When Alan Brogan cautions about how difficult it is for Dublin teams to go to venues outside of the city, he’s speaking from experience – even if it’s not extensive experience.
The county opens its account this year on Saturday in Chadwick’s Wexford Park, a repeat of last year’s fixture, won so unimpressively by Dublin that it became widely regarded as the canary in the coalmine for the underwhelming championship that followed.
Brogan played in the historic match – it was able to be cited for years as the last time Dublin had to travel to an away fixture – against Longford and didn’t win it by much.
His championship debut came against Wexford in 2002 and a hair-raising encounter saw the Dubs survive by two points in a match played at Carlow’s Dr Cullen Park.
In those years of the 2000s, the team was prey to all sorts of shocks in the province and venue wasn’t an issue. In the first five years of the decade, Dublin lost to four different Leinster counties in Croke Park: Kildare, Meath and – more historically – Laois (for the first time in 25 years) and Westmeath (for the first time in 37 years).
Favourites
“It’s a bit different now,” he recalls. “At that stage, even though we were favourites in the eyes of the bookies or the supporters, there was still a lot of uncertainty going into those matches. We probably weren’t quite sure where we were at those days – were we better than Laois or Westmeath? And it turned out that we weren’t good enough to win those games.
“It wasn’t until we got a couple of Leinsters in a row under our belt that we felt, ‘okay, we’re capable of this.’ For me personally I felt that we were actually capable of winning a Leinster championship every year, that we could beat Laois and Westmeath every year we played.”
I've always said about those games that I've no regrets whatsoever because they shaped the player I was and shaped a lot of the other guys
Brogan, who would go on to win two All-Irelands, paid his dues along the way. He was on the teams who lost out to Laois and Westmeath, each on their way to a notable provincial championship. He says that the uncertainty going into matches was probably a reflection of lack of confidence.
Sustaining and overturning these reverses ultimately benefited the players, he believes. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
“For the first couple of years I was quite unsure as a player, lacking a bit of confidence, and a little uncertain about where we were. I’ve always said about those games that I’ve no regrets whatsoever because they shaped the player I was and shaped a lot of the other guys.
“Without those defeats, you don’t become the player or the team you want to be. For this Dublin team, a couple of close games – obviously you want to come out the right side – will do them a world of good because the big wins in Croke Park in the Leinster championship over the last few years haven’t served anyone well.”
Domination
That domination of the province this year stretches to 12 years without championship defeat – or one in 17 seasons, all the way back to the Westmeath defeat in 2004. Brogan believes that Dublin would benefit on the national stage if they could negotiate trickier obstacles.
Already, Kildare are putting their hand up, having become in February’s league encounter the first team from the province to defeat Dublin in a competitive match since Meath in the 2010 provincial semi-final.
“I’d be hoping that questions are asked and that Leinster will be a bit more open, a bit more competitive and I think it will stand to Dublin if they can get a couple of good games going into the All-Ireland championship.”
How will they handle favouritism?
“There’s a few senior guys well used to it but I think they’ll be involved in close games in the Leinster championship this year. That brings a bit of uncertainty and makes a team fearful when it makes a team anxious about losing a Leinster championship match when they haven’t lost one for however many years.
“They’re going to have to show a lot of grit and self-belief.”
Alan Brogan was helping to launch ‘Here We Go’, a campaign designed “to raise national awareness and pride in the world class facilities at the Sport Ireland Campus”.
