Fenton aware of how privileged he is
Dublin are a special team and Fenton is leading the way
THE ugly blue swelling underneath his eye might not suggest as much, but Brian Fenton has become the poster boy for Dublin’s state of perfection.
That mark, picked up in the opening minute of last Sunday’s All-Ireland final when Tyrone dialled up the heat on him by dispatching Conor Meyler on a manmarking job, is the only blemish on a perfect career the likes the GAA has never witnessed before.
Four years and 27 Championship games later — he was rested for the dead rubber against Roscommon this summer — he still does not know what a Championship defeat tastes like.
There is no-one out there with a record that comes near.
Charlie Nelligan, Kerry’s goalkeeper in the county’s golden era of the 1970s and 80s, was unbeaten in his first 19 starts; a run which ended when Seamus Darby’s looped kick went beyond his reach in the 1982 All-Ireland final. But he had already tasted defeat before he had become a starter, coming in as a substitute for Paudie O’Mahony in the first half of the 1976 final.
So Fenton has no rival for that record, but such is this Dublin team’s aversion to defeat that his fear of losing plays for real.
It is something the 25-year-old picked up on immediately when he walked into the Dublin dressing room for the first time in the autumn of 2014, when he felt the soreness of a group that were stinging from that summer’s semi-final defeat to Donegal.
That game is regarded as the tipping point in the journey which took Dublin from being a very good team to perhaps the greatest of them all.
And that sense of disappointment and desperation to put it right was so strong that the rookie from Raheny picked up on it straight away.
‘I was called in at the end of 2014 for a charity game up the north for Anto Finnegan and certainly the hurt from that was well and truly there at the time,’ recalls Fenton. ‘It was there and it was talked about.
‘I suppose it’s a long time ago now and I don’t like to dwell on it but it’s been the driving factor for a lot of our recent successes, I would say.
‘We talked about it in the past few weeks prior to this year’s final, how hurt can be a motivational factor.
‘You look at Tyrone staying out on the pitch on Sunday after the game was over and taking it all in and they’re standing there saying, “We don’t want to be in that position again” so, for them, it’s about what sort of motivation can you use to get you over the line next year.
‘For me, I sort of buzzed off that hurt because I felt it from the lads that were there and that had experienced it,’ he explains.
Even Dublin’s second-degree hurt is more powerful than the pain they have dealt out first hand to others.
But it is that fear of losing and awareness of the privilege that these are the footballing times of their lives which keeps them rooted and driven. And there are always reminders that this is not going to last for ever.
The departure of Diarmuid Connolly from the panel and Bernard Brogan’s ruptured cruciate served as sobering reminders that things can change quickly.
But then they hardly needed to be shocked into recognising that core truth.
‘Big time,’ admits Fenton. ‘Jim’s always reminding us — we’re so lucky to be in this position.
‘And then when you see what happened to Bernard and Dermot going away, we know how special this is. Me and my Dad are always talking about how lucky I am to be fit and healthy and young and to play with Dublin, and play in Croke Park. It’s incredible.
‘We’re all very aware of how lucky we are.
‘And then you want to do those lads justice who have not been as lucky; to see Cian [O’Sullivan] going off injured having worked so hard to get back for the final was hard.
‘We know we have to pick up the pace and do those lads justice when see something like that happen.
‘Jack [McCaffrey] talked to us about how last year, when he got injured, how thankful he was to the rest of us to see the game through and to get him the medal. That was lovely to hear.
Sweeter no doubt than what reddened his ears as Tyrone, recognising just how pivotal he is to Dublin’s cause, detailed Meyler to shadow him in open play last Sunday.
It is not the first time it has happened — last year Kerry’s Jack Barry shadowed him relentlessly in a regular round League match in Tralee and in the final later that spring.
‘You have to take it as a sort of a confidence thing rather than anything negative,’ suggests the midfielder.
‘But it’s tough, certainly, when a man is just there put in front of you to talk the talk and say different things to you, grab your neck and this, that and the other. But look, you have to take that as it comes.’