Ger Brennan: 'It wasn't really an All-Ireland medal unless you'd beaten Kerry'

Ger Brennan sees the latest Dublin-Kerry instalment as the final in everything but name — and reckons it will all come down to the battle between Con and Clifford

Anticipating a classic: Former Dublin Minor footballer, Ger Brennan, as he previews the Electric Ireland GAA Minor Football Championship Final between Galway and Mayo on Friday. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ger Brennan reckons it's probably a St Vincent's thing, passed down from Kevin Heffernan's time, but for an All-Ireland win to be considered legitimate in Dublin, you must beat Kerry along the way.

"There was always that belief, that it wasn't really an All-Ireland medal unless you'd beaten Kerry," said Brennan who fulfilled that criteria when winning his two All-Irelands in 2011 and 2013.

It's only a semi-final on Sunday, so there'll be no medals handed out, though Brennan sees the latest Dublin-Kerry instalment as the final in everything but name.

That's a clear statement about what he thinks of Derry and Galway's chances but Brennan simply shrugs.

"I know it's terrible but yes is the answer, I would be expecting whoever wins on Sunday to push on and win (the All-Ireland). And you would have to say that whoever does win between Galway and Derry, you would say they certainly have a huge, huge advantage from a motivational point of view, that no-one is giving them a chance. But I'd certainly fancy that whoever wins between Dublin and Kerry will have too much experience and skill not to get over the line.

"Galway, from memory, in nearly all their games this year have been five and six points up and they haven't been able to close it out.

"While the game against Armagh was a bit of a rollercoaster with Armagh up and then Galway up, I'd be worried about Galway's ability if they were to get to the final, or even in terms of their semi-final this weekend, if they were in the ascendancy how many lives do they actually have to be able to hold onto the lead?"

Pressed on who will win the 'real' All-Ireland final on Sunday, Brennan pointed to two names; Con and Clifford. For him, if Con O'Callaghan overcomes an apparent hamstring injury to play for Dublin, and if David Clifford has fully shaken off an ankle issue, then it could very well require extra-time to separate the teams.

O'Callaghan appears to be the greater concern of the two and if the in-form Cuala attacker misses out then Brennan feels it's Kerry's game.

"Probably a bold statement here but if Con isn't playing, and David Clifford is playing, then I don't think we will have enough to win," said the former Carlow coach. "I think Con makes our forward line tick. He attracts so many opposition defenders which allows the other forwards, in particular Cormac Costello, to flourish.

"We've all watched matches over the years where one of your star players isn't playing, he's injured, and the next guy up is flying it but as soon as the star player comes back that next guy goes into his shell a bit.

"That's not the case with Cormac Costello, I think Cormac plays so much better when Con is there. They have a great understanding with one another. It also gives Dean that bit more space as well to take a couple of scores from play. So if Con isn't playing, and Clifford is, then I think we won't have enough firepower to be able to get over the line. That's how big a player he is."

Worrying for Dublin supporters, Brennan predicts that if Kerry can finally break the Sky Blues' stranglehold over them in the Championship, they could go on to dominate themselves.

"If Kerry can break through the glass ceiling on this occasion, I think they will go on to win numerous championships but it is about just breaking the hoodoo of the Dublin team."

Brennan expects Kerry to play it cautious.

"The advantage that Jack O'Connor has, and obviously he has won with Kerry over the years in previous stints as manager, but the real advantage is his time with Kildare and how he set Kildare up in the Leinster final last year," said Brennan.

"The people in Kildare would have felt they could have gone a bit more offensive to try to ask more questions of Dublin's defence. But when you compare the personnel that Jack has available to him now with this Kerry team, in comparison to the Kildare team, and with all respect to the Kildare players, I would imagine that Jack O'Connor, and obviously with the smarts of Paddy Tally, it could be a similar setup tactically as Jack used in that Leinster final. I would not be surprised to see something like that."

It's 11 years now since Dublin ended their own hoodoo by coming from behind to beat Kerry in the 2011 All-Ireland final, kickstarting a golden era. Asked how Dublin did it, just two years after being beaten out the Croke Park gates by Kerry in 2009, Brennan put it down to their intense training under Pat Gilroy.

"Pat, with Mickey Whelan and his team, were mentally and psychologically challenging us through extreme physical torture, the surival of the fittest so that when faced with a daunting and apparently insurmountable challenge in a knockout game in the All-Ireland series, we could draw from the knowledge and mental reserves built up in January and February by doing something none of us had done before. That was far harder than any game we had ever played. The training was so difficult that playing football, playing matches, was handy."

*Ger Brennan was speaking ahead of tomorrow evening's Electric Ireland GAA Minor Football Championship Final between Galway and Mayo which takes place in Dr Hyde Park at 7.15pm.