Bernard Brogan would absolutely love to play a championship match outside of Croke Park. It might get some of those critics off his back who say Dublin get it easier than the rest by not having to travel in the summer.
Brogan will be 10 years playing senior football for Dublin next season, and in that time, every one of his championship appearances have been in Croke Park. In 2006, the last time Dublin travelled outside of Croke Park to play Longford, in Pearse Park, he was an unused substitute. So unless things change, he’s unlikely to have experienced a championship match anywhere other than GAA headquarters.
The Leinster Council will next month vote on a proposal to fix Dublin's opening championship match against wither Wicklow or Laois for a provincial venue, most likely Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Two years ago, only two of the 12 Leinster counties voted in support of a similar proposal, although Brogan is hoping for a positive outcome on this occasion.
“Yeah, maybe then I’ll stop being asked about it,” he says. “I actually think it would be great for the game. The Dubs fans would love to go on the road, and we don’t mind playing anywhere we’re put.
“Obviously if you ask the teams we play against, everyone wants to play in Croke Park as well. But I wouldn’t like people to say, ‘ah, you wouldn’t have had the success you’ve had if you hadn’t played all your games in Croke Park’.
“But I don’t think going into any pitch that the team performance is going to swing that much, or that you’re going to lose a high percentage of games.
That question
“I actually think Croke Park is just as much a level playing field as any other pitch. We go away four or five times in every
National League
and get some great results as well. But if that question is asked of us we’d love to answer it. So if it’s Nowlan Park next summer we’ll relish that, and we’ll go down to win.”
Dublin's opening game in the 2016 Allianz Football League will be under the floodlights of Croke Park, on Saturday evening January 30th, with a rematch of their All-Ireland final victory over Kerry.
Dublin are set to play four of the seven league games in Croke Park next spring, including Monaghan (on February 27th), Cork (March 5th), and Donegal (March 26th), with their three away games set for Mayo (February 6th), Down ( March 12th), and Roscommon (on April 3rd).
Last week, Leinster Council chief executive Michael Reynolds warned that any successful proposal to stage Dublin's championship matches outside of Croke Park will come with a likely reduction in overall revenue, and "that's a balancing act counties have to make" when voting on the matter on November 11th.
Brogan's more immediate focus is next month's International Rules one-Test series with Australia, set for the evening of Saturday November 21st, also in Croke Park. Having been named as Ireland captain (taking over from the injured Michael Murphy from Donegal) Brogan is particularly keen to give that Test his full attention, especially in trying to make up for last year's 10-point defeat to the Australians.
"It's a call I didn't expect to get," he said, recalling the moment when Irish manager Joe Kernan informed him he would be Irish captain.
Great leaders
“I haven’t done much captaincy in my life with club and county, although I have been on the end of some great leaders with club and county. All I can do is try to do my best for the team, try and motivate them. We’re up against a really strong Australian side, but all the lads are top intercounty players, the best of the best in the country, so they don’t need much motivating.
“I think the only team I’ve captained before was the Freshers’ side at Maynooth, but you have to try and lead by example on the pitch and try and do as much as you can. The type of football that we are going to try and play is not their natural type of football, so it’s about getting everyone to buy into it . .”
Brogan wasn’t part of the Ireland team that travelled to Australia last year, but believes the series still has a lasting future.
“It’s still a massive honour to play for your country. I know some people have questioned this game over the last 10 years or so.
“It has had its ups and downs, but I think the way it is set up now with one Test is good. It means you don’t have to travel for three weeks across Australia or they don’t have to travel for too long here.”
Brogan, meanwhile, hadn’t yet read the excerpts of the Jim McGuinness memoir where he admits his Donegal players bet on themselves to beat Dublin – at odds of 10-1 – in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final “It’s not something I’d do,” he said, “but they were obviously confident and thought they had something. It’s a brave move.”
