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10th August 2025
10:58am BST
Former Dublin star Ger Brennan was recently announced as the new manager of the Dublin senior footballers.
His appointment has been well received, largely due to Brennan's overwhelming success as boss of Louth, which saw them lift this year's Leinster SFC title, their first in 68 years, and reach last year's final.
After leaving the Wee County this summer, Brennan was seen as the early favourite to take over from Dessie Farrell, following the latter's six-year reign with the Sky Blues.
However, Declan Darcy, who was a defensive coach and selector for Dublin under Jim Gavin, recently became the frontrunner for the job.
This made Brennan's appointment on Friday seem like a relative surprise, with his former teammate and four-time All-Star, Paul Flynn, questioning the hiring process.
He said: "To me it just seemed a little bit ad hoc. It's funny when you're looking in, there wasn't even an awareness that there was a process ongoing.
"It just kind of was happening in the shadows a little bit. Not sure exactly who the county board spoke to or what options were there.
"I think there'd be a lot of humility with Ger, and I think that's going to be really important in this role.
"I think it's going to be important for everybody in Dublin GAA because the team he's inheriting is not the team that Dessie inherited. There's a lot of work that needs to be done at the squad level, and at the underage level where we're not competing, so there's not that conveyor belt that people thought was never ending in Dublin
"It's actually more akin to the team that Pat Gilroy picked up when he had to take on the challenge to try and build character in the group to start with and then layer on the quality
"I'm sure Pat, a good club man of his will be there as a mentor whenever it's needed. I'm not sure if he's even going to be involved of any nature but he'll certainly be there to guide Ger.
"That'll be helpful because what Pat did when he came in was really about resetting things and trying to work from the bottom up."
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