Gavin monitoring Brogan's form and says 'no exception for any player'

Dublin manager Jim Gavin says that Alan Brogan still has a chance of playing in Sunday week's Leinster SFC final, but only if he shows form in training.

Brogan is getting close to making a return for the Dubs, having not played since appearing as a substitute in last year's All-Ireland semi-final loss to Mayo.

The 2011 Footballer of the Year was sidelined for the start of the current season after undergoing an operation on a long-term osteitis pubis injury.

Brogan missed the Allianz League campaign and Dublin's opening two Leinster Championship wins over Westmeath and Kildare, the latter success having qualified them for a provincial decider against Meath in ten days' time.

Commenting on the forward's fitness, Dublin boss Gavin said: "Alan is training away. He's doing quite well. It's probably a bit too early to say whether he can feature in the Leinster final. We'll see how he progresses over the next week or so.

"All players are in contention, none more so than Eoghan O'Gara who pushed hard in the two weeks before the (Kildare) game. He's in that same bracket. We'll see how he progresses over the next week or so.

"No more so than any other players, (Alan) needs to perform on the training pitch and if that happens, he comes into contention.

"There is a lot of competition for places in the side at the moment, so there is no exception for any player. They need to perform to get the slots."

Indeed, Brogan faces a fight on his hands to get back into the Dublin attack as the likes of youngsters Paul Mannion and Ciaran Kilkenny, who scored 1-5 between them against the Lilywhites, are maintaining a high level of performance with each passing game.

O'Gara and Dean Rock also made scoring contributions off the bench, while Brogan's own brother Bernard, the scorer of a timely goal before half-time, was called ashore after 48 minutes as Gavin gave Kevin McManamon an opportunity to impress.

Bernard mentioned the progress of the younger players around him afterwards when saying: "I can't even get 50 minutes anymore! The young lads that came into the team are pushing on. The competition at training matches is unbelievable."

Dublin look in rude health at the moment and their march towards a ninth Leinster crown since 2002 seems ominous. However, there are no fears of Gavin looking beyond the Meath challenge as he rates the Royals' class of 2013 highly.

"Since March, Meath have only lost one competitive game. They have looked strong and composed. They got some big, big scores in the latter stages of the National League," he said.

"They put up big scores in their two Championship games which is a fair achievement. For any team to go to Aughrim and get a result (against Wicklow) is a fair achievement. They won that game quite comfortably as well.

"So they're strong. They're very mobile. They have a great blend of youth and experience in the side, from Paddy O'Rourke in goal. Kevin Reilly at full-back, the captain, has been solid.

"(Caoimhin) King at centre-half back, Seamus Kenny is back as well. Donal Keogan too. So that's an experienced back-line. When you add in the likes of (Bryan) Menton, that we would have come across at U-21 level, and Padraic Harnan, there is a good blend of experience and youth in that backs division. They're all big men. They're all strong and mobile."

Jack McCaffrey has emerged as one of the gems in Dublin's own rearguard, with the Clontarf flyer thriving in a fleet-footed half-back line that has been just as influential in attack as defence.

He is a product of an underage system that has produced two All-Ireland titles for the capital in three years and his step up to senior level has been aided by the Dubs' strength and conditioning programme, overseen by Martin Kennedy.

That out-and-out pace, which McCaffrey possesses in abundance, is a hallmark of Gavin's team with the manager explaining: "We have focused on the athletic development of the players, that's for sure, but everything has been based around working with the ball.

"The pace was always there, from my observation of those players, at underage level. They always had pace. We just tried to introduce it with the ball. That's probably the big difference.

"Martin (Kennedy) is the athletic development coach for the side. That's the term we use. So he has been heavily integrated into that side of it and has been working with the guys since the start of the year in that regard."

With a mention of wing back McCaffrey's searing breaks from deep, Gavin added with a smile: "Yeah, technically he is very good at soloing the ball. I would agree. He has great pace, both with the ball and without it."

Kerry's legendary forward Colm Cooper made headlines recently when he suggested that a player of his build starting off - 'Gooch' weighed in at 10 stone for the 2002 All-Ireland final against Armagh - would struggle to make it in today's power-dominated game.

Cooper pointed to 'a worrying trend that the more athletic guy is more likely to make it than the skillful guy', but Gavin, whose has slighter players like McCaffrey and Mannion flourishing at the moment, says skill still matters most on the pitch.

"Well, I still think Colm would walk into any inter-county side. Certainly from our perspective – from the Dublin optic – we do focus heavily on the skills of the game, and the players work hard at their core skills and it's one of the key training goals we have for them," he added.

"We have always practised the skills and we have always tried to develop the technical aspect of the players. It's a skill-based game. It is 80% skill-based and 20% physical. That is the way I look at it anyway.

"Obviously there is a strength and conditioning component to that as well. Each coach will set himself up differently and it is whatever assets he has at his disposal.

"He will condition them differently. So that is probably a question for each individual coach, for the players that they have at their disposal.

"He might say, 'I need those players to be a bit more bulked up'. As far as we're concerned, we try and get that blended approach of athletic development and strength and conditioning as well."