Alan Brogan has been announced as the Dublin senior football captain for the coming year, a popular choice, no doubt, given his already dynamic influence on the team. Ian O'Riordanreports.
He takes over from Colin Moran, who held the role for the past three seasons, and Brogan's first outing as new captain will be tomorrow evening's O'Byrne Cup clash against Westmeath, even though he's due to start that game on the substitutes bench.
A member of the senior panel since 2002, Brogan has previously acted as captain to the Dublin under-21 footballers, leading them to the All-Ireland title in 2003. The hope is he can bring similar luck to Paul Caffrey's team as they make another push towards their first All-Ireland senior title since 1995.
The St Oliver Plunkett/Eoghan Ruadh player is also one of three Brogan's on the current senior panel, with younger brother Bernard also likely to figure prominently and another younger brother, Paul, joining the senior panel in recent weeks.
Brogan has already won four Leinster titles with Dublin and also claimed two All Star awards in the forward line, including last year, due to his consistently high scoring rate, which has seen him hit 9-66 in his 31 appearances to date. At 25 he's still seen as a player coming into his prime.
There was less welcome news for another Dublin All Star yesterday when defender Barry Cahill was told he would miss at least the early rounds of the National League due to knee ligament damage. Cahill sustained the grade-one medial tear in his right knee in the annual Dubs Stars games on December 29th, and is sure to miss Dublin's two opening games in Division Two, against Westmeath and Cork, with the hope that he can return to action in time for round three against Cavan on March 1st.
Elsewhere, Brendan Cummins is back in goal for the Tipperary hurlers in their first competitive game of the season against UCC in Sunday's Waterford Crystal Cup game at Nenagh. Cummins was controversially dropped by then manager Babs Keating during last summer's championship, who instead gave the number one shirt to Gerry Kennedy. New manager Liam Sheedy is happy to give Cummins another chance.
Also starting on Sunday is Eoin Kelly, who is also looking to regain his old form after a disappointing 2007. Among the newcomers for Sunday's game are Killenaule's Joe Ceaser and Pat Kerwick.
TIPPERARY (SH v UCC):B Cummins; E Buckley, P Curran, P Stapleton; S Maher, C O'Mahony, B Dunne; J Ceaser, S McGrath; J O'Brien, R O'Dwyer, P Kerwick; E Kelly, S Butler, W Ryan.
