Brogan hopes Dub hangovers are history

THEY may not have learned much about themselves from their defeat of Laois on Sunday but Dublin were at least afforded the opportunity to banish a couple of painful memories at Croke Park on Sunday.

A year ago, they opened their provincial campaign with a cataclysmic first 40 minutes against Wexford at HQ before clearing their heads and a seven-point deficit to win by four after extra-time while their last visit was that league final collapse to Cork.

Alan Brogan mentioned both games afterwards but insisted Laois’ challenge had been sufficient to sharpen their swords ahead of what should be a first-class encounter with Kildare in the provincial semi-final later this month.

“It was tough enough,” he claimed. “Maybe the scoreline doesn’t reflect how intense the game was. The goal in the first-half probably helped us to pull away a little bit and it was good to see that when they did come back at us, we had the maturity to pull away again.

“You’d have to be happy enough to beat a Laois team by seven or eight points. I know they didn’t perform as well as they would have wanted against Longford, but they had a pretty good league and they’re in Division One next year, so we have to be happy with it.”

Harking back to the first of their meltdowns against Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final last season, Brogan dismissed that particular hangover as “history”.

So too, is their Leinster final defeat of Kildare two years ago when Dublin edged a classic decider by three points despite playing for the majority of the game with just 14 men after centre-back Ger Brennan walked to the line.

Brogan and the rest of his colleagues took in some of Kildare’s win against Meath on Sunday before retiring to quarters to prepare for their own business and the snippets they saw merely reaffirmed what they already suspected.

“We know what Kildare bring to the table, we know they train very hard. They’ve been to the gym. They’re strong. They’re fit. They’re physical and they have some very good forwards who can punish you so it’s going to be a very tight game and it’s probably the one that everyone wanted to see.”

Kildare will no doubt return the compliments between now and that semi-final and when they do there will more than likely be considerable mention made of Dublin’s perceived strength in depth which Brogan himself touched on.

“Yeah, (Gilroy) used five subs and there are probably another three or four lads who will be disappointed not to get on but maybe that’s what is different this year compared to last year, that we have a little bit of strength in depth.

“It’s great to see Paul Casey coming on, Declan Lally getting on. Henno (David Henry) didn’t come on, Paul Brogan didn’t come on and there are one or two others so there is great competition for places.”