Confident Brogan focused on ultimate goal

Leinster SFC Quarter-final/Dublin v Meath:If their questionable league run, the haunting feeling of their last championship match and the fact they're facing old rivals Meath on Sunday have somehow weakened the Dublin football team's confidence it doesn't come across in Alan Brogan.

If anything he reckons Dublin are now at their peak, and the highs and lows of recent years can only benefit their ultimate quest for All-Ireland glory. After all, they are chasing a third successive Leinster title and no team in the province has been that dominant since Dublin last won the All-Ireland in 1995.

"That's our first aim," says Brogan, "to retain the Leinster title, and then ultimately win the All-Ireland. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. We'd be foolish to look anywhere beyond our first game, but of course we do speak about winning the All-Ireland. That's our goal.

"And I think we are maturing now, that the nucleus of this team is at that age, 26, 27. It's not like 2002, when we had a few 19- or 20-year-olds playing. So I do think we are coming to our peak. Now is the time to deliver. And I think, given our experiences now, we have to be a stronger team this year. Stronger upstairs, especially. And physically I know we are stronger."

Dublin haven't had much time to worry about Meath anyway, especially given Kildare were deemed to be their more likely opponents. But Meath won't be taken lightly, despite Dublin's winning record against them in 2005 and 2002.

"Well obviously we didn't see much of them in the league. They looked to have won the Division Two title, comfortably. Meath, I think, are a bit of a sleeping giant at the moment, and you never know what they'll come out with. But I do think it's starting to come together for them.

"It was always going to be a huge game, no matter if it was Meath or Kildare we were playing. We knew whoever won that match would be a huge challenge for us."

The former Meath manager Seán Boylan, when assembling his Irish team for the International Rules series last October, said he'd never come across a bunch of players more disappointed than Dublin, following their All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo. Brogan acknowledges the setback but he's clearly not being weighed down by it.

"That was a huge blow. But we met soon after, watched the video, and tried to put it to bed as soon as possible. There's no point in dwelling on these things, not when you can't do anything about it. All you can do is try to take the positives out of it, and we did learn a lot of lessons from that game. Harsh lessons.

"Hopefully we can use them to our advantage this summer.

"It was a bit of magic that won the game for Mayo in the end, that Ciarán McDonald point, and the reality is we were very close.

"But I'm not the kind of fella to dwell on these things anyway, like lock myself away in my room for two months. Life goes on. We lost a match that meant a lot to us, but it wasn't the end of the world, and we've a chance to put things right this year. You have to find a balance, with work, with football, and even socialising."

The chance to put things right this year will feature prominently in manager Paul Caffrey's motivational speeches. Brogan says everyone on the Dublin team is driven by that same force: "Paul Caffrey's motivation, his style, hasn't changed. He's just trying to bring the best out of us.

"Personally, and as a team, one thing we have fallen short of is finding that extra little bit, maybe extra want and desire. Like my own shooting sometimes, I know I can have off days, and that puts the team under pressure.

"We all know we have to find that extra little bit of something if we want to go to the next level."