Against the cold grey backdrop of his old clubhouse Alan Brogan is talking about his future as a Dublin footballer, and it’s not exactly sunny.
Unlike his All-Ireland winning team-mates – who are currently sunning themselves in sweltering Cancun, Mexico – Brogan hasn’t a whole lot to be cheerful about, and definitely not about the summer just past. He missed the entire championship, first with a groin injury, then a hamstring tear, and at 31 it’s not a case of simply jumping back on the horse.
He’s been 11 years on the trot already, winning seven Leinster titles, three All Stars, his role in Dublin’s 2011 All-Ireland-winning campaign earning him the Footballer of the Year award: now he’s wondering what exactly he has left to offer, and surely knows others are wondering that too.
"Obviously I have thought about it," he says, "but I haven't made a decision yet, haven't spoken with anyone yet. But having not played a competitive game in 13 or 14 months, my plan was always to get back playing with the club first. I've two and a half matches played by now, and it's going well enough.
'Make a call'
"We've another two games with the club now over the next two or three weeks, and again I'll see how things go, and maybe the week after that I will sit down and make a call on it. If I am going back it is important that I am fully able to commit to it training wise, and I don't think I would do myself justice kind of dipping into and out of it."
Because Brogan knows, better than anyone, there’s a big difference between playing club football with St Oliver Plunketts Eoghan Ruadh in the depths of November and playing championship football for Dublin at the height of the summer. It’s not that Brogan isn’t looking on the bright side: speaking at the launch of a new charity website runlastman.com, it was clear he’d certainly like to get back, but is realistic enough to suggest the pace and indeed age profile of the Dublin team under Jim Gavin won’t make that task any easier.
Yet one signal of his intention is the fact Brogan opted out of the Cancun trip to focus on his club football: "Well my wife's sister got married on Saturday, and probably I could have flown out on Monday, but decided I wouldn't bother. It's important that if I do go back I can give it a full lash, so I don't have to be minding myself.
'To make sure'
"The days of not minding yourself and playing intercounty football are gone, particularly at the level we want to play. I just need to make sure that I am 100 per cent fit and am able for the demands that the game demands now."
There is the inevitably nagging feeling that retiring now might leave him harbouring regrets, and the wondering what might have been had he given it one more year, especially after the downer of 2013. There is also the threat of yet further frustration, should old injuries reoccur.
“It’s been okay, thank God. No real reaction bar the obvious stiffness. There were a couple of setbacks with the groin and then the last one was a tear in the hamstring. That’s the perfect case of what I’m talking about. I came back, trained fully for two weeks, and all of a sudden you think you’re 22 again, going as hard as I can.
“But I pulled up, tore a hamstring and that kept me out for another four weeks. That’s kind of in my head as well. Is my body going to able to hold up to the demands of how hard you need to train and play at this level?
"Time will tell, but I've trained hard with the club over the last four weeks. Obviously, it's not at the level that's required to play at intercounty but it will give me a fair indication of how I'm feeling going into the middle of December and start of January.
'Sad to walk away'
"It would be sad to walk away with those last two years behind me, particularly after 2011. I just need to make sure that I am able for the demands of being able to train, and not have to take the next session off. But I think it is just the physical thing.
“I was doing bits and pieces of training last year, then I was trying to get back and I wasn’t getting back.
“I have done that now for a year and a half and I don’t fancy going through another six straight months of that and then breaking down and not being able to play games.
“But I certainly think there’s still a role for me there. Whether it’s a starting position or coming in as a sub it doesn’t really matter the way Jim Gavin has set up the team over the last year.”
