Dublin star Brogan happy to be provider

Bernard Brogan says he gleans as much satisfaction out of making scores as he does converting them.

Earlier this week, Brogan tweeted that Cristiano Ronaldo was his kind of player because in Euro 2012 he had “30 shots on goal so far, the most in history”.

However, the 2010 footballer of the year insists he gets as much out of setting up team-mates for goals and points as he does booting them in and over.

“Last year, I decided I had to do something different. During the league I decided to become as much a supplier as a scorer,” he said.

“When you’re player of the year, you’re going to become a bit more marked and there’s more of an eye going to be kept on you so you’re going to try and do something different and I kinda tried to bring other players into it and make space. That developed my game.

“I didn’t have to be end of every score to do my job for the team. In 2010, I was at the end of it with the ball at a lot of stages but in 2011 I got more involved with the lads and tried to work together more.”

Wexford’s Graeme Molloy was particularly sticky on Brogan in last year’s Leinster final and will likely be entrusted with the same brief on Sunday.

However, by the time the All-Ireland semi-final against Donegal came around, the forward was instrumental for Dublin, winning vital frees and assisting scores which were so hard to come by for both teams.

“After the game, people were talking about the assists more so than whoever kicked the scores over. I’d take oxygen from that and realise you don’t have to be kicking scores to get your praise.”

Brogan’s 2-5 tally in Dublin’s 16-point win over Louth earlier this month sent out signals that there’s no let-up in the All-Ireland champions’ desire.

But the 27-year-old countered: “Nobody’s going to be thinking they’re world-beaters after the first game. Every team usually has a good win during the year and after that it was about getting back to work and down to what we do well which is working for each other.

“That’s what we’ll be trying to bring into Sunday. As we saw during the league, when we try and just go out and play football and think you’re world-beaters you’ll get beaten.”

Brogan was glad of the four-week break between that game and Sunday’s Leinster semi-final. “It was crucial for me personally because I didn’t have much time before the first game to get my hands on the ball because I was coming back from injury,’’ he said.

“So I’ve been able to do that now and get my hand-eye co-ordination a bit better. I was rusty the last day for the first few minutes but hopefully with four weeks of good training and a club championship match in I’ll have a better eye-in on Sunday.”

Reminded of the counties’ recent Championship battles, he expects a difficult day against Wexford. “They’ll have definitely something to say on Sunday and they won’t be coming to Croke Park to make up the numbers.’’ he said.