Brogan enjoys life in brother’s shadow

SIBLING rivalry seems to emanate from Alan Brogan when he tries to explain his recent fine spell of form.

Consistently excellent displays which have seen RTÉ hand him the man-of-the-match award in Dublin’s two championship games so far.

Now in his 10th year, the 29-year-old feels he benefited from a gradual return to football earlier in the season — and maybe brother Bernard not shooting out the lights just yet this season.

“Everyone keeps saying that but I don’t know, to be honest. I’m just doing the same thing as I always did,” he said.

“Maybe it is because Bernard hasn’t been scoring,” he smiled before joking, “Maybe I’ve taken the shine off him but, no, I’m doing what I’ve always done playing centre-forward.”

Brogan the elder certainly had no qualms about ignoring his 2010 Footballer of the Year brother (or his gentle remonstrations after) for a point in the second half against Kildare last month, even when a goal looked on for Bernard.

But the pair combined together well to keep Dublin’s scoreline ticking over in that period when they were without the dismissed Eoghan O’Gara.

Under Paul Caffrey, they may have attempted to score their way out of such a dilemma but it’s different under Pat Gilroy.

“I am sure when Pat was watching as a supporter then and he came into the management team, one of the first things he decided was we can’t beat a Cork, Kerry, Tyrone or these teams conceding whatever it was, 2-14, 2-15,” said Brogan, who feels under more pressure to hold his spot than during either Tommy Lyons’ or Caffrey’s management.

“So his first job was to try and get the scores conceded down.

“I think we have done that. We probably don’t score as much as we used to but we have a better chance of winning by conceding less.”

In the grand scheme of things, the reward for winning on Sunday is still significant even if all four provincial winners lost their All-Ireland quarter-finals. This year’s break between the provinces and the All-Ireland series isn’t as bad for the Leinster winners as it was when Dublin won in 2009.

“I think we only have three weeks off this year, which is a little bit different,” remarked the Oliver St Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh man. “Other years we had four weeks off. It mightn’t sound a lot but there is a big difference between three weeks and four weeks.

“If it was four weeks I’d be slightly more worried but the fact it’s three weeks I think is the ideal time between matches.”

The Tommy Delaney Cup still has an allure for Brogan. It’s a title they value, one they relinquished last year.

“I certainly wouldn’t mind now saying I have seven Leinster medals as opposed to six.”

As captain, Brogan scored 1-4 against Wexford in the 2008 Leinster final but believes they have a lot more balance in their line-up without the retired Mattie Forde.

“They have lost Mattie Forde over the last few years and whilst you would think that would be a huge loss, it seems to have galvanised the other guys.

“It looks like now that a lot of guys lived in Mattie Forde’s shadow and didn’t come out of their shells.

“It’s kind of forced guys to come out — Ciarán Lyng, Redmond Barry, they have come out and are playing super football.”

However, Brogan warned: “In fairness, they probably haven’t met a defence as tight as ours, we probably won’t give them a whole lot of space, but they have pace.”