It was the end of a successful tournament for the All Ireland football club St. Vincent’s when captain Ger Brennan made a very casual but powerful victory speech remark.

Holding a microphone and addressing a large crowd on Sunday (16 March), Brennan expressed his thanks to those who supported the team through its final victory over Mayo’s Castlebar Mitchels in Dublin’s Croke Park.

He then – without hesitation of special emphasis – specifically thanked the ‘families, girlfriends, boyfriends’ of the team members for standing behind the team.

‘There’s a lot of work that goes into playing for your club team,’ he said.

Brennan’s action in a team leadership role resembles that of LA Galaxy captain Landon Donovan who made a similar gesture in a far less public way last month.

Donovan, close friends with the team’s openly gay player Robbie Rogers, left a locker room note for his teammates calling for a mandatory boys night out that would not include any significant others.

‘No wives, gfs, bfs, sidepieces.’

Rogers, who is dating television producer Greg Berlanti (Arrow), noted the inclusion in a tweet to Donovan which simply stated: ‘Thanks for including me.’