By John Harrington

In the space of just two years, Brian Fenton has established himself as arguably the best midfielder in Gaelic Football.

It’s been a remarkably stratospheric rise for a player who didn’t play minor football for Dublin and had just one year of action in the U-21 grade.

He helped Dublin to the All-Ireland U-21 title that year in 2014, and by the following year had not just nailed down a place in the senior team too, but ended the year with an All-Star after producing a Man of the Match display in the All-Ireland Final win over Kerry.

He’s been even better this year for the Dubs, and if he plays in the All-Ireland Final replay like he did in the drawn game, he’ll be one of the leading contenders for the Footballer of the Year.

The maturity and quality of his performances have been far beyond what you’d expect from an inexperienced 23-year-old in such a pivotal position, but those who know him best are not surprised.

Former Dublin midfielder Ciaran Whelan is a Raheny clubmate of Fenton’s, and knew he had star quality from a very young age even though he was overlooked by the Dublin minor management.

“No, I'm not surprised, to be honest,” Whelan told GAA.ie. “Brian coming up through the ranks was always a very, very good player.

“And while he was unlucky not to make the minor team, you could see that he always had great ball-skills, he was always very comfortable in possession. He had two good feet and he was a smart footballer, really.

“When he was younger his size probably went against him because he wasn't that tall, and he grew very late in life. And I firmly believe he still is bloody growing! He's getting bigger all the time.

“He was unlucky that he picked up a couple of knee injuries after minor and had a couple of distorted years where he couldn't get a run or get rid of them.

“When he came in last year, I think his debut might have been against Monaghan, and he was so mature from the start. He didn't try to force anything, he just played a very simplistic role and he retained possession of the ball and didn't try to charge onto the scene. He grew into the role and adapted to the role and he learned what the role was about.

“The biggest factor he had to deal with going into the senior set-up was the work-rate. And I think that was the core element that he added to his game that he needed to. He's had to learn how to work hard and tackle hard, because everything else was there. Once he added that to his game, it all came together, and he's on a roller-coaster at the moment. It's brilliant to see.

“I thought he was phenomenal again last week. When Dublin really needed leaders to dig them out when the game was going against them he was there and the one always showing. It was a huge contribution.”

Pat Ivory is another Raheny man not the slightest bit surprised that Fenton has established himself as one of the best footballers in the country.

Ivory knows Fenton better than most having coached him from the age of four right up to the U-21 grade. Ivory’s son, former Dublin minor and U-21 star Gavin Ivory, is Fenton’s best friend, and the two of them starred for a Raheny team that won all before them at underage level.

They went unbeaten in all competitions at home for an incredible five straight seasons, and won the Dublin Feile, U-14, and U-16 Division One titles. And at the heart of it all, was their midfield general, Brian Fenton.

“Brian was a tremendous leader and reader of the game,” Ivory told GAA.ie “He's one of these guys who drove the team.

“I keep on saying, his best gift as far as I'm concerned is the way he can read the game. He can read the way the other team are going to play. If they played up the left-side, down the middle or across the pitch, he was there to collect the ball.

“That's just a natural thing with him. He's been doing that since he was a kid. I never taught him, it's just an instinct that he has.”

Ivory might not have taught the young Fenton those particular instincts, but he taught him plenty all the same. The Raheny mentor made a special project of bringing together a gifted generation of young players in the club and doing all he could to hone their talents.

They would play competitive matches where Ivory would only allow them to hand-pass and kick off their weak-sides. Any player who was spotted kicking off his stronger side was immediately substituted. The kids were all desperate to play, so they soon learned not to make that mistake.

In training, Fenton himself was often under orders to get rid of the ball two or three seconds after gaining possession, because he was quite capable of getting it on his own goal-line, soloing the length of the field, and scoring a goal.

When you watch Fenton play now, his ability to kick-pass of both feet is top-quality, which surely has a lot to do with the fact that those skills were drummed into him from a young age.

His awareness in defence and attack is impressive too, which is also something he worked on from a young age in Raheny.

At times Ivory would select all of his best players, including Fenton, in defence to develop their awareness of those positions and see if they could keep the opposition scoreless. Apart from the concession of a couple of frees of a long-range point or two, they often did.

