Brogan vows to add value to Dublin drive

At 35, with a wife and two babies at home and a portfolio of business interests, Bernard Brogan would have been forgiven for following Paul Flynn’s recent lead and quitting Dublin.

Flynn played in five of Dublin’s seven Allianz League games during spring, starting twice, yet still felt he wasn’t at his best after back surgery in 2018 so retired.

Brogan, meanwhile, two years older and restricted to just five minutes of league action after cruciate knee ligament surgery in 2018, remains determined to play a part in the drive for five this summer.

It’s an impressive level of commitment from a player who didn’t even make the matchday 26 against Louth last weekend and has only made a handful of appearances in total since being reduced to the role of impact sub in 2017.

“Maybe I overdid the training or whatever (in 2018) and the leg broke down but I was very much tuned in — I’m very much the same now,” said Brogan.

“I’m in the best shape I’ve probably ever been, my fitness scores are the best they’ve ever been. I’ve really focused in on where I can add value and what I need to do physically to get there.

“So I’m striking the ball and practising my kicks and my percentages are way up.

"I’m trying to put myself in a position that Jim has to take notice of me and has to say, ‘Do you know what, this guy can do a job for me when it’s needed’.”

Brogan described last year’s remarkable return from the cruciate lay-off to feature for Dublin in the Super 8s against Roscommon as not just as physical battle but an ‘emotional’ one.

The 2010 Footballer of the Year said he took a number of months off after the Championship to think clearly before resolving to give it another shot in 2019.

“In December, I was in the gym every morning, six o’clock, myself and Declan Lally,” said Brogan, who revealed that at one stage himself and ex-Dublin defender Lally trained 20 days in a row.

“I’ve lost three or four or five kgs and I’m moving along the ground much better, striking the ball really well and I’ve played a lot with my club actually, put in a couple of good shifts with the club in the championship.

“Now it’s about just trying to drive on, put pressure on the management, put pressure on Jim to show that I still have something to offer.”

Brogan said he would have liked to play more this season but has been assured by Gavin that he remains part of his plans.

“When I came in first with Dublin, I was very humble, I spent two years on the bench,” he said. “I fought through it and it took me a long time to get in under ‘Pillar’ Caffrey and to get game time.

“Eventually, it just turned. It’s one bit of game time, one bit of movement, one bit of good football can get you in the mix, that’s the way I look at it.

“No matter where you are in the pecking order, when you get an opportunity, when something happens to give you a chance, you can change somebody’s mind then and that’s what I’m holding out for.

I believe that I can offer something. In training games I’m competitive, I’m right there, I just need more opportunities and hopefully I can show it.

It’s why Brogan wasn’t tempted to follow suit and join Flynn when his former forward colleague pulled the shutters down on his Dublin career earlier this month.

“I’m on a different journey to what Flynner was on, he made a call on it and that was his decision,” said Brogan.

“I’ve always said that I’ll play until I’m asked not to play or until I don’t feel I can add value and Jim asks me not to come back.

“He thinks there’s something there if I can get myself right, that I can add value to the group. I still believe that.

"If I didn’t think I could play then I’d say, ‘Jim, I have two young babies at home, thanks a million, I’ve enjoyed every second of playing in blue’.

"But there’s something inside of me that feels I still have something to offer, something to add.”

Meanwhile, Galway captain Damien Comer has admitted he won’t be fit for the Connacht football final next month and isn’t certain when he’ll be back.

The powerful full-forward fractured his ankle playing in a charity soccer tournament last Christmas and underwent surgery in early March.

Asked if playing against Roscommon is unlikely having missed all of Galway’s league campaign and their two Championship games to date, Comer said: “It probably is at this stage. I’d love to make it back and if things turn around in the next couple of weeks then maybe but at the moment I doubt it. I need to give it time.”