Bernard Brogan still feels pain of Donegal defeat but club provides comfort

What man could argue with Bernard Brogan’s assertion; it hurts more when you’ve left something behind. He means football. Life seems fine.

Busy morning yesterday. Unveiled as president of the Federation of Irish Sport before 9am; by noon, speaking in his capacity as ambassador for Sky Sports “Living for Sport” initiative, the print daily journalists were dealt with. The misery of August 31st ensures that atonement remains at least 11 months away. Or possibly never.

He’s 30 now.

At least the weekend after next sees the Brogan brothers battle the McManamon siblings in the Dublin football championship semi-final. The club, Oliver Plunkett's-Eoghan Ruadh, is closing in on a long-stated dream of winning a county title. Two steps to go.

Club focus

Not that it will fill the black hole caused by Donegal but it’s a sanctuary of sorts. “I welcomed going back with the club after the Donegal game because it was probably the biggest hurt I’ve had as a footballer. Because we thought we had enough to get over the line. Coming back to training that Wednesday, it was great to have a new focus.”

Before 2011 there was a stream of anguish in the blinding spotlight at Croke Park. Misery followed in 2012 but after the 2013 win, utter dominance threatened, only to be shattered by Donegal.

“It hurts more when you feel like you’ve left something behind. I think if you go out into a game and you give it everything and get beaten on the day – you don’t get the bounce of a ball – that’s grand. But I think when we went out against Donegal we would have felt that we left a lot behind. I just felt we didn’t ask them enough questions; we kind of petered off at the end of the game and never really pushed them come the end and they kept us to whatever score it was.”

17 points.

“I would have felt we would have got a couple of scores and had a run at them, ask them a couple of questions. To lose going down fighting is one thing but I felt we left too much on the pitch.”

All Stars shortlist

This week marked the first All Stars shortlist without a Brogan since 2004. “Didn’t deserve to be there,” he said, while feeling big brother Alan did.

There are mitigating circumstances to Brogan’s unspectacular season. A groin operation stalled his return until mid-league, a hamstring twang against Laois disrupted the drive into high summer.

“I’ve said it before as a forward you need momentum and time on the pitch. Especially if you are trying to kick scores. In fairness, I felt really good coming into the last few games but we were really disappointed with the Donegal game. Missed a couple of frees I would normally get.”

Wides that hound him in the dark nights. “We panicked in the forwards a bit and a few of us missed opportunities we wouldn’t usually miss. That’s why it was great to go out and win with the club last weekend against Ballymun. It was a similar type of game – they were really hot favourites but we went out, worked really hard. We got a similar type goal and they panicked a bit.”

Brogan’s never going to embrace the Kerry way of beating Donegal which was the Donegal way of beating Dublin.

“I think Kerry would have looked back and learned a lot from our game. We didn’t have that analysis on Donegal. We hadn’t seen them play to that standard. We are very proud of the type of football we play. We played the brand of football we love playing and we all love to watch.

“Playing them tomorrow? I wouldn’t say we would do much differently. Maybe a few tweaks here and there. There was a bit of naivety in our play.”

Stay with philosophy

Dublin won’t be so badly exposed in 2015, he reasoned, but they won’t change their philosophy either. “I think the way the game will evolve, expansive football will win out in the end. Especially in Croke Park.”

He hasn’t watched it – he can’t – but the pain inflicted by Donegal is being harnessed. Brogan looks to a Kilkenny hurler to see how wounds can become valuable scars. “Like, if you go two years and you haven’t really been beaten – we had a really good run up until that game. Sometimes when I look back on it I say ‘Jesus, we should have been clued into this’ . . . you just kind of take your eye off it a tiny bit.

"Jackie Tyrrell said that when Kilkenny were beaten by Tipp, the hunger you get when you lose is much stronger than the hunger you have when you win, so I really bought into what that said and it stuck with me."