Ger Brennan quits Louth and emerges as frontrunner to replace Dessie Farrell as Dublin boss
Brennan led the Wee County to their
2
Ger Brennan stepped down as Louth boss on Tuesday evening
2
Ger Brennan is now favourite to succeed Dessie Farrell as Dublin boss after his resignation last weekend
He is odds-on to replace Dessie Farrell in the Dublin hotseat, who
Brennan won All-Irelands with the Dubs in 2011 and 2013, but had to retire from inter-county football in 2015 due to an achilles injury.
Louth also won the Leinster under-20 title this summer, and were beaten in the minor provincial decider by Offaly.
And in a statement released on Tuesday, Brennan insists the future is bright for the Wee County despite his exit.
READ MORE ON GAA
He said: 'On behalf of the Louth senior football team management and staff, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for what has been an extraordinary journey with this incredible organisation.
'I want to thank Chairperson Seán McClean for his unwavering support - always engaged, energetic, and available in his commitment to all things Louth GAA.
"His leadership and dedication have been instrumental in everything we achieved together.
'My sincere appreciation goes to the Louth County Board, the Louth Clubs, and all the staff at Darver for their tremendous support throughout these past two years.
Most read in GAA Football
"The foundation of support you provided made our work possible.
'Most importantly, I want to express my profound gratitude to the Louth Senior Footballers. It has been an absolute privilege to be part of your journey these past two years.
'Lots of fight' - RTE GAA pundits react to Sean O'Shea's 'very interesting' interview after Kerry dethrone Armagh
'What you have accomplished for the Gaels of County Louth will be remembered and celebrated for generations to come. Your dedication, heart, and commitment have made history.
'As you embark on the next chapter of your journey, I have complete confidence that fresh perspectives will bring new energy and insights to your honest and hardworking team. The future is bright for Louth football.'
Louth chairman Sean McClean added: 'On behalf of everyone at Louth GAA, we want to express our profound gratitude to Ger for the transformative influence he has had during his time with us.
'The high standards he established, the ambitious vision he shared with us all, and the truly memorable experiences he created will continue to inspire and guide us for years to come.
'We also want to recognise and thank his exceptional backroom team for their dedication and unwavering commitment.
"And to extend our appreciation to Aisling and the entire Brennan family for embracing our community so warmly and supporting Ger's work with such generosity of spirit.
'As Ger's chapter with Louth GAA closes, we wish him continued success and fulfilment in all his future endeavours, both in football and beyond.
"He will always hold a special place in the Louth GAA family, and our doors will forever remain open to him.'
As Dublin close in on their new man, Louth join Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Antrim in the search for new senior managers for the 2026 campaign.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
39 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
History is set to be made in the All-Ireland hurling Championship, one way or another
IT'S time for hurling to steal our hearts again. Football has been getting all the love after another gripping weekend of big-ball action but now it's back to the clash of the ash. Advertisement 2 Cork got the better of Tipp in two of their three meetings this season 2 Kilkenny came out 5-19 to 3-21 winners when they met Dublin in the Leinster Championship Ahead of the All-Ireland semi-finals the numbers game is fascinating. Many feel Liam MacCarthy is Cork's to lose but the Dubs will have other ideas after pulling off the mother of all shocks against Limerick. The Sky Blues haven't beaten the Rebels in the Championship in 98 years — since they won the 1927 All-Ireland final — and haven't reached the decider since 1961. Kilkenny and Tipperary do battle on Sunday. These two are steeped in hurling history, even if they haven't met in the Championship since the Premier won the 2019 decider. Cork have never played great rivals Tipp in an All-Ireland final. All-time Championship top scorer Patrick Horgan has registered 3-42 this season. Advertisement Read more on GAA His nearest challenger on the overall list, Kilkenny's TJ Reid, has clocked up 5-26. Tipp have been waiting six years for glory, Kilkenny have had a decade of drought. Liam has not resided on Leeside in 20 years and Dublin have not been champions in 87 years. A famine will end and the Rebels are best poised to pounce. Advertisement Most read in GAA Hurling Meanwhile, a few of them in Kerry must have read the column last week. Yours truly roared that David Clifford needed help in attack or the summer would be over in the Kingdom. 'Lots of fight' - RTE GAA pundits react to Sean O'Shea's 'very interesting' interview after Kerry dethrone Armagh And Seánie O'Shea stepped up with one of the all-time great Croke Park displays, scoring just the dozen points. Clifford scored 0-7 mind you, but was just one of nine Kerrymen to raise flags in a devastating second half of football. Advertisement Doubters? Jack O'Connor's men silenced them all with 0-14 in 15 minutes to KO the All-Ireland champions. A few of the small-ball counties must have picked us up as well. I had a moan last week about how none of the All-Ireland SHC semi- finalists had opened their doors to the media. Dublin did not play ball — which is a shame ahead of their first last-four appearance since 2013. Advertisement But Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny welcomed us with open arms. As Frasier Crane would say, thanks for listening.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Tipperary v Kilkenny: What time, what channel and all you need to know about the All-Ireland SHC semi-final
The latest instalment of the Tipperary-Kilkenny rivalry is upon us. "A clash of the old gladiators" is how Anthony Daly put it. Tipperary are on the crest of a wave, with underage success already in the bag following the under-20s win, and Liam Cahill's seniors have built momentum through their Munster campaign and comfortable wins over Laois and Galway en route to their showdown with the Cats. Derek Lyng's Kilkenny have enjoyed a lengthy break, having won their sixth straight Leinster title. Expectation, as ever, in Kilkenny will be silverware. The expected return of Eoin Cody certainly will significantly help themthem in their aim of securing that, but first they must negotiate this Tipperary task. Here is all you need to know ahead of throw-in. Where and when is it on? The game will take place on Sunday, July 6 at Croke Park with a 4pm throw-in. Where can I watch the game? The match will be shown live on RTÉ2. Who's the referee? James Owens will be the man in the middle for the game. What can I read about and listen to on Our reporters will be building up to the semi-final throughout the weekend and previewing the game ahead of Saturday's throw-in. Kilkenny legend Brian Hogan insists there is more pressure on Kilkenny than there is on Tipperary. Craig Morgan chats Tipperary, and how being a teacher means he gets a pretty direct review of how games have gone. And finally, Anthony Daly, TJ Ryan, Mark Landers and the aforementioned Hogan preview the All-Ireland semi-finals on Dalo's Hurling Show.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Malachy Clerkin: Ger Brennan's time with Louth will be remembered long after his shoes are filled
