It was the perfect ending to a career that has already passed into legend. Five months on from hitting that famous point into Hill 16 in the All-Ireland final win against Kerry, Alan Brogan talks exclusively to Alan Milton for GAA.ie.

As career ending cameos go, well you couldn’t really have scripted it any better.

A trademark up-field foray, sallying out of defence with his familiar toe tap, the space opening up out in front of him like the red sea.

The game still hung in the balance.

It would have been rude to halt the forward progression and he didn’t need to be asked twice.

That he gathered possession inside his own 21 yard line, soloed out using both feet, exchanged passes with his younger brother Bernard before dissecting the posts (it had to be at the Hill end) with a long range effort off his left side, shone a light on many of the skills that earned him a place alongside the best forwards of his generation.

That it was virtually Alan Brogan’s last contribution in the Sky Blue jersey of Dublin could hardly have been more fitting, delivering as it did another Celtic Cross on the back of another final success over Kerry on the day that matters most.

A certain brewer makes claims for finales with symmetry such as this.

Project blue for 2016 is already up and running and while in recent seasons he may not have fired from the get go, instead being eased back into the fray, there is a finality around it now that the remainder of the season will not feature Brogan’s deft skills and exquisite vision.

That has been dealt with and bookmarked. Time to move on and pursue other things.

Ironically the emotional post-match scenes that followed the Donegal semi-final defeat of 2014 meant some had retired him a year before he did that for himself.

Referring to the retirement reports of 2014 he said: “Yeah it came out of nowhere. Maybe people saw Jamie (son) on the pitch with me and they put two and two together but obviously I hadn’t made any decision at that stage. 

“It was an emotional time, he was probably more upset than I was and that set me off then. It’s nice to look back on it now considering what happened last year.

“I suppose after last year retiring at the end of 2015 was kind of in the back of my mind. After losing to Donegal the way we did, I didn’t want to leave it on those terms and after a bit of soul searching - my wife was having a baby last March so that was a factor as well - we said we would give it another go.

“I never really said this was the last year because I didn’t want to put the pressure on myself but I knew in the back of my mind I was certainly running out of road and I knew the way the game is gone in terms of the commitment to the gym and that sort of stuff that I just wasn’t going to be able to commit the time to it.

“In fairness to Jim Gavin we came to an agreement and I did some work in the gym and I went back to towards the middle of March, towards the end of the league. I was in the panel for the league final. I didn’t get on that day but I was happy enough with the way it all ended.”

Happy enough must be something of an understatement.

The length and span of Brogan’s stint in blue, not to mention the honours it yielded, may sometimes be overlooked.

The St Oliver Plunketts Eoghan Ruadh clubman made his championship debut alongside current team manager Gavin back in 2002 on a day when Dublin scraped past Wexford in Dr Cullen Park.

Plus ça change.

It was a fixture that became better known for the revelry of the travelling supporters, some of whom had been out and about since an early am World Cup assignment for the Irish soccer team which ended in a draw against Cameroon on the back of Matt Holland equaliser.

If it is filed away under low key debuts, it heralded Brogan’s introduction to inter-county championship football and spawned the continuation of the famed Brogan dynasty for another generation – at least.

Despite having played much of his underage football further back the field, Brogan opened his account that day with a point from the forward division before being replaced by Jason Sherlock in a game that saw Dublin advance with two points to spare.

While it was the start of the journey, in real terms that association with Dublin had started long before that.

Son of Bernard Snr, and nephew of Jim, Brogan and his siblings were always going to be immersed in lore of Dublin GAA. 

It might guarantee little - indeed nothing - in relation to progression, but Brogan was always conscious of the tradition.

The 1977 All-Ireland semi-final goal scored by his father against Kerry accompanied by the famous Micheál O’Hehir commentary centred on ‘drilling for oil’, is seared into the memory of Dubliners of a certain generation.

‘Decade of the Dubs’ tested the staying power of many a capital based VHS player.

Did it all weigh heavily on him after being handed a coveted Dublin jersey?

“No I don’t think it did,” he added. “I think the fact that we played in different positions probably was no harm. If we played in the same positions there might have been a lot more comparisons made but we are completely different footballers. He was a rangy midfielder, I wasn’t a rangy midfielder – slight difference.

“Just from being around with my dad I would have heard people speaking so fondly about it and even still anyone who is of that age would say “I remember your Dad playing” before they would even mention the current Dublin team. I think for a lot of people then it was probably a harder time in the city and that team in the 1970s gave a lot of people a way out from the everyday stress of life.