Fenton’s regular position was almost always as a midfielder, but Ivory has seen at first-hand too just how effective he can also be as a focal point in attack.

“I remember playing Brian in the U-21s a couple of years ago and we played him at full-forward,” recalls Ivory. “It was out against Fingal Ravens. We had to take him out of it because he scored so many.

“We'd give the ball into him and he could score them off his right foot, off his left-foot. He could kick them over his shoulder. He was just kicking the ball over the bar every time he got it, and that was from full-forward, a position he had never played. He was playing with his back to the goal.

“He likes to go forward, but the point I'm trying to make is that you could play him anywhere.”

Fenton was always one of the smallest players on that all-conquering Raheny team until a belated growth-spurt in his late teen saw him grow more than a foot. Because he lacked physical stature for much of his underage career he had to work hard on all the skills of the game. So once he also developed height and physicality, he was pretty much the full package.

“He didn't have the height, so he wouldn't have been the most natural fielder in the world when he was younger,” says Whelan. “But his ball-skills were always top-drawer and he was so comfortable in possession and comfortable off both sides and his kick-passing was excellent.

“So he had all the fundamentals and the growth spurt gave him the benefit of being able to work on his fielding and being able to compete in aerial duels. He's been excellent at that in terms of breaking up the play.

“A lot of people last year thought he was going to struggle coming in to play the likes of David Moran and Seamus O'Shea because he was a rookie, but he has proven that he's well able to compete with them.

“He has a brilliant temperament as well and that can't be overstated as well. You need to have a good temperament in the modern game when it's very, very intense and there's a hell of a lot going on. He's very disciplined.

“Listen, he has all the traits. You can only sit back and admire him.”

Dublin supporters should be excited by the thought of just how good Fenton will become. He’s already the form midfielder in the country at the age of 23 and with just two years inter-county experience, so you’d imagine he will continue to get stronger and stronger.

And if he keeps accumulating team and individual honours at the rate he has thus far, he’ll to build an extension to his home in Raheny to display them all by the time he’s retired.

“It's the perfect storm, really,” says Whelan. “He's two years in, he has two National leagues, two Leinster titles, an All-Ireland from last year when he was man of the match in the All-Ireland Final and he was very close to being man of the match again in last week's drawn final.

“It's just a phenomenal place to be in and he has the maturity and temperament to deal with it. I think he was very much appreciative last year of the position that he was in.

“You find a lot of people in their first year when they break into the county scene and things go very well like they did for Brian, it can kind of get in on their psyche and they can get a step ahead of themselves.

“I think that's natural for a lot of kids, but it wasn't for him. He's very well-rounded and was appreciative that it was a special place to be and a special opportunity for him and I think that's shown in his performances this year. He's shown a maturity beyond his years really.”

Many of the main men on the current Dublin team like Paul Flynn, Bernard Brogan, Michael Darragh MacAuley, Philly McMahon, and Diarmuid Connolly have a finite number of years left at the highest level.

New leaders will be required to step forward and take their place, and Fenton looks like the sort of personality as well as player who can set the tone in this Dublin team for years to come.

“He's going to be there for a long, long time,” says Ivory. “They can build around him. I think he's a future team captain, because he has great leadership qualities.

“It's his love for it. You could see the love he had for it when he was a kid. He slept, ate and drank it. Football was his life. That's the way it was. I'd bring them down the park, maybe four or five of them, just to kick ball. Because they were breaking windows in the houses.

“So I'd bring them down the park to kick ball and you could leave them there playing for hours. I'd be down there doing a bit of writing or something while they'd be kicking ball and they'd be killing one another.

“Honest to God, they used to batter one another. It was friendly, but it was competitive. That's one thing about Brian, he's a born winner. And doesn't like to lose. He's not a good loser at all, and he won't mind me saying that."

Fenton is a competitive animal on the field, but off it you couldn’t meet a more down to earth, personable guy. That’s why they’re so proud in Raheny that he’s one of their own.

“Absolutely,” says Whelan. “That's the thing, he's a very likable, grounded, mature character who's very appreciative for where he is and the opportunity he has and I think that's what makes him special.

“He hasn't lost the run of himself, and I don't anticipate him losing the run of himself either. That's why I think he has a great career ahead of him.”

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