Now? Connolly can see Brennan as a Dublin candidate sometime down the line as his apprenticeship, not yet a year old, with Louth soars higher.
“Gerry Brennan is certainly one to look at,” acknowledged Connolly, speaking at a Boylesports promotion to preview the All-Ireland quarter-finals this weekend.
“Gerry was a bit left field for me,” added Connolly of his old club colleague who has Niall Moyna – a former All-Ireland-winning coach with St Vincent’s and Dublin when Brennan and Connolly were playing – involved in Louth.
“I knew he was going into management. I knew he was involved in the GAA over at UCD. Gerry has been involved in a lot of sports. Rugby would have been a big game of his growing up, [with] Gaelic football and soccer.
“He’s from the inner city, soccer would have been a huge game for him. You can nearly see it in the way he sets up his teams. He has a real thinking mindset. He is playing with what he has at the moment. If he had a couple more forwards, he would play a different system.”
Connolly says Brennan has done a “phenomenal job” and feels Moyna will have brought much to the set-up, too.
“The influence of Niall Moyna, and even Mickey Whelan and Pat Gilroy. I’m sure they’ve been shoulders he’s been able to lean on and voices he could speak to and ask about certain situations.
“They’re really hard to beat, they’re not shipping big scores. That would be akin to Gerry Brennan and how he’d set up his defences. Similar to Vincent’s and Dublin, we were always really hard to beat at the back. That would be central to his thinking. We saw what they did on the kick-outs at Croke Park against Dublin in the Leinster final.
“They pretty much conceded every one of them and said, ‘Right, let’s see what you have’. I can see something similar happening against Donegal, but I think Donegal might have a little bit more firepower than Cork did.”
From the Dublin dressing room he knew, Connolly identified future management material in other colleagues.
“Jonny Cooper is into performance and coaching, that side of things. He can do whatever he wants, he’s one of those people. If he puts his mind to anything, he’ll do it. He has a very singular mindset in his career and even in the way he played football and conducted himself. He’ll be right up there,” suggested Connolly.
“Darren Daly has put in the last couple of years with Dublin in the background coaching the defensive structure.
“Bryan Cullen is obviously an S&C guy and a master in sports science. Kevin McManamon is another guy who is in there around the Dublin squad, psychology.
“It’s really up to them who wants to do that sort of thing. That’s a lifestyle choice, the way inter-county management and even club management is. It consumes your whole life.”
Daly’s prominence as a current Dublin coach has grown during Farrell’s tenure and Connolly sees much merit in that initial choice by Farrell.
“He wasn’t one of the stand-out guys but anytime he was leaned on or asked to do anything, he did it to the letter.”
Connolly has stressed the benefits for the group winners in having last weekend off ahead of the quarter-finals, where Dublin play Galway.
“Just to regroup where you’re not talking about any opposition. You’re probably talking about only yourselves for that week and I think that’ll bring the Dublin squad on a little bit.”
Connolly feels Mick Fitzsimons will continue to benefit from playing games, even as signs of him coming under pressure against Mayo were evident last time. “He has been written off a couple of times, even as recently as last year’s All-Ireland final and talk of whether Clifford would get the better of him.
“It didn’t happen for David Clifford that day, but I’ve watched Mick Fitzsimons and he’s the sort of guy who needs games. He’s played a lot of games for Dublin this season already.”
Connolly also feels Jack McCaffrey will do well to play 100 more minutes, provided Dublin play three more championship games to an All-Ireland final, but will still make a significant impact in that time.
“I don’t think Jack has 70 minutes, the body doesn’t have 70 minutes, we see it breaking down fairly regularly and Dublin can’t risk that at this stage of the season. There are [potentially] three games left. If Jack can play 100 minutes, I’d say that would be a lot.
“Jack going on for the last 20 minutes full of energy in Croke Park. If I was an opposition player, that is not what I would like to see, but for Dublin, if they need it, he gives that impetus to go forward.”
Diarmuid Connolly and Michael Murphy teamed up with BoyleSports to preview this weekend’s action at the Croke Park Hotel. Get paid out early if your team goes seven points ahead, even if they draw or lose
