![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_Sean-Bugler.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDublin may be struggling near the bottom of Division 1 but all their focus is on the Championship, says Sean Bugler.<\/p>\n
Dublin GAA Media Event, Croke Park, Dublin 16\/2\/2026
\nSean Bugler
\nMandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/Tom Maher(Image: \u00a9INPHO\/Tom Maher)<\/p>\n
Sean Bugler believes Ger Brennan\u2019s new-look Dublin can win the All-Ireland. The versatile forward, a central figure when Dublin last lifted Sam under Dessie Farrell in 2023, has bought fully into Brennan\u2019s reboot.<\/p>\n
And even if the League table suggests turbulence \u2014 one win from three in Division One <\/a>\u2014 Bugler insists the bigger picture is clearer inside the camp than it is outside. This is not decline, he says. It is recalibration.<\/p>\n Last year Dublin<\/a> lost their Leinster crown for the first time in 15 seasons and drifted through a second summer without Sam Maguire. For most counties, that would qualify as respectable. For Dublin, it was a tremor. Now Ger Brennan is on the sideline<\/a> and the reset button has been pressed. But Brennan bristles at one particular word.<\/p>\n Transition. He doesn\u2019t like that word because it suggests you can\u2019t win. And this new generation of Dubs HAVE confidence.<\/a><\/p>\n Bugler says: \u201cWe fully believe we can win an All-Ireland this year. As a group, we all believe it. We\u2019ve new lads coming in, finding their feet, really pushing on. Joe Quigley comes on at the weekend, makes his debut, scores a goal and wins the game for us against Monaghan. That\u2019s what we\u2019re building. We know the potential that\u2019s in there. It\u2019s about showing it week in, week out.\u201d<\/p>\n Consistency. That\u2019s the word Bugler returns to. Not legacy. Not history.<\/a><\/p>\n Consistency.<\/p>\n Division One has become a bear pit. The margins microscopic. Dublin glanced at the table this week and saw congestion everywhere \u2014 teams stacked on two or three points, the middle ground shifting with every result. \u201cOne win and you\u2019re right up there,\u201d Bugler says. \u201cBut we\u2019re focused on Championship. The League is about performances, about ironing things out. Our main eye is on the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n That summer gaze is deliberate. Brennan has used the League as a laboratory, testing combinations, handing out debuts, subtly reminding decorated veterans that CVs count for nothing. After the Mayo defeat, Brennan publicly warned that no player should feel safe, no matter what medals lie in their drawer. James McCarthy, watching from the outside, suggested Brennan was \u201cratting a few cages\u201d.<\/p>\n Inside the camp, the cages rattled exactly as intended. \u201cIt\u2019s a clean slate,\u201d Bugler says. \u201cThe management team don\u2019t really care who you are. You need to be performing week in, week out to get a starting jersey. That\u2019s good. There\u2019s a nice bit of bite and aggression in training now.\u201d<\/p>\n He pauses. \u201cGer didn\u2019t mean anything bad by it. He just wants the best out of the group. It was a wake-up call. Even for myself. For the senior lads. We have to set the standard. The new lads are looking at us. If we drop it, everything drops.\u201d<\/p>\n Bugler has been around long enough to understand how quickly standards erode. He joined the panel in 2018, made his first start in 2019 and when Dublin reclaimed Sam in 2023 he became one of Farrell\u2019s trusted men. But trust, in Brennan\u2019s Dublin, must be renewed weekly.<\/p>\n And rightly so because the wound that still smarts in the Dublin dressing room is Meath.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s Leinster defeat was seismic. Dublin do not lose in Leinster. Or at least, they hadn\u2019t for a decade and a half. Bugler was injured that day but felt the blow just the same.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a killer,\u201d he admits. \u201cI felt the group was in a really good place. To lose to Meath is never enjoyable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a wake-up call. You have to be on your game. Louth are coming strong. Meath are going well. Kildare too. Nothing is guaranteed now. We\u2019ll be aiming to win Leinster this year and we won\u2019t take anything for granted.\u201d The Galway game that followed Meath became a line in the sand. Three or four sharp weeks of training. Standards lifted. Edges sharpened.<\/p>\n That edge has carried into this League campaign, even if the results have lagged behind the intent. Donegal. Mayo. Defeats that revealed flaws. Then Monaghan last Saturday \u2014 tight, scrappy, imperfect.<\/p>\n But two points. \u201cIn Division One, two points are hard earned,\u201d Bugler says. \u201cWe were happy with certain aspects. But there\u2019s loads to clean up.\u201d Shot efficiency in the first half was below par. Monaghan found joy around Dublin\u2019s kickout in the second. Brennan has clipped those moments and fed them back into training.<\/p>\n That is the League\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n Now comes Kerry at Croke Park this Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re All-Ireland champions for a reason,\u201d Bugler says of Kerry. \u201cUnbelievable footballers all over the pitch. Around the middle third, athletically they\u2019re very strong.\u201d He references the growing impact of the two-pointer \u2014 Kerry embraced it on the biggest day last July. \u201cThey went after it and nailed them in the final. The rest of us are chasing them.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no false modesty in that assessment. Dublin understand the hierarchy. They also believe it is temporary. \u201cThere\u2019s a nice rivalry there,\u201d Bugler says. \u201cIt\u2019s carried on the last number of years. We\u2019re buzzing for Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n Buzzing. It sounds simple. But in February, with the league table congested and new faces bedding in, buzz matters. Because this Dublin does not see itself as fading. Bugler talks about potential not as a vague promise but as a responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to show it week in, week out,\u201d he says again. That is the task now. Not reminiscing about 2023. Not mourning Leinster 2025. Not fearing Kerry 2026. But making their own history.<\/p>\n Dublin vs Kerry, Croke Park, this Saturday at 7pm. Tickets available from gaa.ie<\/a><\/p>\n