COSGROVE: I CANNOT SEE ANY BROGAN PROMISES IN DUBLIN CAMP
RAY COSGROVE reckons an All-ireland final swansong for Bernard Brogan is unlikely.
Brogan made a very brief cameo appearance off the bench in
Dublin’s dead rubber ‘Super 8s’ romp against Roscommon, just 23 weeks after undergoing surgery for a cruciate knee ligament injury.
However, he didn’t feature in the matchday 26 for the All-ireland semi-final win over Galway.
As such, former Dublin star Cosgrove (inset) isn’t optimistic about
Brogan’s chances of making the bench for
Sunday week’s
All-ireland final against
Tyrone, after which the
34-year-old could announce his retirement from inter-county football.
“It’s only five and a half months and Dublin are going to have to have their strongest, fittest 26 fellas available to them,” said Cosgrove at the launch of his club Kilmacud Crokes All-ireland sevens tournament, which takes place on September 1.
“Whether Bernard is in that position I honestly don’t know but I certainly believe that Jim [Gavin] or the rest of the management team won’t take a chance on a guy that is only 80 or 90 per cent fit.
“He won’t be taking anything
for granted and he’ll want everyone 100 per cent fit in his match day 26.
“I think emotion is going to be taken out of it.”
Cosgrove added: “It just shows you the character of the guy to get back after five and a half months, the effort, the treatment, the physio, the additional work he would have done to get his body in shape.
“Even to come on and get a run would have been great. But the competition is so rife.
“When you look at the subs, the forwards especially; Cormac Costello, Paul Flynn, Kev Mcmanamon, they’re three guys that have had serious impacts since they’ve come on.
“Who knows, he might sneak into the 26 but for a guy who has only played a minute and a half, I think it would be a massive ask for him.”
Cosgrove was top scorer in the 2002 Championship, a campaign which proved to be a watershed in terms of Dublin attracting capacity crowds to Croke Park.
Yet that has been dwindling in recent years, to the point where just over 54,000 turned out for their recent All-ireland semi-final.
Cosgrove was there that day and said: “The atmosphere was a little more low key because the guys have been so dominant, especially in the provincial Championship.
“Obviously going for four-ina-row and the success of the last few years, the expectancy levels are high but a lot of people probably believe that Dublin have enough in the tank.
“And people who didn’t go to the semi-final were holding off to get to the final.
“I was walking down Jones’ Road going to Croke Park for the semifinal and it seemed like a League game. The attendance was so poor.
“I was really scratching my head thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’.
“For 54,000 to show up, it was disappointing from a Dublin fans’ perspective.
“Then you’ll have a lot of guys who will come out from under the woodwork for Sunday week and will be occupying seats in Croke Park.
“I’d love to know where those 30-odd thousand people have been and why they weren’t behind the team in the semifinal.”