If the fabled Dublin-Kerry football rivalry has only truly come alive in the last 25 years, current Dublin manager Ger Brennan is ideally positioned to recall the turning point, which happened to be midway through his own playing career.When the counties met in the 2001 All-Ireland quarter-final, it was their first championship meeting in 17 years, after Kerry beat Dublin to win the 1985 All-Ireland title. After a replay, Kerry took the win in 2001, and did the same in the 2004 All-Ireland quarter-final.Brennan was involved when Dublin again lost to Kerry in the 2007 semi-final, before the infamous All-Ireland quarter-final defeat of 2009, in which Pat Gilroy described his side as playing like “startled earwigs”. Although Brennan was suspended for that game, he still has vivid memories of the day.“There was a photograph, I think it was in The Sun. I was in the stand eating a Cornetto, and it said ‘Brennan licks his wounds’, or something like that. That was another lesson as well,” Brennan recalls.“The experience of the 2010 campaign with Pat was ‘you can’t keep doing the same thing and hope for a different result’.”In 2011, Dublin finally turned the tables, beating Kerry in the All-Ireland final – their first championship win over The Kingdom since the 1977 All-Ireland semi-final.Ger Brennan in action against Kerry's Declan O'Sullivan during the 2011 All-Ireland final. Photograph: Cathal Noonan/Inpho “To win an All-Ireland by beating Kerry along the way was always that bit different as a Dub,” says Brennan. “Probably growing up in St Vincent’s, there was always talk. We could start listing them off, the Vincent’s lads with All-Ireland medals in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, going back to Kevin Heffernan’s time.“That was one of my abiding memories as a player. That was always in the background of my mind.”Brennan was also involved in the 2013 semi-final, another Croke Park epic which Dublin eventually won 3-18 to 3-11, before Brennan collected his second All-Ireland medal a few weeks later, beating Mayo.Since then, Dublin have won four of their last five meetings with Kerry, including the 2023 final. Despite having just one win from their last nine championship encounters, the Kingdom still have a comfortable overall lead; 18 wins to Dublin’s 12 from 33 games.“The best Dublin-Kerry games I enjoyed are the ones I wasn’t involved in,” says Brennan. “There is such a wonderful history there. But when you are in the mix, you have to just look at what is ahead of you. You take the learnings from what’s gone and you try to come up with some sort of strategy to give yourself a chance.”