Pressure of managing in capital very different

During his stint on the punditry and podcast circuit, Ger Brennan made an interesting prediction early in the 2023 championship season.

When all the big guns returned and the Dublin tanks started rolling early that summer, Brennan predicted - correctly - that they would win the All-Ireland that year.

But then he added the kicker, saying that it would be the last one for a while.

Three years on, does he stand over that prediction?

"Well, a while... Two years is a while, is it? (laughs)"

Brennan mightn't have anticipated then that the Dublin job would have come his way so soon.

He was about to embark on a seismic two-year stint with Louth, following Mickey Harte's abrupt departure.

In his second season in charge, he became the first manager to lead a team other than Dublin to a Leinster title victory since Eamonn O'Brien in 2010.

And now both his ex-team and his current team troop out in this weekend's All-Ireland semi-finals. It's the first time since 2010 that two Leinster teams have reached the last-four.

Having led Louth to a first provincial title in 68 years before returning to his native team, Brennan has an intriguing answer regarding the pressure on managing in the capital compared to elsewhere.

He admits he feels more pressure personally in the Dublin role but the situation overall isn't quite so straightforward.

"This is an easy answer. Up in Louth, the players probably get a lot more heat. The bunting is up there. I was actually up in Drogheda this morning doing a few bits and I can see all the bunting going up in a couple of towns.

"There's probably a lot more heat on the Louth players and players in rural counties. But as an outside manager, there was almost less heat because I'd come back to Dublin.

"Now, the roles have reversed. Because I'm in Dublin, everyone you see is nearly a Dublin supporter, or close to it.

"So I would say there's a bit more heat on a Dublin manager living in Dublin.

"But there's probably less heat on Dublin players living in Dublin because the place is so big."

John Kiely insisted that he'd walked his dogs on Saturday afternoon rather than watch the Cork-Galway All-Ireland hurling semi-final.

But Brennan stresses that he'll be an interested spectator when his former team are playing in the first semi-final this weekend - and not merely from the perspective of researching potential future opponents.

"I'll watch it. We'll wish each other well, to be fair. That Louth group, this is their sixth year of an incredible journey.

"Gavin Devlin and Peter [Dooley] have integrated more of those Under-20s as well this year too, and they're performing really well.

"I think if you go back maybe seven seasons ago, I think Louth lost to Leitrim in a qualifier or something like that [in 2018].

"So it's an incredible journey for them and they're getting better each year and playing some really good football."

The perception is that Brennan's current team are suddenly playing good football, triggered by their supremo's return from his savagely long suspension for his comical role in the fracas at half-time in their relegation game against Galway in Division 1.

Dublin were under the stewardship of interim manager Dean Rock, a member of Brennan's backroom team during this stint. Defender Davy Byrne said during the week that Brennan had no contact of any sort with the team across that 12 weeks.

The numbers have been circulated. On the eve of Brennan's return from suspension, Dublin had lost seven of their 11 competitive games in 2026, including five of six games played at Croke Park. Since then, they've overcome Cavan and then beat All-Ireland contenders Donegal and Galway one week after the other.

However, the manager disputes the narrative that the players are motivated to play for him, in particular, or that his return has witnessed a massive sea change.

"Our most comprehensive performance all year was the semi-final against Louth in the Leinster championship," says Brennan.

"I think there has been elements of good play in the league, against Armagh, Roscommon and Galway.

"I thought the Wicklow game we were poor. We performed well at times in the Leinster final but didn't deserve to win and again credit again to Westmeath.

"But there were good elements of play there in the first half against Louth in the All-Ireland series. In the second half, Louth pushed on. We struggled and to concede four goals in a championship game, you don't deserve to win anything.

"But, again I'd go back to that [Leinster] semi-final against Louth, that was probably our most comprehensive one.

"[The] second half against Cavan more recently, the lads did really well. Did really well against Donegal, would have liked to have been a couple of points maybe ahead going down the home stretch but the extra-time really stood to the group.

"And then against Galway, performed really well for large elements of it. Probably the third quarter, again we struggled.

"But then we finished strongly. With the new rules each game is like a rollercoaster and probably reflects our season."

Brennan won both his championship games against Kerry as a player, back when the Dubs first started to turn the tide in the relationship in the early 2010s.

The situation is slightly more complicated than that. He was suspended for the infamous startled earwigs game of 2009 where he was captured by a Sun photographer licking a Cornetto as Dublin's chances melted out on the pitch.

He was whipped off at half-time in 2013 semi-final classic, having had a borderline traumatic experience attempting to mark Colm Cooper. When reminded that he was marking the Gooch that day, Brennan responds, "allegedly".

This is the teams' first meeting since the 2023 decider. Dublin were just about favourites that day. This time around, Kerry are defending champions and widely expected to advance.

"People have been saying to me - friends and that - what are you going to do with David Clifford?

"And I say, well, what about Dylan Geaney? What about Paul Geaney? What about Paudie Clifford, Joe O'Connor, Diarmuid O'Connor? Those lads driving through. Gavin White started his first game against Tyrone.

"There's so many threats all over the field. We'll do our best to find match-ups for as many of them as we can."

So much has happened this season, it's hard to think it's actually Brennan's first season in the Dublin job. He made an attempt to juxtapose his status as a managerial babe-in-arms compared to his opposite number, Jack O'Connor ("Up there with Mick O'Dwyer.")

The season famously began with Brennan laying down the law to the elder statesmen of the team, questioning the extent of their hunger after the league defeat to Mayo in Castlebar and publicly threatening them with a cull.

Amid all the talk of transition, it has been the veterans of the late 2010s, Niall Scully, Con O'Callaghan, Ciaran Kilkenny and Davy Byrne, who more than anyone have propelled Dublin back into the last-four.

"I said it after the match last weekend [against Galway] that you don't want to finish on a damp squib. Even thinking back to my career, and towards the end, picking up knocks and struggling with injuries...

"You want to go out on your shield. If that means success in terms of silverware, brilliant.

"But ultimately, the real success is going out on your shield. And to be remembered for that."

Click here to read article