{"id":503923,"date":"2026-06-17T07:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:24:35","slug":"darragh-o-se-ger-brennan-has-made-a-big-mistake-ahead-of-donegal-clash-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503923\/","title":{"rendered":"Darragh \u00d3 S\u00e9: Ger Brennan has made a big mistake ahead of Donegal clash \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin were always going to play Donegal in Croke Park. I know there may have been some butting of heads between the GAA and the Dublin County Board this summer, but let\u2019s call a spade a spade here. There was no chance of it going to Parnell Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The difference between the number of people who can go to a match in Parnell and the number who will go to this one is probably at least 25,000. I\u2019d say that\u2019s a conservative guess. At \u20ac25 a go and a fiver for juveniles, you\u2019re talking about over half-a-million euro the GAA would be leaving on the table. Tom Ryan and Peter McKenna would get some fright if they heard that was happening.<\/p>\n

But leaving all that aside, I think it\u2019s a bad look for Ger Brennan to be even bringing the idea up in the first place. I totally understood Kildare doing the \u201cNewbridge or nowhere\u201d<\/a> thing. Or Antrim making sure Armagh<\/a> went to Corrigan Park, or Louth insisting on Inniskeen<\/a>. I get all that. You\u2019re allowed to do those things when you\u2019re up and coming and you\u2019re fighting for every inch.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, though \u2013 there are certain counties where that stuff doesn\u2019t fly. I come from one of them and so does Ger Brennan. You can\u2019t be Dublin or Kerry and go around pretending you\u2019re the small guy. It never rings true and nobody buys it.<\/p>\n

The most important group of people who don\u2019t buy it are your players. If Dublin are going to do anything for the rest of this championship, it\u2019s going to be on the back of the fellas who\u2019ve won them All-Irelands in the past. It\u2019s Con O\u2019Callaghan, Ciar\u00e1n Kilkenny, Cormac Costello and all the rest of them. To them, Parnell Park is a place for club matches. Croke Park is where they play for Dublin.<\/p>\n

If it was an ex-player or something, fine. But at a time when every other footballer in the country is trying to make it to Croke Park, it makes no sense for the Dublin manager to be looking to bring his team in the opposite direction. To me, that sends out the wrong message. It\u2019s basically telling the rest of the country that Dublin have lost one of the things that was always an advantage to them.<\/p>\n

\"ConCon O\u2019Callaghan sends the ball forward against Cavan at Breffni Park last Sunday – and the Dubs will need him at his best against Donegal. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Why give the opposition that help? Imagine Jim McGuinness in team meetings this week and in the dressingroom on Sunday. The Dubs don\u2019t fancy this, boys. They don\u2019t want to be here. They want to get out of this place.<\/p>\n

Croke Park is where you win All-Irelands. That\u2019s the long and short of it. I\u2019d say Donegal are delighted to be going there at this stage. The All-Ireland final is in 5\u00bd weeks. Donegal need all the practice they can get in that stadium.<\/p>\n

Apart from anything, they actually don\u2019t have a huge amount of big wins to shout about in Croke Park since Jim came back. They beat Monaghan and Meath there last year and Louth the previous year. All three counties were having decent seasons but at the same time, they were Division Two teams. Donegal fell short each time as soon as they played a Division One team in Croke Park.<\/p>\n

All the more reason for Dublin to want to go after them now. I can see Dublin raising their game on Sunday. O\u2019Callaghan is back and looks fit and healthy. Peadar \u00d3 Cofaigh Byrne will be important around the middle. Donegal are probably the better team overall but they\u2019ve lost to Down and Cork already this summer. The Dubs shouldn\u2019t fear them at all.<\/p>\n

But I think they\u2019ve given up a psychological edge here and it will be hard to get it back. Donegal will focus on O\u2019Callaghan in the way they focused on the two Cliffords in Killarney. They will take away Dublin\u2019s match-winner and tell the rest of Brennan\u2019s players they\u2019re going to have to do it without him.<\/p>\n

I can see it ending in one of two ways. Either the Dubs keep it close and they force Donegal to snap to attention but just come up short, or Donegal come out sore after making a mess of it against Cork and win by a cricket score. Either way, Donegal to win.<\/p>\n

\"GavinGavin White celebrates scoring a late goal for Kerry in their victory against Kildare at St Conleth’s Park, Kildare, last Saturday. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

In Killarney on Saturday, it\u2019s going to be a huge game between Kerry and Armagh. We can moan all we like about the season being so rushed and not having the time to breathe and whatever else. But there\u2019s going to be a real edge to this one \u2013 whoever loses better take a good look around because they won\u2019t be seeing each other again until November.<\/p>\n

I feel some of Kerry\u2019s injuries are clearing up at the right time. It looks unlikely that Se\u00e1n O\u2019Shea or Tom O\u2019Sullivan will be back for this, but getting Gavin White and Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich into the team last weekend was significant. Joe O\u2019Connor is back and bouncing away. That gives Kerry a very different look from the team that lost to Donegal.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d love to have Shane Ryan back but Shane Murphy is doing well in goals. His kickouts were very good the last day, but it\u2019s always worth remembering every goalie is only as good as the fellas he\u2019s kicking out to. That\u2019s where the likes of the two O\u2019Connors and White come in. The two Cliffords are able to benefit from a bit more space once the top Kerry players are back as well. It\u2019s a rising tide that lifts all boats.<\/p>\n

I fancy Kerry here. Killarney will play open and wide. Armagh got caught by Louth but they shouldn\u2019t have put themselves in that position in the first place and could pay for their carelessness. There won\u2019t be much in it but I\u2019ll go for Kerry at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin were always going to play Donegal in Croke Park. I know there may have been some butting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6937,20803,6342,2179,110979,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-503923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-armagh-gaa","tag-donegal-gaa","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-football-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}