Dublin used to be too eager for spotlight, says departing Ger Brennan

Former Dublin footballer Ger Brennan has criticised the media-friendly behaviour of some of his colleagues earlier in his career.

The two-time All-Ireland winner, who announced his inter-county retirement on Monday, claimed some of his team-mates lacked focus before they started collecting the Sam Maguire Cup.

“Each and every one of the players were geared towards achieving but the way some of them went about it I didn’t like, particularly in my early years coming into the team.

“I thought maybe there was an imbalance of media exposure - says the man who’s in here!” he told Today FM.

Brennan was asked if perhaps there were others in the panel who couldn’t walk by a microphone without feeling the urge to speak into it.

He returned: “Basically, there was, yeah, so that kind of got in on me.

“I thought the mental energy which you need to succeed at the top level should have been put into the football.”

Brennan revealed his hunger this year wasn’t as strong as it had been in previous years.

He realised that following the victory over Kerry in the All-Ireland final last month.

“I didn’t have a massive motivation to get back there,” said the defender, who had been ruled out for the championship with injury.

“Whereas previous times you’d be injured and watching games and I’d be going to gym afterwards because I’d be dying to get back out onto the pitch. This time that desire was just gone.”

St Vincent’s man Brennan said he would like to follow in the footsteps of Pat Gilroy and Jim Gavin and manage the Dublin team in the future.