In a sense, Ger Brennan will never achieve more anywhere else than he already has with Louth . He will manage more teams, he will presumably win more trophies. But none of it will have the same impact as the shake, rattle and roll he gave Louth football this summer. Think about it. If he does become the Dublin manager, be it now or in the future, what can he do there that will compare? The next Dubs team to win a Leinster title will be met by little more than a shrug. The next All-Ireland will be hailed to the heavens, celebrated lustily in all parts of the city. But it won't be like a spaceship falling out of the sky in the way Louth's Leinster title was. [ Ger Brennan steps down as Louth football manager Opens in new window ] In the week after they beat Meath at the end of May, everyone you talked to in Louth kept falling back on the same mantra. The kids have something to latch on to now in the GAA, in a way no Louth people have had for generations. If you're a Dublin supporter under the age of 20, you've spent essentially your whole sentient life watching your team win All-Irelands. If you're a Louth supporter under the age of 75, all your memories have been bitter ones. Until now. Ger Brennan didn't change that all by himself but he'll be forever remembered as the man whose name was above the door when it happened. Given the players they have and the underage success the county has been racking up, maybe it looks from this vantage point like it was only a matter of time. But nobody was saying that when Mickey Harte skedaddled to the Derry job at the end of 2023. READ MORE Louth's Sam Mulroy lifts the Delaney Cup after their Leinster final win over Meath. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho This was not inevitable. Anything but, in fact. When Brennan came on board, Louth had been to a Leinster final earlier in the year but had been torched by Dublin to the tune of 5-21 to 0-15. It was a day out for their supporters – a first Leinster final in 13 years and only a second since 1960. But that's all it was. Or all it looked like, from the outside anyway. We all presumed that nobody was going to be taking Dublin's Leinster crown anytime soon. And that if anyone was going to, it would be when either Meath or Kildare got their house in order. Louth had been a decent league team under Harte, making it all the way up to finishing third in Division Two. But once he and Gavin Devlin left, that was surely going to be that for a while. We were wrong. All of us. Not only did we underestimate Brennan, we didn't give the players themselves the credit they deserved. These were serious intercounty players, not starry-eyed kids with a ponytail and a dream. They had been around long enough to take Harte's departure in a notably more grown-up fashion than a lot of the people who were outraged on their behalf. 'Look, it was never Mickey Harte's county,' Sam Mulroy told The Irish Times when Brennan took over. 'It's players who represent Louth on the pitch. Managers come and go. When they're there, they give it their all. There's a respect there between managers and players and you get on with it. It's as exciting having Ger in as it was having Mickey there. Sam Mulroy after scoring a goal for Louth in the Leinster final. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'It's a serious position to be in for a Louth footballer to be going playing under All-Ireland winners. Nothing has changed in that way. Life goes on. We've played under many managers before, we'll play under many in years to come. It is what it is. We do a job when we cross those white lines, we do it to the best of our ability every time. It's just a different message, a different voice every few years. That's the way GAA is.' And so they kicked on. They led Dublin at half-time in last year's Leinster final and finished second in their group behind Kerry before beating Cork to make the All-Ireland quarter-final. Craig Lennon won their first All Star since 2010. Brennan's first season was so much more than a consolidation of the Harte era and it gave them a sniff of more. Along the way, Brennan's management style turned out to be exactly what they needed, when they needed it. He is a deep believer in numbers and data and his time in UCD has certainly left him well acquainted with the more jargony end of the sports science world. He is no seller of pipe dreams. The Louth players always knew what was expected of them and what was achievable when they fulfilled those expectations. But on top of all that, there's a decency and an emotional intelligence to Brennan the manager that, let's just say, wasn't always visible in Brennan the player. He was able to relate to the younger members of the squad just as readily as the likes of Tommy Durnin, alongside whom he actually played for a summer in Boston back in the day. The Louth players responded and he took them beyond themselves. Ger Brennan and Dessie Farrell after last year's Leinster final. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho So what now? There had been rumours on the ground in Louth over the past while that Brennan would be moving on – and maybe Dessie Farrell's admission over the weekend that the Dublin County Board had known all year that he would be finishing up at the end of the 2025 championship bears that out. He's the obvious choice for the Dublin job, if for no other reason than the list of viable candidates is not overly long. With more departures likely and no underage success coming through to feed the next wave of Dublin teams, following Farrell, Jim Gavin and Pat Gilroy is no picnic. But then, neither was the Louth job when Brennan arrived. As for Louth, they will be fine. More than fine, in fact. They have the All-Ireland under-20 runners-up to start filtering into the senior ranks, as well as an excellent minor team that was just pipped in a thrilling Leinster final this year, many of whom are eligible again in 2026. They have a good age profile too – Mulroy, Lennon and Ryan Burns are all still in their mid-20s, with Durnin the only one of their main men over 30. Regardless of who takes over, they will be a force in what is suddenly a revitalised Leinster championship. One way or another, they are still rising. Brennan played a huge part in that and they will be forever intertwined.
