Maybe none of you freewheelers have noticed, so thank the good God that you are a subscriber to this sports website that brings you beneath the covers and gives you a good old cuddle.
But Dublin played Galway in a league match on 22 March. It was the day that confirmed Dublin’s relegation to Division 2 for the second time in four years.
It was also the day that Dublin manager was sent off for some exuberant horseplay with Galway’s push-up, sit-up and pull-up guy, the two rolling into the Pearse Stadium muck gambolling delightedly.
Somehow, referee Fergal Kelly got the wrong idea. Most unfortunate. Kelly felt that the carry-on was somewhat inappropriate and sent both men off. Ger Brennan’s punishment was a 12-week ban for a Category IVa infraction.
Here’s the bit that the other GAA outlets in the pocket of Big Dub won’t tell you. The ban was 12 weeks. The Dublin-Galway game threw in at 3.30pm on 22 March. Dublin’s upcoming Round 2B game against Cavan this Sunday is on 14 June, throwing in at 2pm.
That’s not 12 weeks. It’s 11 weeks, six days and 21 hours (roughly).
Thankfully, we found a loophole. It’s called the GAA Official Guide, and it states ‘where a term of suspension has been imposed, it shall terminate at the end (12 midnight) of the last day of the term calculated from the day of commencement inclusive’.
So there we are. Ger Brennan is free to take the Dubs on Sunday. Not only that, but he is clear to travel up on the bus with them, and enjoy his breakfast among his players before that.
It’s bound to feel weird though.
“This is Ger, lads,” says Dean Rock as the Dublin players file in to the Gibson Hotel on the morning of matchday.
Distracted as the young men of today are by the algorithm, Love Island, white sneakers and padel, Dublin’s finest have already forgotten about Brennan.
Some vaguely recall him from the nights when 4,000 turned up for trials matches. Others are popping his name into their search engines.
“He’ll be naming the team and taking us today,” continues Rock, “and *chuckle* hopefully a lot longer, wha?”
A pause then before a lone voice, played by Colm Meaney in the dramatisation, interjects: “He will in his bollocks.”
This week, this column put through several calls to prominent Dublin GAA people, coaches, administrators and former team-mates of Ger Brennan, to gauge the feeling around his return on Sunday.
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Some requests were met with the height of courtesy. Others were left at a missed call and a WhatsApp message left on two grey ticks.
Either way, the message was received that those close to Ger Brennan are keeping the head down.
The statement sent out last week by his solicitor Conor Sally was exhaustive and comprehensive. Anyone with sufficient levels of interest will have been illuminated by the nooks and crannies of law and how Dublin appealed for a more lenient sentence given how Galway’s Cian Breathnach McGinn was not listed as an official member of the management team.
Brennan and Breathnach McGinn being sent off by referee Fergal Kelly. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
It has been documented before then, but most would only have become aware that Brennan will also miss the first two league games in 2027 through the statement.
Maybe it’s just the journalist speaking here, but there was also another nugget in that when Brennan and the Dublin camp were still awaiting official correspondence regarding his appeals process, the findings were given to a national newspaper and published.
All of this was undoubtedly painful for Brennan, who has spent his life involved in Gaelic football through his club St Vincent’s, his college UCD and Dublin.
At the time of his offence, he did carry himself well, shaking hands with Breathnach McGinn and acknowledging his wrong with referee Fergal Kelly and in interviews afterwards.
There is a good chance that he wouldn’t have known at this point that he was facing a 12-week suspension. That rule was voted through Congress in 2023 and followed various sideline rows involving team management and mentors.
An additional level of frustration comes with having watched Donegal manager Jim McGuinness captured on camera in Killarney pushing Diarmuid O’Connor and escaping any form of censure.
The further you look into the incident (a 53-year-old man shoving a 27-year-old athlete in prime condition still makes one chuckle), the murkier it gets.
From the reliance on the referee’s report which doesn’t have to be relied upon, to the diverging accounts smuggled out to news organisations and a lack of statement coming from the GAA, the Association’s failure to apply their own rules in such a clear-cut case is an obvious stain and an embarrassment.
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
It was another line from Brennan’s statement though that provokes sympathy.
