Brian Fenton Dublin retirement: This time the damage looks very real
Dublin have lost three Footballers of the Year to retirement over the last decade and a raft of big names but Brian Fenton's decision to call it a day leaves them looking as vulnerable as they have in years.
The eulogies keep coming as the great Dublin team of the last decade continues to break up.
We’ve been here before with big Dublin retirements, but this time the damage looks very real.
Last week it was James McCarthy, hailed by many as the best Dublin player of them all - or certainly in the top three.
Read More: Dublin GAA: Brian Fenton was one of the greatest players to wear the jersey
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Most of us hadn’t anticipated Brian Fenton walking away a week later, or thought about the place he occupies in any Dublin GAA Hall of Fame.
That was for another day, but that day has arrived, with Fenton just 31 years of age.
Fenton was the greatest midfielder of his generation and maybe the best the game has ever seen, certainly for those of us who didn’t witness Jack O’Shea in his pomp.
What McCarthy had on Fenton was his presence on the breakthrough Dublin side of 2011 that bridged a 16 year gap to the county’s last All-Ireland title. He was a trailblazer for the astounding success that followed.
Fenton didn’t come along until 2015. What he had on McCarthy is that Dublin didn’t lose a Championship game for his first six years, an astonishing record that will probably never be equalled again.
You could argue that McCarthy was there for all of that too.
It’s just that when Fenton came along it was the final piece of a jigsaw that opponents could never get to grips with.
Arguing over which was the greatest - McCarthy or Fenton - and their place among the greatest ever, is a moot point really, but it does highlight the magnitude of the double blow Dublin have absorbed over the past week.
And only last week Fenton hailed McCarthy (34) as “the greatest Dublin player we will ever see.”
Fenton was at midfield when Dublin took the All-Ireland back from Kerry in the 2015 decider, slamming a goal chance off a post in a man of the match display in his debut season.
With McCarthy favoured as a maurauding wing back, Fenton was the central anchor Dublin needed as they set off in pursuit of trophy after trophy.
His arrival was timely. Denis Bastick was coming towards the end and with Michael Darragh Macauley the other first choice midfielder, the Raheny man offered an entirely different option.
He always looked for the kick pass forward and he developed his left foot to a very high level so he could strike points and foot pass off both sides.
The high balls he plucked out of the skies when Dublin needed them most spoke for themselves. He was also able to hold the O’Neill’s out in one hand to dummy opponents, something not very many can do.
To have played midfield for that Dublin team, your athleticism had to be outstanding. Former swimmer Fenton’s mobility was freakish.
In the latter years of his career Fenton had a habit - similar to Ciaran Kilkenny - of springing into life in the final 15 minutes and seizing big games by the throat.
This is the ultimate mark of a player. When the going gets tough and all that. His performance levels rarely dropped below an eight out of 10. His bad days were seven.
With Fenton as the focal point, Dublin won six All-Ireland titles on the bounce.
When he first emerged as a Dublin senior, Fenton’s Twitter lag line was: “I’m the King of the House… baby.”
That tagline disappeared after a while but offered an insight into a big, bubbly character well able to look at the lighter side of life, and yet also one who developed that steely edge and focus on the pitch.
On his first Dublin senior start, against Monaghan on April 4, 2015, Fenton slammed to the net after just two minutes. It was a portent of things to come.
His standards rarely dipped. When Dublin won back the All-Ireland title in 2023, after a two year hiatus, he was superb.
Fenton scored two points apiece in the semi-final and final from four shots - a 100percent conversion rate - showcasing his class once again.
His Championship record is remarkable. It reads: Played 64. Won 59 with two draws and three defeats.
Those losses came against Mayo in 2021, Kerry 2022 and Galway this year, the draws against Roscommon (2023) and Mayo (2024) in All-Ireland group games.
The one championship game he missed was this year’s Leinster quarter-final win over Meath when he was suspended after the only red card of his career in the League final defeat by Derry.
Across those 64 Championship games Fenton scored 4-72 (84), averaging just over 1.3 points per game.
Famously, he hadn’t lost a Championship game up until the extra-time 2021 All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Mayo. At that stage he was sitting on 43 wins from 43 games.
Dublin have lost some huge names over the past decade. Former Footballers of the Year in Bernard Brogan (2010), Alan Brogan (2011) and Michael Darragh Macauley (2013).
The mercurial brilliance of Diarmuid Connolly, wing forward powerhouse Paul Flynn, mr reliable Cian O’Sullivan, dead ball king Dean Rock and the uncompromising Jonny Cooper.
But given their current status, rarely have they looked so vulnerable and hurt by a retirement as this one.
Across 10 seasons Fenton was nominated for Footballer of the Year on four occasions, winning twice.
That’s one of those stats that you have to let sink it. He was considered in the top three players in the entire country in almost half the seasons he played for Dublin.
That level of consistency and impact is phenomenal by any standards. Dublin would have hoped to have his steady hand guiding them through the next couple of seasons.
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