'Money doesn't push me up and down the pitch' - Brian Fenton insists Dublin footballers' success is hard-earned

Four days out from the All-Ireland football champions' team holiday to Miami and the Dominican Republic and Brian Fenton is in good form. Sure why wouldn’t he be?

After successive semi-final losses in 2021 and ’22 – incredibly, his only career championship defeats - the Dubs reclaimed Sam Maguire this season. Midfielder Fenton is a shoe-in for a sixth All-Star and a contender for Footballer of the Year at Friday night’s awards ceremony at the RDS (Live on RTÉ One). The 30-year-old would be the sole three-time FOTY, second only to Kerry great Jack O’Shea, who claimed the old Texaco prize on four occasions.

"It was the best football year I've ever had, not personally, but just as a team," he tells RTÉ Sport. "The craic and proving people wrong. Doing it for Dessie [Farrell], doing it for Clucko [Stephen Cluxton] coming back, Maccer [James McCarthy].

"To see James lift the cup... There's a slow-mo RTÉ showed of him lifting the cup, and it just gives you a buzz. He's just this Titan warrior that's pulling us all along with him. I will always say, 'Wasn't I lucky to play with James McCarthy or play with Stephen Cluxton, Diarmuid Connolly,' because they're just Dublin legends. Dublin legends."

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"I'm as motivated as ever. Luckily enough, we've tasted success in the past. We've tasted backing it up and backing it up again. Hopefully, the young lads in our team will have felt that as well and want more of it, know that feeling. I have to go again and be the best. I don't want