AFTER HIS MANAGER Jim Gavin “accepted full responsibility” earlier this week, Dublin star Bernard Brogan says that he and his players must shoulder the blame for the 2013 All-Ireland champions’ defeat to Donegal in this year’s semi-final.
Just why Dublin lost, is harder for the former Footballer of the Year to explain but he has some ideas.
“It’s hard to know really – Jim held his hands up – but I think the players themselves would say the same.
“Me personally, missing a couple of frees at an important time in the game where we were six points down and could have started something. Everyone else is saying the same, Diarmo [Connolly] missing a couple of chances, Kevin [McManamon] said he missed one that he never misses in Croke Park.
“It was strange how all these happened at the same time.”
Advertisement
Brogan also admits he was surprised that Donegal were able to create so many goal chances and suggests the result may have been different if Dublin had raised the green flag first.
“We probably didn’t expect Donegal to get two or three goals on us. We’d been so ready to go forward and we just got caught on the counter a couple of times.
“In fairness to Donegal – on the first one – if [Eoghan] O’Gara’s ball to me been a foot forward and I might have been able to steer it into the net or, if Diarmo’s ball had hit the corner, it might have been a different game and we’d all be talking about Dublin today being All-Ireland champions, you never know.
“But that’s the bounce of the ball and, in fairness, in the past we’ve had a bit of luck. In 2011 we had the bounce of the ball where it has went our way. Sometimes these things don’t go your way but as players we’d be disappointed that we didn’t give a good account of ourselves and push and ask the questions of Donegal that we would have liked to.”
Brogan at the AIG Club Member Insurance launch alongside Jim Gavin and Danny Sutcliffe. Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE
Brogan says the most disappointing aspect of the defeat was that he and his fellow players felt as if they’d more to offer the game than perhaps they did.
“It’s one thing walking off the pitch after losing, after giving it your all and saying, ‘we asked all the questions, we threw everything at them and they came out the better team’.
“But when you come out and you feel as if you haven’t given everything that you could or you haven’t done enough, it hurts the players and, me personally, I’d be very disappointed.”
While Brogan is yet to re-watch the game, the Dublin players have met with Jim Gavin in the wake of the defeat to debrief and try move forward as a unit.
“I haven’t watched the game back yet.
“We met up after the game and we had a good chat. Jim put us in together and we had a very honest chat about what happened and where we’re going and we’re going to put a line in the sand and move on.
“We were obviously going into club championship the following week. It was good to meet up and have that chat. If we hadn’t had it, I was very disappointed coming into the meeting but I did feel a lot better coming out of it.
“We had a very open conversation and everyone came away from it a lot better than they did coming into it. Still doesn’t change the fact of where we were and what happened but at least we can move on and take lessons from it.”
Bernard Brogan says the players are blaming themselves for the Donegal defeat
AFTER HIS MANAGER Jim Gavin “accepted full responsibility” earlier this week, Dublin star Bernard Brogan says that he and his players must shoulder the blame for the 2013 All-Ireland champions’ defeat to Donegal in this year’s semi-final.
Just why Dublin lost, is harder for the former Footballer of the Year to explain but he has some ideas.
“It’s hard to know really – Jim held his hands up – but I think the players themselves would say the same.
“Me personally, missing a couple of frees at an important time in the game where we were six points down and could have started something. Everyone else is saying the same, Diarmo [Connolly] missing a couple of chances, Kevin [McManamon] said he missed one that he never misses in Croke Park.
“It was strange how all these happened at the same time.”
Brogan also admits he was surprised that Donegal were able to create so many goal chances and suggests the result may have been different if Dublin had raised the green flag first.
“We probably didn’t expect Donegal to get two or three goals on us. We’d been so ready to go forward and we just got caught on the counter a couple of times.
“In fairness to Donegal – on the first one – if [Eoghan] O’Gara’s ball to me been a foot forward and I might have been able to steer it into the net or, if Diarmo’s ball had hit the corner, it might have been a different game and we’d all be talking about Dublin today being All-Ireland champions, you never know.
“But that’s the bounce of the ball and, in fairness, in the past we’ve had a bit of luck. In 2011 we had the bounce of the ball where it has went our way. Sometimes these things don’t go your way but as players we’d be disappointed that we didn’t give a good account of ourselves and push and ask the questions of Donegal that we would have liked to.”
Brogan says the most disappointing aspect of the defeat was that he and his fellow players felt as if they’d more to offer the game than perhaps they did.
“It’s one thing walking off the pitch after losing, after giving it your all and saying, ‘we asked all the questions, we threw everything at them and they came out the better team’.
“But when you come out and you feel as if you haven’t given everything that you could or you haven’t done enough, it hurts the players and, me personally, I’d be very disappointed.”
While Brogan is yet to re-watch the game, the Dublin players have met with Jim Gavin in the wake of the defeat to debrief and try move forward as a unit.
“I haven’t watched the game back yet.
“We met up after the game and we had a good chat. Jim put us in together and we had a very honest chat about what happened and where we’re going and we’re going to put a line in the sand and move on.
“We were obviously going into club championship the following week. It was good to meet up and have that chat. If we hadn’t had it, I was very disappointed coming into the meeting but I did feel a lot better coming out of it.
“We had a very open conversation and everyone came away from it a lot better than they did coming into it. Still doesn’t change the fact of where we were and what happened but at least we can move on and take lessons from it.”
Here’s the Dublin team for Sunday’s All-Ireland Ladies Football final
What advice did Dubs boss Jim Gavin have for Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley?
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
at a loss Bernard Brogan All-Ireland Senior HC GAA Donegal Dublin