One country, one love.
Robbie Brady is one of Ireland’s only role models right now.
When kids go out to kick a ball around the Dublin streets or the Donegal fields, they want to be like Robbie Brady. They want to run past players, they want to make things happen, they want to swing their left peg at any half opportunity.
Footballers like Brady are rare in this country and, right now, both him and Wes Hoolahan are probably the only real stylish examples that are inspiring the nation. After the Euros, the following was an extract from Paris:
‘There were two kids running through Orly airport in Paris on Monday morning causing their parents an absolute headache.
‘They were wrestling and tripping, throwing their football on the ground and tackling one another until they’d be told off again and, then, when enough time had passed and they thought they could get away with it for another 20 seconds, the ball would be dropped once more and held beneath the soles of the older one, teasing his brother to try and take it off him.
‘A day later, they were still draped in Ireland’s new white jersey. On the back of one of them read the number 19. The other, 20.
‘Robbie Brady. Wes Hoolahan.’
But, whilst Brady plays with talent and verve, whilst he plays with adventure and dares others to do the same, he plays with pure, unbridled passion too. He plays for his country the way everyone should; on the edge, with emotion and heart.
He scored two of the most iconic goals throughout that Euro 2016 campaign and, both times, he was reduced to tears.
But then you see him in what should really be a nothing game against Georgia; a midweek, second game of the group, home to the fifth seeds clash, but it means the world to Brady.
Of course, Ireland turn it into a scrap anyway but the one constant is the Dubliner. The one shining light is Brady.
From the off, he delivers a fierce battle cry in the Irish huddle.
Veins bulging, eyes menacing, muscles tightening.
Unfortunately, when the game starts, Brady soon discovers he’s playing with Ireland and has to chase after balls like this.
His biggest problem at this moment is that he needs to be everything to everyone in the team.
O’Neill has the Norwich man playing on the left side of a three-man midfield. But, from there, Brady seems to be under instruction to be the Hoolahan-esque link man and bring the ball into attack and create chances for the front three because who else is really going to do that?
But, from there, he has to play as a regular midfielder anyway and, from there, he has to get back into defence and help out his team mates. To a fault, the 24-year-old obliges every single time.
Here he is, the left-sided midfielder helping out his right back.
Then he’s forward again trying to take it past a man so he can make something happen.
It’s all on Brady – the man who’s playing most of his club games at left back – to be the box-to-box midfielder and attacking maestro. It’s all on him to just turn it on and play a different game when he comes on international duty.
And it told in the second half when the same boy won the ball back again, got it out to James McClean who took it clear, then played it back to Brady (as always happens) but he was puffed so he rolled it to McCarthy who wasn’t in the mood for driving forward. With all the space, all the men over, all the counter-attacking potential, Ireland had no steam to launch it because Ireland had no Brady at the heart of it.
It's depressing when the referee overtakes all your players on a counter-attack
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 6, 2016
Then, of course, his drive is so furious, his heart is so big that he ends up in hospital desperately trying with all his might to get on the score sheet and seal the points.
O’Neill described the midfielder/defender/attacker as “brave as a lion” after the Georgia game and that was abundantly clear when he attacked a cross with everything he had and clashed heads with Solomon Kvirkvelia.
He threw all his momentum behind it.
And went fearlessly for the ball.
Flicking his head to get fully behind it, he ended up catching the back of the defender’s head.
And got knocked unconscious.
But he did that because he just has to.
He has to be the one tackling at the back, carrying it through the middle, and creating at the other end. He has to be the one taking the set pieces and pinging long range shots and he has to be the one up winning headers too.
That’s what his role is for Ireland now and it’s too much to ask of him. But a man like Robbie Brady wouldn’t accept anything less.
Ireland means too much to him and he’ll be back in the number 10 jersey going at it again with passion and pride and a bit of a talent as well.
We have no-one else in the squad to match him right now so it all will stay on his shoulders.
The GAA Hour pays tribute to the unbeatable Dubs and ask where did it all go wrong for Mayo in the All-Ireland final replay. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
