Eoin Brosnan cups his chin in his hands and lets the questions come to him. Brosnan is at once typical of the breed of modern young player and unique.

He trains with a ferocity which would frighten many of his predecessors in the Green and Gold and radiates an intelligent curiosity and a willingness to discuss the state of the game, the team, whatever.

On the other hand he comes across as remarkably self-

contained. He mentions that his forward colleague Monsieur Gooch has a small posse, the company of which he can fall back on when he wants to get away from it all. Not unusual.

Brosnan, however, likes to take his dog and disappear on long walks. Killarney offers a million routes to solitude. He heads for the national parks, walks the mountains, strides by the lakes.

"That's my own personal way. I wouldn't think about the game. I'd be confined to the office (he is a solicitor) most of the day so it's good to get out and just get the chance to think a little bit."

His career, now into its fifth season and marked by a pleasingly upward learning curve, gives him plenty to think about. From the unfortunate controversy surrounding his captaincy in 2001 to the business of his versatility, which has seen him given postings all over the forward line and midfield, Brosnan has kept a profile at odds with his quiet nature.

His misfortune until last September was to have been around as an extra in the good times and to have only become a cast member when things got bad. He was spotted by Páidí Ó Sé playing a club game in April 2000 and asked to join the Kerry panel. He played a challenge game against Laois the next day.

That earned him rights to the most thankless of apprenticeship tasks. He trained with Kerry all summer on their All-Ireland run, just making up the numbers at training. When the medals were being given out in September he wasn't around.

Still. He soon made his league debut against Louth and by the time of his championship debut against Tipperary in 2001 he was well on the way to secure tenure.

He came on as a sub for the first three games and by the time Kerry were on their way to Dublin to play Meath in the All-Ireland semi-final his club Dr Crokes were insisting he be given the captaincy. Séamus Moynihan bowed to the Kerry tradition.

Brosnan had to suffer a hard day for a young man as Kerry disintegrated in Croke Park.

Most of those who've watched him develop from a fringe player to an established star believe centre forward is his best position. And certainly this season his pace, strength and eye for goal have produced results - not just statistically but in terms of providing the sort of muscle, workrate and mobility in the half-

forward line which was once the preserve of the Big Two up north.

His character is evident in how comfortably he has come through a long apprenticeship.

"Back when you're young in the first final you go in, say, you've been aiming at that since you started getting together with Kerry development squads when you were 16. You saw these big men playing senior football and you knew that's where you wanted to be. You get to a first final and you think I'm out here now playing with guys who were my heroes. You get used to it though and the focus changes.

"It feels good this year."

Brosnan's description of the obsession with Tyrone and Armagh is interesting. Despite their impressive victory last summer this Kerry team have a sense validation is being withheld until they put right what happened in 2002 and 2003.

The history of Kerry football is one long quelling of uprisings by lesser powers.

" Yes," says Brosnan. "The question marks were always there last year. First if we'd failed on the big day. Luckily we had a good day. Then were Tyrone gone. Would we have beaten them.

"I remember in January we were away and one of the Sunday papers had a wish list - to see Kerry versus one of the big northern teams. I remember being here at a press night this time last year and thinking that if I won an All-Ireland medal I couldn't have cared less. When the hullaballoo dies down though, then you start hearing these things. If we beat Tyrone, people will say how would they have got on against Armagh."

The defeat to Tyrone two years ago marked a significant landmark in Kerry football.

Ó Sé's reign ended. Kerry geared themselves for yet another adjustment to their native style. Brosnan remembers where it began in earnest.

"Losing to Tyrone brought in a different level of approach. Nineteen months ago at this stage we were in Lanzarote and it was a get-together training week. We'd gone into the Tyrone game thinking, I suppose, that Kerry football, free-flowing football, might win it for us on its own. We were a bit naive.

"It was destroyed and thrown out the door. The whole business was nailed on a quick video . . . This is where you lost the game. It looked bad. Fellas being pushed off the ball . . . This is where you have to improve. Things changed.

"We've developed footballing wise. We've developed a team ethic. These things have to be ironed out through talking and training, through weights and tactics. Hopefully it will all pay off come Sunday."

And he shifts his jaw determinedly. There's more to it than "hopefully".