GER BRENNAN HAS defended the imports that helped St Vincent’s to their third Leinster title in four years on Sunday.
Enda Varley, Lorcan Smyth, Fiachra Breathnach and Brendan Egan all hail from counties outside of Dublin but ply their trade with the Vinnies.
There have been accusations that Vincent’s poach players but Brennan defended his club, adding that every player is part of the local community.
“Dublin is the capital of our country, there’s over a million people there living and working,” he told RTÉ Sport after they defeated Rhode by seven points in O’Moore Park.
“If a guy is living and working in the area and he wants to play Gaelic football, then why not?
“There’s definitely no policy nor has there ever been a policy within Vincent’s to be recruiting players or chasing players.
“You’ve Enda Varley there, Lorcan Smyth, Fiachra Breathnach and Brendan has been playing with us for years and years. All those guys are living and working in the area. They’ve added quite a bit to the squad this year.”
Brennan was black carded for a trip on Niall McNamee near the end of the first-half, but Ruairi McNamee failed to capitalist on the opportunity and missed the resultant penalty.
“There was a tangle of legs. It was a peno definitely, but it wasn’t intentional so I feel somewhat hard done by,” the two-time All-Ireland-winner with Dublin said.
“It was a booking. Was it a black card? I thought a black card was for if you intentionally took somebody down and that wasn’t the case. If you look back on some of our Dublin championship performances this year we’ve been quite loose at the back and Mick has stood up to the mark with a lot of unbelievable saves.
“We weren’t surprised that he saved it. I suppose it took the sting out of a momentum change that was there for Rhode, with me going off, but Savo, he’s a super keeper.
“Looking at this Rhode team and how successful they’ve been in Offaly over the years and indeed in Leinster without fully winning a Leinster Championship, we knew how tough it was going to be. We were very much tuned in and focused.”
Can’t disagree with his point but just hard to take when we’ve a pick of a 21/2 mile radius. How can we ever match the Dublin clubs.
In reality it’s up to the player himself, my own opinion would be to play with my home club if I could. I wouldn’t be a fan of lads who would transfer to a bigger club or a higher level but it’s their choice of they want to do that.
It’s a tough one. Lads have careers & families and may not be able to commit to the travel involved if they are living in Dublin and playing with their hometown club. Playing with the club 5 minutes away is more practical.
In saying that, no reason why these players have to play in the Provincial championships. Let them play league and ch’ship in Dublin, but you use home-grown players beyond that.
How can we ever match Dublin clubs? €€€€€€ is the only way…..
You can disagree, they signed former dub eamonn fennell from o’tooles who are five mins away from Vincent’s. And another of their better players came from o tooles.
Parnells got awful stick for imports, it didn’t work out for them and they are back to the right way now. Plunketts vinnies ballymun shipping lads in!
All the top clubs are the same, Kerry club Dr.Crokes centre back Alan o sullivan is an import and rumor is the Crokes have approached this years kerry minor Clifford to transfer and he probably will if the terms are right!!:-):-):-):-
Does Eamon Fennell still play?
Not sure saw him on crutches though