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Brolly: 'Con O'Callaghan is the best Irish sportsman across all sports'

GAA pundit Joe Brolly declared Dublin's Con O'Callaghan the greatest Irish sportsman playing at t...



Brolly: 'Con O'Callaghan is th...
Football

Brolly: 'Con O'Callaghan is the best Irish sportsman across all sports'

GAA pundit Joe Brolly declared Dublin's Con O'Callaghan the greatest Irish sportsman playing at this moment in time on a Saturday Panel devoted to Ulster football. 

Joined by Donegal's Declan Bonner and Down's James McCartan, when talk turned to the modern dominance of Dublin the Derry native was effusive in his praise for the Cuala club man.

"I talked about players who were once in an era," he explained, "but Con O'Callaghan for me at the moment is the premier Irish sportsman - across all the sports.

"He is unmarkable, extraordinary, [with] a totally distinctive skill-set."

Citing the clutch moments in which the multiple All-Ireland winner has delivered for Dublin in recent years, Brolly was perhaps even more impressed with the number of players within the county who shared the key characteristic that sets the likes of O'Callaghan apart.

Beyond the capabilities of O'Callaghan alone, Brolly highlighted the depth of Dublin's decisive players and his belief that there is likely to be no team capable of catching them in the coming years.

"They have four or five players who will break a stranglehold," he suggested, "who will break the gridlock in a game and forge on.

"We see that all the time and now we've gotten to the stage where we think to ourselves, 'Oh well, Dublin just do that.'

"When you actually think about what they're doing, at the most fevered pitch of a game when everything is on the line, they have people who will make decisive contributions."

Critically, this is why Joe Brolly believes Dublin have enjoyed such great success over their rivals.

"This is why Mayo don't win the All-Ireland," he claimed, "because they've got key players who never make decisive contributions.

"Dublin make them now as a matter of course and... until (Ciaran) Kilkenny, Con O'Callaghan and these boys reach 31, 32, I see seven or eight All-Irelands there [for Dublin].

"I think this year is a formality."

You can watch back OTB's Ulster football Saturday Panel in full here

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All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Con O'callaghan Dublin Gaelic Football Joe Brolly