BROGAN SAVIORS WINNING FEELING

Bernard Brogan struggled to articulate his emotions after the dramatic All-Ireland final win over Kerry.

After all, it was a completely new feeling for the Footballer of the Year, who contributed six points to Dublin’s total in a compelling game.

In the end, it was the man he spent hour after hour practicing frees on the training pitch with, goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton, who was Dublin’s hero with the winning point in added time, but such was Brogan’s joy at the final whistle those dramatic final moments were a blur.

“I couldn’t believe it after the game,” said the 2010 Footballer of the Year. “I didn’t know where I was, I had to ask who scored the last point. Emotions took over and I couldn’t understand what had happened.

“It was a feeling I had never felt before obviously but it’s an unbelievable feeling. They had to pull me off the pitch and the stewards had to ask me to leave.

“I was sitting on the centre circle, I didn’t want to leave. It’s a feeling that you don’t get very often and I wanted to soak up every second of it.”

Brogan says he never doubted Cluxton would nail the free that would win the game in added time.

“We’ve been in kicking practice all year, for the last nine months," he said. "‘Clucko’ has been kicking frees from that spot and I never had a shadow of a doubt that he was going to kick it and I knew that it was going over the black spot.

“He’s got a great mental ability to kick them without any nerves. It shows his strength. He’s an unbelievable talent and we are lucky to have him.”

Despite falling 1-10 to 0-9 behind with seven minutes left, Brogan says he never felt the game was gone from them, especially after the comeback they staged in the semi-final win over Donegal.

“Obviously we weren’t in a great position, but if you look back at the Donegal game they were three points up which is the equivalent of about six or seven point.

“So I said we have done this before. Kevin McManamon is after coming off the bench. He was always going to go at players and I knew that something would come. In fairness to the man he has been unbelievable all year and I am delighted for him today.”

He also paid tribute to his older brother, Alan, who scored two points from play and strengthened claims to keep the Player of the Year award in the Brogan household with another superb performance.

“I’m delighted for Alan who has given 10 years of Trojan work. He must be in line for Footballer of the Year,” Bernard said.

“Last year, me and Pat (Gilroy) had a chat after I had won Player of the Year and he said: ‘Congratulations, I am delighted, but we have to back to square one. My dream next year is to win an All-Ireland against Kerry and Alan is Player of the Year’.

“We are nearly there. Half way there.”