HE MAY BE gone from Templeogue Synge Street for five years now, but Eoghan O’Gara admits to being open-mouthed at some of the things his old club mate Niall Scully is achieving in a Dublin jersey this summer.
“I’m in awe of being in Croke Park watching him play,” says O’Gara.
“In awe of how good he is. He always has great time on the ball. That’s the sign of real intelligence in a great player.
“He has a great mind. He sees the game in his head and it’s like he is almost above the pitch looking down. Before he even gets the ball he is thinking ahead.”
It wasn’t so long ago that some felt the days of Scully, along with other highly-decorated Dublin players, were numbered when the incoming Dublin manager Ger Brennan went on a county-wide auditioning process to find new talent.
They organised a regional tournament among six teams, all managed by either Dublin selectors or trusted football people of Brennan’s choosing, hosted by DCU.
And when the numbers came back, it wasn’t entirely fruitful.
From 130 players, across 36 clubs, from Division 1 to Division 4, they tried anyone who could kick a ball straight and ended up back with the old panel along with a few graduates from recent underage squads.
Truth is, Brennan might have known this.
Being part of Jim Gavin’s panel, with that management keeping a ‘depth chart’ of players across the county, it is almost an impossibility for a player without the years of athletic development gained through underage mapping to suddenly become a breakout at senior level.
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However, it sent a subtle message to those who had been on Dessie Farrell’s 2025 panel that the new regime was far from a closed shop.
After the first two matches of the national league brought defeats to Donegal and Mayo, Brennan realised what he was left with needed to feel a little pressure.
“I would suggest it is probably some of our fellas who’ve been around the block, there will be a few tough decisions to be made,” he said in the media scrum after the loss to Mayo in Castlebar.
“You make those decisions through looking at the data; looking at the contributions fellas are making on and off the pitch, and then your eyes don’t lie. So, if a guy has done what he’s done over the last couple of years, it’s probably decision-time for a couple of guys in terms of what they want to do.”
It’s never easy for a manager to establish themselves in a dressing room of All-Ireland winners. There’s an additional emotional toll when you have won alongside some of them.
Ger Brennan celebrates a win with daughter Aoibheann. james lawlor photos
james lawlor photos
“I think with Ger, whether it was deliberate or not, calling out the guys with high mileage, he just wanted to get more out of them,” O’Gara believes.
“It had the effect anyway, whatever was said in camp. But those guys, Niall, Ciarán (Kilkenny), Davy (Byrne), the senior guys are still the spine of the team and in the last two games in particular they have been the guys who have got us over the line.
“The young guys are just following that. Your Peader Ó Cofaigh-Byrnes, Sean Guidens, winning those kind of games like Donegal and Galway with those lads beside you brings you on so much.
“I am in awe of watching Niall, Ciarán, Con (O’Callaghan), all the guys I played with in the group who are putting in the performances they are, with the medals they have. It’s actually incredible to watch.”
Eoghan O'Gara. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Scully has been one that has become integral to their gameplan. He’s currently in Player of the Year contention, if it were picked now.
Despite starting all the games, it took him until Round Four of the league to get onto the scoring charts with 0-1 in the defeat to Kerry.
With their forward line collapsing through injury, he assumed freetaking responsibilities in the next game, a win over Roscommon, chipping over two frees and his first two-pointer of the season.
0-5 against Armagh represents a career-high, with two frees boosting that tally, but he was held scoreless in the final round game defeat to Galway that relegated Dublin.
In the championship, the only game he didn’t score in was the one that caught the eye most for the neutrals; the Round Three extra-time defeat of Donegal.
Scully was everywhere on the day, knitting together attacks and fulfilling a point guard role, one that used to be the preserve of Ciaran Kilkenny. Given how Donegal set traps for the man in possession, the composure required to do such a job shows Brennan has Scully in his highest bracket.
