Kerry bid for their 35th All-Ireland SFC title on Sunday, September 16th when they face their old rival and near neighbour Cork in a unique final, which pits the two counties in an inaugural meeting at this stage of the Championship. Barring injury, lining out amongst the Kingdom's forwards will be Eoin Brosnan, who has become one of the top footballers in the game over the past six years. Eoin is a solicitor with his father's practice, namely Niall Brosnan & Co., Solicitors, and Eoin's pedigree as a footballer can be directly traced to his father Niall who was also a good footballer himself having won a Munster club SFC title with UCC back in 1973 and numerous titles with his club Dr Crokes. Of course, the Crokes have a number of connections with the current Kerry squad as not only are there four current Dr. Crokes players in the squad including Eoin and Colm 'Gooch' Cooper on the team, but manager Pat O'Shea also hails from the Killarney based outfit. Eoin has been victorious in two All-Ireland Senior Football Championships with Kerry, namely in 2004 and 2006 when Mayo were unfortunate to be on the end of dominant Kerry performances in both finals with Eoin contributing immensely to both victories. Those two campaigns proved to be lucky years for the talented forward as he also won two National Football League titles in the same years. He has also helped to bring his club to the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final which they narrowly lost after a replay. Eoin scored a vital goal in the replayed semi-final match, but could not stop Armagh kingpins Crossmaglen Rangers from lifting the title. Eoin's involvement with the Kerry squad stretches as far back as 2000 when he was a member of the squad that won the All-Ireland title that year, although the unfortunate Dr Crokes star missed out on a medal. As his father Niall puts it, "Eoin was on the squad that won in 2000, but he was number 25 on the panel and at that time they only gave out 24 medals. It was disappointing for him, but fortunately he has made up for it since and could well add a third to his collection this year," added Niall. In analysing Kerry's topsy turvy form this year, Niall has his own views on why this is the case; "I thought all the forwards played particularly well against Dublin and that was needed as the half forward line seemed to be bypassed in the match against Monaghan, in which Kerry struggled for long periods. Winning the Munster final probably went against Kerry as they had a long lay off and I feel that the qualifiers must be altered in some way to create more competitive games for the provincial winners. This seems to be a never ending problem but Niall feels that a solution is possible. "Maybe if teams in the qualifiers were seeded and graded, then there could be more competitive games played with the provincial winners being included in these qualifiers albeit with the advantage of a home tie as reward for winning the provincial title. This would solve the problem of provincial winners not having enough competitive games, while also ensuring plenty mouth-watering match-ups. This is a situation that certainly has to be looked at in the very near future", he added. At the start of every GAA season, Kerry are inevitably installed as one of the favourites to lift the 'Sam Maguire' and their own supporters place huge expectations on the team to deliver success on an annual basis. For many players this may add to the pressure, but Niall revealed that was not the case in the county. "There's no doubt that the All-Ireland title is expected to be won on an annual basis, but that is just part and parcel of the game down here. It is common knowledge that Kerry's aim is to win the championship and the league is very much secondary. It is used to try out new players and also to get an idea of whether there are any fringe players worthy of inclusion in the championship team later on in the year." Not only are the players under pressure to deliver, but the manager's position has been sometimes described as a 'poisoned chalice' particularly in Pat O'Shea's case as he is in the unenviable position of taking over from Jack O'Connor who delivered two titles in his three year term but Niall is in no doubt that his club colleague has all the credentials and temperament to deliver success. "Pat is a very grounded individual and he certainly would not be overawed by the job. He has plenty of experience in management and coaching and is one of the most respected footballing minds in the county." Kerry have already beaten Cork in the Munster final this year and will be favourites to lift the title again. Nonetheless, Niall feels that Cork will once again prove to be a stern test for the Kingdom. "Cork have improved a lot in recent years and they showed that they can beat Kerry as was the case in last year's Munster final. I believe that Kerry will come out on top once again, especially if they move the ball around like they did in the semi final." Niall knows what it is like to win an All-Ireland title as he has a Colleges medal with St Brendan's, Killarney, that was won in 1969 and four years later, he won an under-21 medal with Kerry. He also has the distinction of being the Dr Crokes' chairman at the tender age of 24, which in all probability must be some sort of a record. "I was vice-chairman for two years, before I became chairman at 24. All the time I continued playing and did so until I was about 31. I had a few challenge matches with the Kerry seniors but I played in an era when there was a huge amount of good players around." Having established his own business in 1978, Niall has been working as a solicitor in his offices in Killarney & Kenmare ever since and in the last few years Eoin has also joined the practice. Niall revealed that unlike some city-based legal firms, his firm do not specialise in any particular field and instead cover a wide range of legal expertise. All-Ireland final day is special no matter what, but for Eoin, there is a more significant day on the horizon as he is due to get married in December to his long-time girlfriend Mary and Niall admitted that it would be nice for a certain 'Sam' to be in attendance on the big day. "Eoin is getting married later in the year and hopefully he will have double reason to celebrate at the wedding and we could have the Sam Maguire there also." Tweet

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