Sport
Bernard Brogan: Let's win it for Alan
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- Category: Sport
- Published on Friday, 15 April 2011 10:32
Bernard Brogan says Dublin want to win a first Allianz Football League title since 1993 for his brother, Alan, who is suspended for the final on Sunday week.
Alan Brogan will miss the final clash with Cork on April 24 after he was sent off in the draw with Galway last Sunday. He has decided not to appeal the referee's decision.
The eldest of the three Brogan brothers was shown a straight red card just seven minutes into a game that was effectively meaningless for the Dubs as they had already qualified for the final.
Bernard Brogan, the Footballer of the Year, admits that his older brother is ‘devastated’ to miss Dublin’s first appearance in a League final since 1993.
“(He is) hugely disappointed,” said Bernard, who was speaking at an event promoting Kinect Sports for Xbox 360 in Dublin on Thursday. “The whole family is. It was a bit of a nothing incident.
“He’s been waiting ten years to play in a League final. He was really looking forward to it. Hopefully, we can go out there and bring it back for him.
“He was devastated. He left early. I didn’t even speak to him. I haven’t seen him shook like that for a while. As everybody knows, his discipline record is immaculate. It’s hugely disappointing. We were already in the final.”
According to Brogan, Dublin are on target to achieve the goal they set of reaching the Allianz League final at the start of the year.
It will be their first Allianz League final appearance since 1999 – a game they lost to their opponents on Sunday week, Cork.
The last times the sides met was in Round 2 of the Allianz League in February, with Dublin won by 3-13 to 0-16 on the opening night of the 'Spring Series' in Croke Park.
The 2010 Footballer of the Year says the reigning All-Ireland and Allianz League champions will be an entirely different proposition when they put their title on the line at GAA Headquarters.
“Other years, Dublin have focused on player rotation,” he adds. “This year we said we wanted to be as competitive as we can. We set out stall out at the start of the year to win every game and to try and get to the league final. We’ve gotten there now so this is bonus territory for us.
“We’re going to be going up against a Cork side that are going to be gathering a bit of momentum. When we played them at the start of the year, they were only back from their holidays so it will be a different game. A huge challenge.”