Shooting is something Scully has added to his game, but also something he has been aware of for years. In 2024, he talked about it.
“Throughout all my career, I probably wouldn’t have been a regular scorer and scoring 1-5 a game, or five points a game, so definitely even last year, trying to add scores to my game was something that I was trying to do,” he said
“Now obviously I didn’t do it. But again, definitely this year, it’s going to be something that I will be aiming towards.”
O’Gara believes he has added layer upon layer to become what Alan Brogan, then Ciarán Kilkenny was: the safest pair of hands on the team. The point guard. The quarter-back. Whatever you want to call it.
“He’s got to the top and stayed at the top. He’s adjusted his game as he has gotten older. He’s 32 now and he has made this role his own. Maybe nobody saw him playing that role before; a forward delivering in ball maybe. Get the odd score,” he says.
“Whereas now he is the go-to man. Pulling the strings. He’s holding it up and he is slowing it down. I’d say Niall’s greatest attribute, and I loved playing with him for it, is that he always wants to be aggressive with the ball.
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“His instinct is to get it into the inside forward. He always put it into me. You see it in Croke Park that he is one of the least tentative on the ball, he wants to kick it, he wants to spray it all the time.
“The game now is all about possession and control, but he is one of the few players now that will still look to be aggressive when he gets it and kick it long.”
Questioning his hunger was only going to meet with one response.
Back in 2024, he addressed that in a group interview, saying, “I always find when you win the All-Ireland, after about 24 hours you’re already processing what’s next and how do you better yourself from last year.
“I think the hunger is still there. You can kind of see it even in the training so far, I don’t think anything like that would be an issue.
“24 hours after an All-Ireland, you are . . . not that the happiness has left you straight away . . . but you are always kind of moving on and thinking, ‘Right, when’s the next one?’
“Because you always want to be performing in an All-Ireland final, you know, 83,000 it’s the pinnacle of any inter-county career.”
The next one is now. Dublin and Kerry in Croke Park. 82,400 packed in.
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'In awe of how good he is' - The new heights of Niall Scully
HE MAY BE gone from Templeogue Synge Street for five years now, but Eoghan O’Gara admits to being open-mouthed at some of the things his old club mate Niall Scully is achieving in a Dublin jersey this summer.
“I’m in awe of being in Croke Park watching him play,” says O’Gara.
“In awe of how good he is. He always has great time on the ball. That’s the sign of real intelligence in a great player.
“He has a great mind. He sees the game in his head and it’s like he is almost above the pitch looking down. Before he even gets the ball he is thinking ahead.”
It wasn’t so long ago that some felt the days of Scully, along with other highly-decorated Dublin players, were numbered when the incoming Dublin manager Ger Brennan went on a county-wide auditioning process to find new talent.
They organised a regional tournament among six teams, all managed by either Dublin selectors or trusted football people of Brennan’s choosing, hosted by DCU.
And when the numbers came back, it wasn’t entirely fruitful.
From 130 players, across 36 clubs, from Division 1 to Division 4, they tried anyone who could kick a ball straight and ended up back with the old panel along with a few graduates from recent underage squads.
Truth is, Brennan might have known this.
Being part of Jim Gavin’s panel, with that management keeping a ‘depth chart’ of players across the county, it is almost an impossibility for a player without the years of athletic development gained through underage mapping to suddenly become a breakout at senior level.
However, it sent a subtle message to those who had been on Dessie Farrell’s 2025 panel that the new regime was far from a closed shop.
After the first two matches of the national league brought defeats to Donegal and Mayo, Brennan realised what he was left with needed to feel a little pressure.
“I would suggest it is probably some of our fellas who’ve been around the block, there will be a few tough decisions to be made,” he said in the media scrum after the loss to Mayo in Castlebar.
“You make those decisions through looking at the data; looking at the contributions fellas are making on and off the pitch, and then your eyes don’t lie. So, if a guy has done what he’s done over the last couple of years, it’s probably decision-time for a couple of guys in terms of what they want to do.”
