Bernard Brogan may be left feeling blue, says Ray Cosgrove

By Paul Keane

Dublin great Ray Cosgrove has tipped Jim Gavin to show his ruthless streak by omitting Bernard Brogan from their All-Ireland final squad.

Five-time All-Ireland winner Brogan battled back from a cruciate knee ligament injury in February to feature in the Super 8s win over Roscommon this month.

The 2010 footballer of the year, 34, appeared as a late blood substitute, though he was overlooked for the 26-man semi-final squad.

Brogan has since featured as a substitute for his club, though ex-colleague Cosgrove believes it won’t be enough to earn him a jersey for Sunday week’s Tyrone showdown.

Gavin displayed his ability to set his emotions aside by declining to use Eoghan O’Gara in the semi-final against Galway, despite hitting 2-2 the previous weekend in the Roscommon game.

I think emotion is going to be taken right out of it,” said Cosgrove of the Brogan selection issue. “It just shows you the character of Bernard to get back after five and a half months, the effort, the treatment, the physio, the additional work he would have done to get his body in shape.

“Even to come on and get a run against Roscommon would have been great. But the competition is so rife. When you look at the subs, the forwards especially; Cormac Costello, Paul Flynn, Kevin McManamon, they’re three guys that have had serious impacts coming on.

Former Dublin footballer Ray Cosgrove at the announcement of AIG’s new partnership with theDublin Masters Football Team.

“Who knows Bernard might sneak into the 26 but for a guy who has only played a minute and a half or two, I think it would be a massive ask for him.

“Again, I’m not privy to what’s going on in training but there’s Conor McHugh who has got game time recently as well and Eoghan O’Gara didn’t even play in the semi-final, for a guy that kicked two goals against Roscommon. And Paddy Andrews, a guy that has gone off the face of the earth at the moment.

There’s massive competition there and if you were to ask me my opinion, I don’t think he’ll be involved. I think it’s going to come a little bit too early for Berno.

Cosgrove described the atmosphere at Dublin’s semi-final win over Galway as like a National League game and hit out at the supporters who opted to stay away.

“I was walking down Jones’ Road to Croke Park for the semi-final and it seemed like a league game,” said Cosgrove, the 2002 Championship’s top scorer. “The attendance was so poor.

“I was really scratching my head thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ For 54,000 people to show up, it was disappointing from a Dublin fans perspective. Then you’ll have a lot of guys who will come out from under the woodwork for Sunday week and will be occupying seats in Croke Park.

I’d love to know where those thirty-odd thousand people have been and why they weren’t behind the team in the semi-final.

Mayo defender Chris Barrett reckons the absence of his county from the semi-finals impacted on crowd turnout with less than 50,000 attending the Tyrone/Monaghan game.

“Usually if you go to Croke Park for a quarter-final or a semi-final, you wouldn’t be far off a full house,” said Barrett. “ Definitely in that sense we’ve been missed.”

Chris Barrett at the launch of the Londis 7s, the All-Ireland senior football sevens, which takes place on September 1 at Kilmacud Crokes, Dublin.

The 31-year-old said he’s not sure if there’ll be retirements in the closed season with a core group of players including Andy Moran, Colm Boyle, Keith Higgins and David Clarke all 30 or more.

“We’ve taken a bit of time off from the whole thing the last couple of weeks and months,” said Barrett.

As for boss Stephen Rochford’s decision to stay on, but with a new backroom team, Barrett was coy.

He said: “I’m not going to go too much into that at the moment because I’m not sure if it’s all rubber stamped. He’s putting together his team at the moment.”