"Lads are weird on these holidays," says Brian Fenton with a smile, an exclamation point to his bemusement regarding some Dublin GAA teammates.
He's talking about trips like the Dublin football team's upcoming one to Miami and the Dominican Republic, a reward for winning this year's All-Ireland title.
"They love going to the gym and love doing runs. I don't know what gets into them," says Fenton, speaking at the announcement of Staycity Aparthotels as the new main sponsor of Dublin GAA.
"I'll go and I know it's a necessity. You don't want to be the odd one out. You can tell I'm probably not the chest press or chin-up champion in our group.
"Lads let their hair down and it's very chill, you're on the beach, and life is good but, from what I remember when we used to go on holidays, they use it as an opportunity to get some gym work in. You're not in work so that relieves lots of stress but they are mad for action when we're on holidays."
30 July 2023; Brian Fenton of Dublin lines up alongside his teammates before the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
The Dublin team, partners and children included, fly out this Sunday and will return towards the end of the month. Fenton plans to stay an extra two days before returning for the start of Dublin's pre-season training at the "dark and dreary and wet most of the time" Innisfails.
Along with being the dividend of their All-Ireland successes, team holidays also serve as a bonding exercise.
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"The last two years, we've done a training camp in Portugal, and you're just engaging with lads differently. You're getting to spend more time with them, you're getting to know them better," says Fenton.
"You might think you see each other all the time, you know the ins and outs of each other, but you don't. You don't know what's going on. And we try and address that during the season. You don't know what's going on beneath the surface for a lot of lads.
"Holidays and training camps and overnights and bus trips, that sort of stuff allows you to kind of just extend the network a little bit and spread your branches a little bit into lads and get a little bit deeper, get to know their partners, get to know their kids, get to know what motivates them and gets them going. It's amazing, it really brings the group together.
30 July 2023; Brian Fenton of Dublin GAA celebrates at the final whistle during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
"We talk about this, the DSF (Dublin Senior Football) family, and they're all in. Team doctors who, from my aspect [I think] don't draw down a cent from the county board. They come, with their families and their wives.
"It's amazing because we only see the players, we only see the doctors, those people, Dessie, the management at a certain level and there's a certain pressure to it, but to spend time with their families and their children is amazing.
"John Small, for example, is bringing his son Charlie. They're potentially heading off to Orlando to the theme parks and stuff and what a trip for them. It's a magic few days, genuinely.
"You can imagine now lads will come home from the holiday being like, 'Why would I not do this again next year? Why would I not want this feeling again?' Well hopefully, hopefully..."
Fenton says there has "genuinely" been no official word on any retirements within the Dublin panel. After July's victory over Kerry, James McCarthy and Dean Rock were among those to drop hints about hanging up their boots.
"The emotion gets to their heads!" says Fenton.
"You're scared to ask. You're not going to go, 'Maccer, here, are you retiring or what's the story?'"
During RTÉ's coverage of Dublin's victory, there was a slow motion clip of McCarthy lifting Sam Maguire. Thinking about it now elicits a boyish energy from Fenton as he rubs his hands together and smiles.
14 September 2019; Stephen Cluxton celebrates with Brian Fenton, left, and James McCarthy, right, following the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final Replay match between Dublin GAA and Kerry GAA at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
"He's a joke! And I say 'joke' in the best possible way," Fenton says about McCarthy.
"He's a gentleman first and foremost. He's just incredibly well-reared or something, his morals are so like... he just knows the way he wants to live, the way he wants to act; has never got involved in controversies or anything like that, so credit to him.
"Now he'll mill a fella out on the pitch no problem. He's no saint on the pitch, but just the person he is... in the dressing room, he doesn't speak massively but if you're in the shit, he's always the first leading the charge."
Fenton extends his arms backwards, illustrating the image he has in his mind of McCarthy, like a thoroughbred horse, pulling the Dublin chariot.
"You can imagine he's fucking just pulling us along with him like," says Fenton.
"That's how I see him, I get a sense that he's just like this spearhead of our whole team and of our whole county, like in a weird, deeper way. He's just this Titan warrior that's just pulling us all along with him. As you can tell, I hate the fella. [laughs].
"The likes of Stephen (Cluxton) is the same, they're just these iconic men and iconic figures. I will always say, 'Wasn't I lucky to play with James McCarthy or play with Stephen Cluxton, Diarmuid Connolly,' for those reasons, because they're just Dublin legends. Dublin legends."
30 July 2023; Brian Fenton of Dublin celebrates with the Sam Maguire Cup after his side's victory in the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Next season will be Fenton's tenth as a Dublin senior footballer. Though he won his seventh All-Ireland title this season, is a two-time PwC Footballer of the Year and has been nominated again this year, his main motivation is still to prove himself.
"Obviously, motivations are different at the start: get into the team, just be on the bus and make sure your teammates like you - that was a huge thing that I felt," he says.
"Despite all the medals, stats, whatever, it's still like I have to prove myself again next year. I have to go again and be the best like.
"I don't want to go out in a game and Brendan Rogers be smoking me again like he did this year. I just want to be one of Dublin's main players, one of Dublin's best players. If I'm not in the team, I want to be helping the team, I want to be helping young lads if there's a bad start or whatever.
"The motivation, it's easy to kind of get going. It wavers, don't get me wrong. At times, it's just like, 'Jesus.' You're feeling the slog and you might not have a game for a few weeks and you're like, 'Woah, this is tough.' That's human nature, I would say.
"But in many ways, it's still the same. I'm still a kid who wants to play with Dublin and wants to win."
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