“My client is a committed GAA volunteer and has never sought any media attention since his infraction over 10 weeks ago,” it read.
“As a result of his suspension, his family have suffered, his son’s underage team have been a coach short, the Dublin senior football team have been severely prejudiced, and he himself has been personally affected. He feels disenfranchised, undervalued and a lack of belonging to the Association given the events of the past three months.”
You cannot ignore the human toll on being suspended from something that has dominated your entire life, for almost three months.
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'Very disappointed': Dublin slam Burns' comments over Brennan-McGuinness cases
From what we are told, Brennan has been sticking to his suspension. He has taken his oil. There have been no sneaky training sessions slipped into a quiet ground around the county and he couldn’t tell you what the inside of a laundry basket looks like.
There is no doubt, too, that such a public punishment is a social taboo. His leper’s bell might have been easier to live with if he saw that others were not immune from punishment.
That does not mean that the punishment is not right.
Twelve weeks is a severe punishment. It could also do with being relaxed in remit, to apply directly to the level it relates to. Nobody benefits from Ger Brennan not being able to train his own children at his home ground. That’s just cruel.
Standards of behaviour from team officials have to be above reproach. His reputation since running for President of Ireland has been scorched, but there can be little debate that Jim Gavin hasn’t been the greatest-ever Gaelic football manager.
🗣️ 'It's not an á la carte menu, we need the referees to enforce the rulebook...'
Jim Gavin gives a very measured and considered view on the Ger Brennan and Jarlath Burns comments, following the incident involving Jim McGuinness a few weeks ago. | #GAApic.twitter.com/nnlpG64msV
On Newstalk over the weekend, where he is growing into his punditry shifts, he talked about his method of breathing that he learned from military training so as not to hijack his amygdala, which controls your fight or flight response among other elements of the brain.
That discipline meant he could happily walk off the Tralee pitch in February 2019 when all around him, Kerry and Dublin players were taking lumps out of each other.
Dublin and Kerry players tangle in Tralee, February 2019. Jim Gavin, in the background, walks on by. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO
Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO
There’s more than a few managers on the circuit that could do with listening back to that radio section.
In the meantime, Ger Brennan returns. Two years ago, there was over 9,000 at this fixture.
Given how the Cavan and Dublin supports have tanked since, it will be interesting to see how many get along to this.
We have been told that after the Cavan game, he will address his 12-week ban and then move on from it.
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Ger Brennan's return and the secret to not hijacking your amygdala
HOLD UP, HOLD up, hold up.
Maybe none of you freewheelers have noticed, so thank the good God that you are a subscriber to this sports website that brings you beneath the covers and gives you a good old cuddle.
But Dublin played Galway in a league match on 22 March. It was the day that confirmed Dublin’s relegation to Division 2 for the second time in four years.
It was also the day that Dublin manager was sent off for some exuberant horseplay with Galway’s push-up, sit-up and pull-up guy, the two rolling into the Pearse Stadium muck gambolling delightedly.
Somehow, referee Fergal Kelly got the wrong idea. Most unfortunate. Kelly felt that the carry-on was somewhat inappropriate and sent both men off. Ger Brennan’s punishment was a 12-week ban for a Category IVa infraction.
Here’s the bit that the other GAA outlets in the pocket of Big Dub won’t tell you. The ban was 12 weeks. The Dublin-Galway game threw in at 3.30pm on 22 March. Dublin’s upcoming Round 2B game against Cavan this Sunday is on 14 June, throwing in at 2pm.
That’s not 12 weeks. It’s 11 weeks, six days and 21 hours (roughly).
Thankfully, we found a loophole. It’s called the GAA Official Guide, and it states ‘where a term of suspension has been imposed, it shall terminate at the end (12 midnight) of the last day of the term calculated from the day of commencement inclusive’.
So there we are. Ger Brennan is free to take the Dubs on Sunday. Not only that, but he is clear to travel up on the bus with them, and enjoy his breakfast among his players before that.
It’s bound to feel weird though.
“This is Ger, lads,” says Dean Rock as the Dublin players file in to the Gibson Hotel on the morning of matchday.
Some vaguely recall him from the nights when 4,000 turned up for trials matches. Others are popping his name into their search engines.
