ROBBIE'S SECOND SERVE

Brennan looks to sports lik tennis for a winning edge

- BY GARRY DOYLE

ROBBIE Brennan spent much of lockdown reading Andre Agassi and Brad Gilbert.

Two tennis players at opposite ends of the achievement spectrum, yet both, he says, were saying the same thing.

“One was a champion, the other a nearly man, but the theme was identical,” Brennan explains.

“Struggle, resilience, preparation. That idea that if you're not prepped 100 per cent, then you've no chance. You can't lie your way around it.”

Tennis fascinates him for that reason.

There is nowhere to hide.

“A player quickly realises they only ever have to be better than the opponent across the net on that given day. That's it,” he says.

Brennan has long looked beyond Gaelic football for ideas. A visit to the Australian national tennis academy in Sydney left a lasting impression.

“It is definitely transferable,” he says. “Those individual sports - tennis, boxing - I find them fascinating. These guys are operating in unbelievable high-performance environments. That's what we're trying to create here.”

The season has yet to begin and Brennan is already on the road.

A midweek trip to Derry to watch a McKenna Cup game means a late return to his home in Dunboyne, close to lam.

“You just can't be running on empty,” he says. “You have to come back fresh, mentally more than anything. Once it starts, there's no stopping it.”

That relentlessness was something he underestimated.

Brennan admits he thought the Meath job would mirror his time with Kilmacud Crokes. It hasn't.