It’s never easy for a manager to establish themselves in a dressing room of All-Ireland winners. There’s an additional emotional toll when you have won alongside some of them.
“I think with Ger, whether it was deliberate or not, calling out the guys with high mileage, he just wanted to get more out of them,” O’Gara believes.
“It had the effect anyway, whatever was said in camp. But those guys, Niall, Ciarán (Kilkenny), Davy (Byrne), the senior guys are still the spine of the team and in the last two games in particular they have been the guys who have got us over the line.
“The young guys are just following that. Your Peader Ó Cofaigh-Byrnes, Sean Guidens, winning those kind of games like Donegal and Galway with those lads beside you brings you on so much.
“I am in awe of watching Niall, Ciarán, Con (O’Callaghan), all the guys I played with in the group who are putting in the performances they are, with the medals they have. It’s actually incredible to watch.”
Scully has been one that has become integral to their gameplan. He’s currently in Player of the Year contention, if it were picked now.
Despite starting all the games, it took him until Round Four of the league to get onto the scoring charts with 0-1 in the defeat to Kerry.
With their forward line collapsing through injury, he assumed freetaking responsibilities in the next game, a win over Roscommon, chipping over two frees and his first two-pointer of the season.
0-5 against Armagh represents a career-high, with two frees boosting that tally, but he was held scoreless in the final round game defeat to Galway that relegated Dublin.
In the championship, the only game he didn’t score in was the one that caught the eye most for the neutrals; the Round Three extra-time defeat of Donegal.
Scully was everywhere on the day, knitting together attacks and fulfilling a point guard role, one that used to be the preserve of Ciaran Kilkenny. Given how Donegal set traps for the man in possession, the composure required to do such a job shows Brennan has Scully in his highest bracket.
Shooting is something Scully has added to his game, but also something he has been aware of for years. In 2024, he talked about it.
“Throughout all my career, I probably wouldn’t have been a regular scorer and scoring 1-5 a game, or five points a game, so definitely even last year, trying to add scores to my game was something that I was trying to do,” he said
“Now obviously I didn’t do it. But again, definitely this year, it’s going to be something that I will be aiming towards.”
O’Gara believes he has added layer upon layer to become what Alan Brogan, then Ciarán Kilkenny was: the safest pair of hands on the team. The point guard. The quarter-back. Whatever you want to call it.
“He’s got to the top and stayed at the top. He’s adjusted his game as he has gotten older. He’s 32 now and he has made this role his own. Maybe nobody saw him playing that role before; a forward delivering in ball maybe. Get the odd score,” he says.
“Whereas now he is the go-to man. Pulling the strings. He’s holding it up and he is slowing it down. I’d say Niall’s greatest attribute, and I loved playing with him for it, is that he always wants to be aggressive with the ball.
“His instinct is to get it into the inside forward. He always put it into me. You see it in Croke Park that he is one of the least tentative on the ball, he wants to kick it, he wants to spray it all the time.
“The game now is all about possession and control, but he is one of the few players now that will still look to be aggressive when he gets it and kick it long.”
Questioning his hunger was only going to meet with one response.
Back in 2024, he addressed that in a group interview, saying, “I always find when you win the All-Ireland, after about 24 hours you’re already processing what’s next and how do you better yourself from last year.
“I think the hunger is still there. You can kind of see it even in the training so far, I don’t think anything like that would be an issue.
“24 hours after an All-Ireland, you are . . . not that the happiness has left you straight away . . . but you are always kind of moving on and thinking, ‘Right, when’s the next one?’
“Because you always want to be performing in an All-Ireland final, you know, 83,000 it’s the pinnacle of any inter-county career.”
The next one is now. Dublin and Kerry in Croke Park. 82,400 packed in.
****
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CHANGING MAN Dublin GAA Gaelic Football Niall Scully