Brennan wants more big day shows from Donegal
Jamie Brennan wants to be more influential in the big games for Donegal this year, admitting last year’s Super 8s were a disappointment for both himself and the team.
The Bundoran man is blessed with explosive speed and is a lethal finisher and enhanced his reputation scoring 2-11 from play as Donegal retained their Ulster SFC title last summer.
While he hit 0-3 against Meath, he failed to score in two big Super 8s games against Kerry and Mayo, the latter being the visitors to Ballybofey in Saturday’s Allianz Football League opener.
“You want to try and step up,” he says, “last year in the Super 8s I probably didn’t play to my standards and that’s something I have to improve on.”
“There was more pressure last year with the marking, and I probably didn’t know how to deal with that as well as I’d have liked.
“It’s about trying to be influential, that’s the beauty of the team sport, different players will excel on different days.
I am trying to improve my game in all aspects. There are such fine lines and even against Kerry there was only a bounce of the ball between a goal or not a goal.
Brennan says losing to Mayo in last year’s Super 8s hurt Donegal even more than the defeat by Tyrone the previous year.
Having lost to Tyronein 2018, Donegal were determined to get back to the Super 8s last summer and right the wrongs to ensure they got to the All-Ireland semi-finals, but it didn’t happen.
Mayo bullied them and outsmarted them in Castlebar and star forward Brennan admits: “that was a really tough one to take, that one hurt”.
“On the grand scheme of things we didn’t perform but Mayo put us in that position, and I think that was the most disappointing thing, that we couldn’t overcome that.
“It wasn’t of our own accord that we were knocked out.
“Mayo dictated it in terms of physicality and we couldn’t really get our stamp on the game.
“The worst thing was we were still in the game with five minutes to go and didn’t kick on and get the scores we needed.
“It was a hard one but hopefully we will get our chance again and go at it again.”
Brennan, 23, has completed his studies at Sligo IT in nutrition and may start a Masters in September. Until then he will be coaching around schools and clubs which gives him plenty of time to concentrate on his game.
Although two points in front of a home crowd on Saturday would be a very nice way to start the season, Brennan knows it “wouldn’t right the wrongs from last year”.
A lot of our games with them are very tight. They have a physicality and are a veteran team well used to grinding our results. You can see it when games come down to the crunch.
“We need to get to that level and ultimately our goal I suppose is to get back to the Super 8s to see if we can improve and progress this time beyond that stage.”
