Dublin's momentum 'has stopped' ahead of 2020 championship, says David Brady
Ex-Mayo star: "The league was more or less, I won't called it a disaster, but we were staring relegation in the face."
Wednesday 29 July 2020 13:44, UK
David Brady feels that the long lay-off will stall Dublin's momentum ahead of the intercounty season restart.
When the National League resumes on the third weekend of October, it will have been over seven months since the last intercounty matches took place. Such a significant pause in play will have erased the top teams' form, according to the former Mayo star.
"If you look at the Dublins and Galways of this world - Dublin have [had] momentum for the last six or seven years. Galway had massive momentum in the league. All of a sudden that momentum has stopped," said the five-time Connacht Championship winner.
"It definitely has stopped from a Dublin perspective. When you are continually winning week-in, week-out, month-in, month-out, you have a very small break and you are back on the bike again in January, February; Dublin maintain that momentum."
Similarly, the break in play came at the perfect time for other counties.
"From a Mayo perspective I think it is the best thing we could ever ask for that the world stopped going around, the players got off that bus, got time to refocus," Brady added.
"There were a lot of injuries, long-term injuries that players just needed to rehab and a break. We had no momentum in the league. The league was more or less, I won't called it a disaster, but we were staring relegation in the face.
"If any county in the country needed coronavirus, it was Mayo considering the long-term [footballing implications].
"We'd be into the depths of championship now...This is the midst of it, but I do feel a lot of the Mayo players wouldn't have been ready for it. Now they have that opportunity, that rest, I can't see it doing us any harm. I don't think we were going to have a major impact coming up to March, where we were going, but you have to take the positives out of it. I'd see that as a positive from a Mayo perspective."
The league was more or less, I won't called it a disaster, but we were staring relegation in the face.
And although Gaelic games action has returned, intercounty squads won't be reassembling until September. Brady feels the time apart could be a great leveller.
"[The gap] definitely has tightened now that it is 100 per cent club until county," he said.
"That has really levelled the playing field. From a meeting perspective, psychological, diet everything else I think some teams might have a little bit of an edge from whatever systems and funds they have in place to meet the needs of them requirements.
"It is going to be different at the very start, will it be the same at the end? Look it, the cream always rises to the top in some way shape or form. I don't think the weaker teams would have got any better, but I don't think the stronger teams definitely have got stronger. It would be a step back for them, not a step forward."
