Rogers.
Another couple of examples of linking up play again and on 62 minutes he started and finished the move that brought his third point.
Most intercounty midfielders would be delighted with such an afternoon’s work. For Fenton, it has become so regular that he doesn’t catch the eye unless he shapes the entire game around him in the manner of a LeBron James, or a Henry Shefflin.
For as long as Dessie Farrell has been the Dublin manager, Fenton has started every single league and championship game. Forget about the excellence in form and fitness, and also consider his reserves of character and discipline not to have been hit with a suspension in that time.
Ten years on, he is the model midfielder. The best of this generation?
No question.