“I remember a few of the games around ‘92, ‘93, ‘94 when Jim was a selector obviously. I used to go to the games with my Dad. He would lift us up over the stiles myself and James Brogan (cousin) used to share a seat actually in the wooden Hogan Stand we would squeeze into a little chair together. 

“Probably the All-Ireland ‘95 was the first real vivid memory I have of watching Dublin. We went to lots of games with Jimmy as well, lots of club championship games around then. At the time we didn’t realise it but he was obviously scouting players and we would try to guess the scores on the way down and whoever guessed the score or got the closest score would get two quid on the way down so it was great. We were big into it. 

“From an early age I knew Dad had played. Obviously I was trying to ply my own trade, trying as hard as I could and I had been on development squads, u15, u16 and then on the minor team for a couple of years. 

“I knew I was getting there but I wasn’t sure how good I was to be honest with you. Obviously as a 15 or 16 year old it’s always your dream to play senior with Dublin and you’re looking up to these guys who are there already the likes of Jason Sherlock, Ciarán Whelan, these sort of guys, Paul Curran, Dessie Farrell was still playing at that stage so I’m looking up to these guys wondering can I get up there and play alongside them.”

He needn’t have worried and the impact under Tommy Lyons was immediate.

The Brogan connection didn’t just carry on with Alan’s elevation. It was consolidated further with the addition of brothers Bernard and later Paul.

The trio played on a number of occasion together shared in the delivery of honours on some of the more memorable days.

As Alan jokes now, it is more common for him to be referred to as ‘Bernard’s brother’ in contrast to the latter being referred to as his brother, as was the case at the outset.

If Bernard was something of a slow burner compared to Alan, he has more than made up for it.

The telepathy between them was impossible to ignore - evidenced in the cameo point alluded to heretofore.

If a glut of silverware flowed towards the end of his career, at one stage it appeared that his serious talent might not deliver the accolades that later materialised.

 

In stark contrast to the current run of the county, from 1995 and 2002 Dublin failed to come out on top in Leinster.

From the 1995 success until 2011, Dublin didn’t even contest an All-Ireland final.

Brogan still fondly recalls the 2002 Leinster final win celebrated more heartily than any since, ranking it alongside some of the stand out achievements that followed.

However, while the Leinster crown ended a provincial drought a number of heartbreaking defeats to Armagh, Tyrone, Kerry and Mayo in no particular order, dogged the Dubs.

Stitch in provincial reverses to Laois and Westmeath which were not well received in capital circles, and he saw the downside before the dizzy heights that followed.

During the barren spell Brogan was Dublin’s go-to man.

In many ways the county faithful were left to rue the fact that there was only one of him meaning he could either operate close to goal or more often than not further out the field where his link play and long range score taking had the capacity to bewilder friend and foe alike.

He mightn’t strike you as a paradigm of patience off hand but it was his perseverance that earned him the rewards that now decorate his playing CV.

Did he ever doubt the rewards would come and crucially an All-Ireland medal to go with the one he won at U21 level would ever arrive?

“No I wouldn’t say I thought that way,” he points out.

“I looked back every year just ready to give it another go and obviously to try and learn the lessons but I’m very much a “glass half full” man rather than a glass half empty so I always saw the positive in things.

“All you can do is keep going back and keep on believing, training hard and in fairness Pat (Gilroy) came in there, brought it up another notch in terms of training and stuff and we got some really good footballers through at that stage. Obviously Bernard started to come of age at that stage, Diarmuid Connolly came in, Paul Flynn so those guys brought us to another level.”

Another level indeed.

Three finals and three titles in five years - two of them against Kerry, a county that had tormented Dublin since the famed 1977 win Alan’s father scored in, has shifted the axis and brought the popularity of the games in Dublin city and county to unprecedented levels.

Alan more than played his role in that shift.

While he’s grappling with the additional free time his retirement has presented him with, coaching can wait for some time to come.

And so the wheel keeps turning.

Dublin’s well stocked division of forwards should see them remain in contention in the seasons to come.

What won’t be a feature of that push will be Brogan’s unmistakable gait, languid style and impish grin.

More is the pity but he walks away knowing he owes nothing to the Dublin cause or the game as a whole.

A long sought after county medal with his club would jump out as a serving glory.

Watch this space.