Brothers in Sport (28 page)

He has witnessed the enormous changes that took place in the game during his playing career. The commitment and sacrifice have magnified beyond all expectation. Even since he retired in 2005 he has noticed the increased demands faced by players. This needs to be recognised and addressed. The GPA has to be part of that process. ‘The GPA was born out of necessity,’ he says. ‘We need to look after our players properly. We need to create pathways that will allow our players to train and play, give the commitment that is now required, without having concerns about external issues. All their needs, including medical, must be taken care of. It is not about being paid. No one wants that.

‘Of course there are some players out there who would jump at the chance of being a professional. I was never in favour of professionalism. The game couldn’t sustain it. The majority of players are realistic that it is never going to happen. Of course players would love to have the lifestyle of a Brian O’Driscoll or Ronan O’Gara. It is a natural instinct. But that is not what drives you to play Gaelic games. If it is what drives you then you can go and play soccer or rugby or something else. GAA players don’t look for too much, just basic welfare issues. We need to encourage our players and ensure that they are taken care of. Any youngster who is going to give the amount of time required to play our games at the highest level needs the assurance that he will have access to the best support systems and the best advice.’

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Between 1990 and 2007 Pascal and Peter Canavan played together for club, county and province. Their last game was the Tyrone Championship quarter-final of 2007 when Errigal Chiaráin lost to Dromore. No one was better placed to pass judgement on the talent of the man known nationally as Peter the Great than his older brother. ‘It was always very enjoyable playing with him,’ says Pascal, ‘and with him in your team you always knew you had a better chance of winning. The fact that we were brothers and had played together all our lives obviously helped. He was a special talent and not just because of his score-getting. He had this drive about him. He got the best out of himself, but he also got the best out of others. His motivation techniques were very important. He was a leader on the field and in the dressing-room.’

Though Peter had relinquished the captaincy, his leader-ship qualities shone throughout 2004. Their young team-mate
Cormac McAnallen died suddenly in March. Things were put into perspective. Peter and the senior players rallied those around them. They got back to their football and dedicated themselves to winning another Championship in memory of their friend. Peter remembers the 2005 All-Ireland final against Kerry with affection. ‘There was a new belief in Tyrone. From scraping on our hands and knees to win an All-Ireland, we had developed the confidence to go out and win a final playing some of the best football against Kerry. We took on Kerry at their own game and beat them. Some of the scores were outstanding that day. It was very gratifying.’ In the dressing-room after the game Peter announced his retirement.

He became club captain and with Pascal again alongside him they won the County Championship. Both of them retired from club football in 2007 – and went directly into management. Pascal has been heavily involved in coaching teams at St Kieran’s in Ballygawley where he now teaches. Peter had created the coaching structures at Holy Trinity in Cookstown that would bring that school many major successes, including the 2010 All-Ireland Under-16 Vocational Schools title. Pascal, along with Brendan Trainor, coached Mullahoran in Cavan before taking on Kilrea in Derry. He is also involved with the Errigal Chiaráin under-14 girls’ team.

Pascal and Una have four daughters, Catherine, Fiona, Emer and Maeve. Peter’s plans for some quality time with his family (he and Finola have two daughters, Áine and Claire, and two sons, Darragh and Ruairí) away from football were disrupted when old friends persuaded him to take charge of Errigal Chiaráin in 2009.

So, is he a future Tyrone manager? ‘I can’t say I have or haven’t an ambition to manage Tyrone. I’m not sure. It’s definitely not a target. If it was I would have a route marked out as to how I would do it and I don’t have that. I don’t have any designs as yet and I am certainly not near ready for a jump of that magnitude. Anyway I would be quite happy if the man we have in charge stayed for another ten years.’

Determination: Peter Canavan in action for his club, Errigal Chiaráin.
© Oliver McVeigh/SPORTSFILE

Bernard (left) and Alan Brogan celebrate Dublin’s success in the Leinster football championship in 2007 when both were goalscorers.
© Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE

Do you remember the summer of 2002? Can anyone forget? Roy Keane and Saipan. A national crisis of quite different proportions to the one currently being experienced, but one which nonetheless divided opinions and from which there was no escape on the airwaves, in the newspapers and in daily debate. The Republic of Ireland eventually got around to playing soccer in Japan, opening their World Cup campaign against Cameroon in the city of Niigata on 1 June. On the other side of the world Alan Brogan, a keen soccer player in his teens, took an interest in the international events but had a series of distractions to contend with at home.

While the nation seemed paralysed by the drama taking place in East Asia, people were actually getting on with their lives, business and sport other than soccer. The provincial football Championships were getting under way. The Dublin football team was scheduled to play in the opening round of the Leinster campaign against Wexford in Carlow’s Dr Cullen Park on that Saturday evening. The game had a 5.30 evening start to avoid a clash with the big soccer game. Alan Brogan was making his Senior Football Championship debut. The return of the Brogan name to the Dubs for the first time since the early 1980s created sufficient stir to qualify for some space in the national media.

