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Life comes at you fast. Dessie Farrell stepped down as Dublin manager in late June and three days later Ger Brennan, on his 40th birthday, quit Louth.
Some five weeks later, Brennan was announced as Farrell's successor. A cynic would join the dots, but Brennan explains how he concluded that he had brought Louth as far as he could in the period between their historic Leinster title win and the end of their Championship campaign.
Once leaving Louth, he embarked on a couple of trips with his family in July before rounding off discussions with the Dublin county board in early August. Brennan insisted that there was no grand masterplan in terms of plotting a path to the Dublin job, one he says he didn't necessarily covet because he was "happy out regardless".
"I'm always a big believer, as a lot of Irish mammies would say, what's for you, it won't pass you," he says. "In relation to Louth, it was an incredible journey with the whole county as a whole, the players, the county board. The season gone in particular, we actually began to train in different parts of Louth to, I guess, build a brand and increase support and that certainly helped in terms of those kind of connections and bonds.
"It was an incredible experience to prepare for that journey with the Louth guys. They put everything into it. I suppose, for me, it was a two-year term with the option of a third. I had made a decision to step away at some stage in the All-Ireland series, chatting with my wife.
"I'd given everything to it, and possibly a fresh set of eyes would have been needed to continue to add value to the Louth set up and the profile of some of the better guys too."
Different names had been bandied about around the Dublin job, Declan Darcy chief among them, but Brennan says that his appointment was "fairly straightforward in the end".
"We're all members of a club, whether it's Gaelic games or another sporting identity, and to be involved with your own club or county is that bit more special because of the connections you have with the places having grown up. It's a privileged and blessed position to be in so I feel very fortunate and will be doing everything I can to continue to add to the success of my predecessors in the role."
Brennan takes on the job at a time when Dublin's All-Ireland winning pedigree is lower than at any time since the early days of his own playing career, having failed to reach the last four of the Championship in successive years for the first time since 2009.
Farrell famously coaxed Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion and Stephen Cluxton out of retirement to win the 2023 All-Ireland, and while Cluxton is off limits now having joined Brennan's management team, McCaffrey and Mannion are still of an age where they could be an asset to Dublin having stepped back again last winter, along with Brian Fenton.
"I have an open door policy, which will be a revolving door as we progress through the National League and if there are guys in the group that are falling away physically, mentally or in terms of general output, someone else will come in to replace him, and I think competition is certainly important that way throughout the whole season.
"In relation to the likes of Brian Fenton, he obviously announced his retirement last year. I bumped into him over in Chicago recently on UCD business. I hadn't been appointed at that stage and we were shooting the breeze and from what I gather he's happy enough travelling the world. He's gone off again for another couple of months.
"If Brian Fenton, Paul Mannion, Jack McCaffrey, if those fellas have the hunger and the desire to go at it again and they're fit and in form, I'd certainly look at them. If they're not fit and in form and don't have the hunger, they've given so much already. You're taking someone's else spot at that stage."
Brennan said that, as yet, no player from the 2025 panel has told him that they won't be available next year.
"No. And there's probably a few people I haven't informed yet either. So I won't be chasing people. And if people want to play for Dublin, it'll be certainly on mine and the management team's terms and how we're going to go about our business. We have roughly six scouts out watching games from junior level up to senior. You have myself and the four selectors out watching games, and we have our analysis team out watching games. So we've actually built up a good database of players already.
"We are going to run a trial tournament for regions early in November. That'll be open to people to come in and watch freely and see if we can unearth a couple of gems."
Regardless of who's wearing the blue jersey, what can we expect from a Ger Brennan-managed Dublin?
"It's a very good question and I look at how I try to play myself in that, whether you win or lose, you die with your boots on.
"In Dublin set ups, given the volume of players, and that's something I would have mentioned before my Louth hat on, that was one of the primary differences, the volume of players to select from. If Dublin players are dying with their boots on, they're going to be at the latter end of the Championship more often than not.
"That's what I would hope that fans and journalists alike would be able to say about Dublin teams in my opinion."