Brian Fenton v Brian Mullins - how did the Dublin northsiders compare?

Paul Keane looks at how Brian Fenton and Brian Mullins compare in terms of silverware, leadership and X-factor ability.

TWO GREATS: Paul Keane looks at how the two compare in terms of silverware, leadership and X-factor ability.

The tale of the tape

There's no contest in terms of silverware won. Fenton has seven All-Ireland medals and 10 Leinster titles to Mullins' four and nine respectively.

Fenton won double the amount of league medals, four compared to two, and six All-Stars compared to Mullins' two. The skyscraping Raheny man was also twice a Footballer of the Year. As individuals, there is far less to separate them.

Both arrived on the inter-county scene as prototype high fielding, all action, score poaching midfielders. Important goals in significant games, like the 1976 final defeat of Kerry, were Mullins' trademark.

Fenton will be remembered more, in scoring terms, for his long-range points. Both were entrusted with engine room duties by iconic Dublin managers; Kevin Heffernan in Mullins' case and Jim Gavin, initially at least, with Fenton.

Truth be told, Mullins and Fenton are head and shoulders above the rest of Dublin's all-time great midfielders. Whichever of them you fancy more, the drop to third position - Michael Darragh Macauley, Ciaran Whelan, Denis Bastick? - is severe.

Leadership?

Fenton came into a Dublin team that had already won two All-Irelands, in 2011 and 2013. He was surrounded by a group full of belief and top level experience which looked destined to dominate, with or without him.

Mullins was surrounded by icons too in the 1970s but they hadn't any history of winning big until he arrived in '74. Still a teenager, he drove Dublin to their first title since 1963. Former Dublin manager Pat O'Neill told The Irish Times after Mullins' death in 2022 that Mullins coming into the team in '74 as an U-21 drove 'significant change in our performance levels'.

It is hard to imagine Heffo's Army doing what they did without the St Vincent's man. Mullins inspired on the club front too, winning multiple county and Leinster titles with the Marino side, as well as an All-Ireland in 1976.

He was widely acknowledged as one of Heffernan's favourite players and, between the two, they drove Dublin teams to generational successes. Fenton has yet to win a county title with Raheny.

X-factor ability

Fenton hails from a family of swimmers. His late mother, Marian (nee Cummins), was a swimming coach and his uncle, John Cummins, swam at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Brian was a talented swimmer at Cormorant Swimming Club in Donaghmede himself but carved his own sporting niche on the football fields.

He was Man of the Match in his first All-Ireland senior final, the 2015 final win over Kerry, and sustained that level of leadership for almost a decade, consistently frustrating Mayo teams in particular.

Mullins inspired with his actions on the pitch too but it was his return to the pinnacle of the game following a serious car crash in 1980, at the age of 25, that marked him out as even more than a generational talent.

"How he made it back to inter-county football was extraordinary," said former Dublin manager and medical doctor Pat O'Neill. "He was obviously affected but watching him in the Cork replay (1983) you wouldn't have noticed."

Off the field, they were chalk and cheese, Fenton always approachable and ever the diplomat, Mullins the more taciturn, capable of delivering a withering put down.