As momentous as the occasion might have been, Alan himself had other things on his mind. Then a student at NUI Maynooth, he was due to sit an exam on the day of the game along with team-mate
Barry Cahill. The exam was scheduled to start at 2.30 p.m., which would have prevented them from making the journey to Carlow in time to start the game. The university guardians were alerted to the quandary. They met and agreed to a dispensation for the two footballers. Alan and Barry were allowed take the examination together in the morning, but under strict supervision.

‘
Willie Hughes was a garda sergeant at the time,’ recalls Alan, ‘and he had won an All-Ireland medal with Dublin in 1983. The deal was that he would escort us for the day, wouldn’t let us out of his sight. The other students were sitting the exam at half-past two, so we couldn’t have any contact with them.
Willie stuck with us until we got to Carlow to play the game.’ It was a gesture from the college that is still appreciated eight years later. The game itself is not as fondly remembered by Alan. ‘I only played okay. Got a point. Jayo [
Jason Sherlock] came on for me and got two points.’ Others were more impressed. The manager of the time,
Tommy Lyons, stuck with the young prodigy as Dublin embarked on a memorable Championship run that ended in agony in the All-Ireland semi-final when they lost to Armagh by a point. But the Brogan bloodline was back with the Dubs. A new career was born.

In the years since the Carlow game Alan has become one of the most celebrated forwards of his generation and has been joined on the Dublin team by his brothers Bernard and Paul. The younger Brogans have both had to battle with serious injury during their careers. Bernard has already established himself as a footballer and athlete of great power and skill; Paul was recalled to the Dublin squad in 2010 and is being nursed back to full health after a serious knee injury. The three brothers have played together with Dublin in the O’Byrne Cup and will surely share the county dressing-room for a few years to come. Their parents Bernard and Maria still attend every game, lending support. A new generation of the Brogan dynasty is also making the journey to Croke Park and other venues. Jamie, Alan’s young son with his partner Lydia (they will marry at the end of 2010), is his dad’s greatest supporter these days.

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The Brogan’s were Navan Road people and that meant they were Oliver Plunkett’s players. It was a junior club in the early 1970s, a time when whatever little limelight shone on Dublin football sent its rays across the northside to the bigger clubs like St Vincent’s. You were guaranteed good fun and good mentoring when you played with Plunkett’s, but with that came a degree of anonymity that did not enhance a young man’s chances of playing for Dublin. Bernard Brogan was a nineteen-year-old student in 1974 when
Kevin Heffernan was plotting the Dublin revolution. Heffo heard about this youngster on the Navan Road. He went for a look and liked what he saw. But playing for Dublin at the time wasn’t like playing for Dublin today. Bernard was a serious student and was reluctant to make a commitment. However, he quickly learned that
Heffo didn’t understand the word ‘no’ and as the bandwagon began to roll in that unforgettable summer, Bernard was jostling for a starting place, recovering from injury and giving
Heffernan difficult selection choices. In the Leinster semi-final against Offaly he was going well when he suffered a serious knee injury. It took him seven months to recover.

In his career with Dublin he started as a forward, but it was when he was partnered with
Brian Mullins at midfield that Bernard became one of the most respected participants in what has been termed the golden age of Gaelic football. The rivalry that developed between Dublin and Kerry is the most written about in the game and Bernard played a major part in the story. For a period during that era he lived in Kerry and met his wife, Maria Keane Stack from Listowel.

Bernard’s brother Jim also broke into the Dublin panel. It is said on the Navan Road and elsewhere in the county that if there hadn’t been a corner back as good as
Gay O’Driscoll around at the time that Jim would have featured much more prominently for the county. He did play as a substitute in the 1977 All-Ireland final and was at centre half back for the 1978 National League final.

By the end of the 1975 the
Mullins-Brogan midfield partnership had been cemented. Though Dublin lost the All-Ireland final to Kerry, they re-grouped and won the 1976 and 1977 Championships. In the midst of that series of matches was the famous 1977 All-Ireland semi-final in which Kerry were again the opponents. Regarded today as one of the greatest games of football ever played, it featured a spectacular goal from Bernard which helped seal Dublin’s victory.

It was an era of great midfielders. The All Star list of honours for the period proves that – Liam Sammon,
Willie Bryan,
Mick O’Connell,
John O’Keeffe,
Denis Long, Dermot Earley,
Paudie Lynch,
Colm McAlarney,
Brian Mullins,
Dave McCarthy,
Joe Kernan, Tomás Connor and
Jack O’Shea. Bernard Brogan joined the All Stars honours list in 1979. Dublin had lost a second consecutive All-Ireland final to Kerry that year, but Brogan’s contribution to their season secured the All Star award for him.

Bernard’s career with Dublin had ended by the time he and Maria started a family. Alan was born in 1982, Bernard junior arrived three years later and then Paul followed. As kids they regularly pulled out the old videos and watched the great games featuring their father. They were also fascinated by the videos of Bernard’s successful involvement in the television programme,
The Superstars
, in which prominent sportsmen competed against each other in a variety of events. Bernard was national champion in 1979 and competed with distinction in the international series.

