Brogan: Meath will have no final fear

Alan Brogan looks genuinely gobsmacked when it’s put to him that he has a 100% record in Leinster finals.

That’s seven finals, seven wins, but then Meath are missing from his list of mounted heads (Kildare, Laois and Wexford twice, Offaly once).

Yep, that Meath who put five goals past Stephen Cluxton two years ago in Pat Gilroy’s worst day as Dublin manager behind the startled earwigs drama against Kerry in 2009.

If there’s one team who won’t pay any mind to the All-Ireland champions’ provincial decider prowess since 2002, it’s the neighbours.

“Meath certainly won’t fear us, even though we’ve a 100% record in Leinster finals. Meath are probably the one team in Leinster who have pushed us really close and managed to beat us over the years.

“They’re the only team that have beaten us in Leinster since 2005, I think, so that in itself says something. They certainly won’t have any fear coming into it.

“I haven’t played Meath in a Leinster final before. So, even for guys that are there a long time and have six or seven Leinster medals, it’s a huge game for us as well and one that we’re really looking forward to.

“As hard as playing football can be at times, in the winter and that, I don’t think you’ll ever get sick of playing in Leinster finals against Meath or Kildare or Wexford or whoever it is.”

He’ll give Meath their dues but he has no hesitation in saying their five-goal haul in the 2010 Leinster semi-final was out of the norm.

“Yeah, I think it was a freak result. In fairness, some of the forwards they have are very talented — the likes of Joe Sheridan and Cian Ward. But some of the goals that they scored, even though they got through on us, some of the goals were serious finishes.

“But in saying that, if you let them through that’s what they’re capable of doing. The likes of Cian Ward is a great man to get a goal; Joe Sheridan as well can score from anywhere nearly inside 21 yards. So they have that in their armoury if you give them the space to do it.”

Looking back, the defeat served as a reminder to Gilroy and his players that they had to move with the times.

“I think between that game and obviously the All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry, when they beat us by 17 ... between those two games we decided we’d need to change something, you just can’t afford to concede five goals in a game or you can’t afford to concede the scores Kerry got.

“It probably was a watershed for us. But thankfully it hasn’t happened too often since, where we’ve had to ship losses like that.”

Brogan feels a Meath win on Sunday wouldn’t be a huge shock, even if it would push the champions into the backdoor against Leitrim or Laois.

The 30-year-old can see why people might be talking up an upset given Dublin’s stuttering win over Wexford.

He was at least pleased by Dublin’s refusal to panic in the face of Diarmuid Connolly’s sending off.

“I suppose there are question marks asked about their hunger, but I think we answered that question in the last 20 minutes to pull that game out of the bag, because we were really, really under pressure.”

The 2011 Footballer of the Year also feels his brother Bernard, who won the accolade the previous year but was substituted against Wexford, has a point to prove on Sunday.

“Yeah, he knows himself that the last day against Wexford probably wasn’t his best day. But look, he’s had that before and he’s come out the next day and he’s performed, so I think he’ll be alright. He’s mentally strong enough to deal with that, I think.”