BERNARD BROGAN has flatly rejected the idea of handing Dublin a free pass to the Leinster SFC semi-finals in a bid to improve overall competitiveness in the province.
Leinster Council chairman John Horan revealed after Dublin’s 27-point demolition of Longford that a seeding arrangement involving the five in-a-row chasing Dubs is under consideration. Dubliner Horan suggested that, if the Dubs entered the Championship a round later, other teams would have more time to build up a head of steam to realistically take them on.
From Dublin’s perspective, it would mean they could win an All-Ireland title in just five games, one fewer than the six they played in both their 2011 and 2013 triumphs. That may slightly increase their Championship chances on paper, although Brogan says the reality is they already play too few games in the Championship.
He said an ideal Championship campaign would contain up to a dozen games and said the idea of playing a maximum of five in any one summer is a real turn-off.
“Well, I wouldn’t be in favour of it because that’s one less game – I’d be saying ‘Give us more games’,” said Brogan.
“I certainly wouldn’t be saying give us less games. The Dublin fans want to come out and watch the Dubs playing. They don’t want to have fewer games.
“I know the reasoning behind it. But I think if there’s a way of getting more games into the calendar that’s more what we’re looking for, as players. We go out and play at Croke Park and love every bit of it.
“We’re amateur, we work all day and we train in the evenings and the mornings, so we’re playing the game because we love it. So don’t take games away from us, give us more games.
“I know the League is great and we’ve gone after it the last few years, I do like the League and am obviously delighted to get the medals.But the Championship, if you win all your games at the moment that’s six games. I’d love to play 10 games, 12 games.
“Put two weeks in between the games and let us play a load of games, whatever that structure is, and roll on. There’s no reason for us to be sitting out for four weeks and the club lads sitting out for four months without playing a game.”