From an early age all three boys showed a healthy interest in sport. Bernard and Maria had set up home in Castleknock. The local club was St Brigid’s, but it could not be counte-nanced that the young Brogan’s would play for anyone other than Oliver Plunkett’s. They attended St Declan’s school, where their football education was furthered. And they became very aware from an early stage of the legacy their famous father had left them. Like all sons of famous footballers they became accustomed to the comparisons and the questions. Even today Alan reckons the question he is most often asked concerns his father and whether Bernard’s senior’s achievements exerted pressure on the shoulders of his sons. ‘The thing is,’ he explains, ‘there was never any pressure from our father. He let us do what we wanted. He encouraged us in every way no matter what sport we decided to play. And he went to every game whether it was Gaelic or soccer. He let us make up our own minds about what we wanted to do and he supported us fully.’

As well as Gaelic football, the boys played soccer for Castleknock Celtic and Bernard senior coached some of the soccer teams. They were good soccer players too. But the lure of Gaelic football proved strongest. Another major influence was the involvement of their uncle Jim with the Dublin football team from 1991 to 1995 as a selector. That had a particular impact on Alan who recalls his uncle getting him access to the Dublin dressing-room in Croke Park after they had won the All-Ireland title in 1995. It gave him an even greater sense of what football and success could mean.

In St Declan’s Alan began to attract notice on his own merit, while the Brogan name brought added attention. He played on a decent team that included
Barry Cahill, Declan Lally and Kevin Bonnar, all future Dublin players. In 1999 they reached the Leinster Colleges semi-final, but were beaten. Alan was suspended for that game having been sent off in the quarter-final and old teachers still give him a hard time about it when they meet.

The Dublin minor selectors quickly added him to their squad and the team reached the Leinster final, beating Wexford in a replay. Despite losing to Down in the All-Ireland semi-final, after another replay, Alan Brogan had made his first tentative steps in an inter-county football career and the Brogan name was again on the lips of Dublin fans.

Bernard followed his older brother’s early forays with Dublin with natural enthusiasm. He was still playing soccer with Castleknock, but watching Alan fuelled his enthusiasm for the Gaelic variety of football. Though he carried his father’s famous name, Bernard junior never felt any real pressure. ‘Of course, there was a little bit,’ he explains, ‘but the fact that Alan was there for a few years before I came along took the pressure off me really. It was more difficult for him because he was bringing the Brogan name back to Dublin. People were used to it when I starting playing. It would have been hard for him, but you can see how well he coped. He has been the outstanding Dublin footballer for nearly ten years, always performed on the big day.’

In his second year playing under-21 football for Dublin, 2002, Alan played in his first All-Ireland final. Attitudes to the grade had changed dramatically in the capital since its inception. Strangely Dublin had rarely made an impact at under-21 level since the introduction of the Championship in 1965. Only twice in the history of the competition had they reached the All-Ireland final, in 1975 and 1980. At the start of the twenty-first century there was a greater focus on the under-21 team. A talented group that included
Stephen Cluxton,
Paul Griffin,
Paul Casey,
Bryan Cullen,
Darren Magee,
Conal Keaney, Declan Lally,
Tomás ‘Mossy’ Quinn and Alan won the Leinster title, but lost to a strong Galway team in the final.

Alan had been drafted into the Dublin senior squad at the start of 2002. His first senior game was against Donegal in Parnell Park. He scored a goal and three points. Throughout the season the manager,
Tommy Lyons, threw a protective shield around the young player, who could not resist attracting notice with the maturity he was displaying on the field and the consistency of his scoring returns. The World Cup might have overshadowed his Championship debut that summer when just 8,000 supporters turned up in Carlow, but by 23 June the Dubs had packed Hill 16 for a provincial semi-final joust with Meath, the defending champions, played in front of 65,868 patrons. Dublin won by seven points, 2–11 to 0–10.
Ray Cosgrove scored 2–3, while Alan scored three points. World Cup! What World Cup?

By 7 July the fever was rising. Dublin and Kildare came face to face in the Leinster final. Just over 78,000 supporters thronged Croke Park. They witnessed a titanic struggle and a goal from Alan that he still regards as one of the highlights of his career. It came in the second half and inspired Dublin’s victory. He also scored two points.
Cosgrove continued on his scoring spree and contributed 1–3. Dublin won by 2–13 to 2–11. Alan had his first Leinster Senior Football Championship medal and an early taste of a career playing in front of packed houses in the spanking new Croke
Park.

They needed a replay to beat Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-final and went forward to meet one of the new powers of football, Armagh, in the semi-final. It was yet another tight struggle. Alan gave the pass that set up
Ciaran Whelan’s goal. With less than ten minutes remaining Dublin led by two points. Armagh fought back and scored two points to level the game. With four minutes of normal time left,
Oisín McConville fisted a point to give Armagh the lead. Dublin pressed for an equaliser.
Cosgrove, who enjoyed a brilliant season for Dublin, narrowly missed a late free. Dublin lost by a point. A total of 387,642 people had passed through the turnstiles that summer to see Dublin play. It would become a familiar pattern over the rest of the decade.