Brian Fenton was hailed as the find of the summer last year following his Man of the Match performance against Kerry in the All-Ireland final.
A year on and the Raheny man, now recognised as one of the best midfielders in the country, is yet to lose a game for Dublin. He has also been nominated for Footballer Of The Year along with Ciarán Kilkenny and Lee Keegan.
Despite his meteoric rise in 2015, Fenton did not allow his ascent to prominence to inflate his ego. In fact, a year ago is was making jokes about the possibility that he might be named Football of the Year in 2016.
The 23-year-old, quoted by RTÉ, was speaking on Friday night as he was named the Gaelic Writers' Association's Football Personality of the Year.
I remember last year talking with close friends around the club in Raheny. They’d be saying ‘things couldn’t have gone better for you in 2015.’ I used to turn around jokingly say ‘ah sure look I’ll push for Footballer of the Year next year.’
That was just miles off my radar that I’d joke about it. It wasn’t a realistic option to me at all. I don’t know; in that Dublin team and all around the country there are players that are more skilful, better players and can kick better scores than I can.
So on a personal level I’m honoured to be even nominated alongside the likes of Ciarán, who is a spectacular footballer, and Lee, who is probably one of the best footballers Mayo ever produced. He’d get into any half-back line in any team.
Earlier this year, Fenton had a moment which set him on the road which would eventually lead to the Footballer of the Year nomination.
In March, at Croke Park, Dublin beat Cork by four points. Fenton started the game but was withdrawn by Jim Gavin at half-time after an awful 35 minutes. He cites it as the 'wake-up call' which he needed to ensure 2016 would live up to the expectations set by the previous campaign.
I remember one moment in particular from that Cork game. Michael Savage was in goal that night and he took a short kick-out. I got the ball, turned, looked out the field and with a simple kick pass that would have been on nine times out of ten I just kicked it straight to an opponent.
They came in, got a free and kicked it over the bar. Then you get the curly finger at half-time. I knew that night, it was a wake-up call for me. Looking ahead for the rest of the year I knew I had to put that hard work in.
I was having an absolute stinker to be honest. That was definitely a wake-up call that I needed to get my sharpness up and my fitness up after the surgery.
I knew then that if I wanted this year to be in any way as good as last year then I needed to pull off my socks as they say.