“He’ll be naming the team and taking us today,” continues Rock, “and *chuckle* hopefully a lot longer, wha?”
A pause then before a lone voice, played by Colm Meaney in the dramatisation, interjects: “He will in his bollocks.”
This week, this column put through several calls to prominent Dublin GAA people, coaches, administrators and former team-mates of Ger Brennan, to gauge the feeling around his return on Sunday.
Some requests were met with the height of courtesy. Others were left at a missed call and a WhatsApp message left on two grey ticks.
Either way, the message was received that those close to Ger Brennan are keeping the head down.
The statement sent out last week by his solicitor Conor Sally was exhaustive and comprehensive. Anyone with sufficient levels of interest will have been illuminated by the nooks and crannies of law and how Dublin appealed for a more lenient sentence given how Galway’s Cian Breathnach McGinn was not listed as an official member of the management team.
It has been documented before then, but most would only have become aware that Brennan will also miss the first two league games in 2027 through the statement.
Maybe it’s just the journalist speaking here, but there was also another nugget in that when Brennan and the Dublin camp were still awaiting official correspondence regarding his appeals process, the findings were given to a national newspaper and published.
All of this was undoubtedly painful for Brennan, who has spent his life involved in Gaelic football through his club St Vincent’s, his college UCD and Dublin.
At the time of his offence, he did carry himself well, shaking hands with Breathnach McGinn and acknowledging his wrong with referee Fergal Kelly and in interviews afterwards.
There is a good chance that he wouldn’t have known at this point that he was facing a 12-week suspension. That rule was voted through Congress in 2023 and followed various sideline rows involving team management and mentors.
An additional level of frustration comes with having watched Donegal manager Jim McGuinness captured on camera in Killarney pushing Diarmuid O’Connor and escaping any form of censure.
The further you look into the incident (a 53-year-old man shoving a 27-year-old athlete in prime condition still makes one chuckle), the murkier it gets.
From the reliance on the referee’s report which doesn’t have to be relied upon, to the diverging accounts smuggled out to news organisations and a lack of statement coming from the GAA, the Association’s failure to apply their own rules in such a clear-cut case is an obvious stain and an embarrassment.
It was another line from Brennan’s statement though that provokes sympathy.
“My client is a committed GAA volunteer and has never sought any media attention since his infraction over 10 weeks ago,” it read.
“As a result of his suspension, his family have suffered, his son’s underage team have been a coach short, the Dublin senior football team have been severely prejudiced, and he himself has been personally affected. He feels disenfranchised, undervalued and a lack of belonging to the Association given the events of the past three months.”
You cannot ignore the human toll on being suspended from something that has dominated your entire life, for almost three months.
From what we are told, Brennan has been sticking to his suspension. He has taken his oil. There have been no sneaky training sessions slipped into a quiet ground around the county and he couldn’t tell you what the inside of a laundry basket looks like.
There is no doubt, too, that such a public punishment is a social taboo. His leper’s bell might have been easier to live with if he saw that others were not immune from punishment.
That does not mean that the punishment is not right.
Twelve weeks is a severe punishment. It could also do with being relaxed in remit, to apply directly to the level it relates to. Nobody benefits from Ger Brennan not being able to train his own children at his home ground. That’s just cruel.
Standards of behaviour from team officials have to be above reproach. His reputation since running for President of Ireland has been scorched, but there can be little debate that Jim Gavin hasn’t been the greatest-ever Gaelic football manager.
On Newstalk over the weekend, where he is growing into his punditry shifts, he talked about his method of breathing that he learned from military training so as not to hijack his amygdala, which controls your fight or flight response among other elements of the brain.
That discipline meant he could happily walk off the Tralee pitch in February 2019 when all around him, Kerry and Dublin players were taking lumps out of each other.
There’s more than a few managers on the circuit that could do with listening back to that radio section.
In the meantime, Ger Brennan returns. Two years ago, there was over 9,000 at this fixture.
Given how the Cavan and Dublin supports have tanked since, it will be interesting to see how many get along to this.
We have been told that after the Cavan game, he will address his 12-week ban and then move on from it.
In public, at least.
**
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BACK IN BREFFNI column GAA Ger Brennan