IT IS ONLY three years since the lights literally went out on Louth football.
As Mickey Harte faced up to his media inquisitors in the aftermath of the Leinster final, the auditorium deep in the bowls of Croke Park was plunged into darkness as a result of a brief power outage.
“Perhaps, it is for the best,” quipped Harte ruefully, who could hardly have been blamed for wishing the outage had extended to the electronic scoreboard which neon flashed Louth’s shame, beaten by 21 points, as Dublin scorched to a record equalling 13th Leinster title in a row.
‘It is a harsh lesson for players but sometimes that happens in football and you have to learn from every outcome,’ he continued.
At the time, those words felt about as profound and meaningful as a hormone-fuelled teenager caught up in a losing battle with his tied tongue and who in defiance of his frozen brain, casts one last thought in the hope of a bite, “So, do you come here often?”
Sometimes, you just say things because if you don’t all that is left is damning silence to fill a painful chasm in time.
Harte was merely paraphrasing what a line of other vanquished bainisteoirs who were rolled out behind the same desk, year after year, to put words on the misery of being drowned by a blue tidal wave had offered up, forced to sell the faint hope that a humiliation might qualify as an education.
Louths Mickey Harte and Dublin's Dessie Farrell after the 2023 Leinster final. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Except, Harte’s words have dated well enough to even have a tinge of the prophetic about them.
This weekend, before the ball has been thrown-in between them, Louth enjoy the rarest of spaces, facing Dublin not as fanciful giantkillers in waiting, but as marginal favourites to get within 70 minutes of a successful defence of their Leinster crown.
From there to here inside 36 months has not only been quite the journey, it has been an even better story, with a byzantine plot line.
Louth found their competitive feet by hiring a Dublin champion as their rookie manager, and while Ger Brennan could not prevent his native county from making history by winning 14 in a row in 2024, he would deliver Louth a first provincial crown in 68 years last summer.
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Ger Brennan and Niall Moyna celebrate Louth's Leinster final win last summer. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
His reward was the keys to his own city, or at least Donnycarney, while to sweeten the plot, his successor in Louth is Harte’s long-time assistant Gavin “Horse” Devlin.
Revenge, apparently, is best served not only chilled, but also by a familiar hand.
Of course, that is getting ahead of ourselves.
While the result is everything on Saturday evening, the fact that these counties, in defiance of tradition, size and resources, have traded places (at least according to the market) is astonishing in itself .
Of course, It is as much about time catching Dublin as it is about being Louth’s time, but the latter have made it happen for themselves.
Dublin’s dominance may have been spelled out in a glossy “blue wave” strategy document, but Louth have not been operating off the back of a post it pad either.
Their Darver training centre has not been a centre of excellence by name, but by reputation.
Their development of talent has taken them to the front of the underage pack in recent seasons, and last year saw them come within a kick of the ball in the minor final of completing the provincial treble, on the back of winning the senior and under-20s.
No sooner had Devlin handed in his coaching bib with Derry than he was snapped up by Louth to oversee that project as director of football, before taking over in the hot-spot.
And Louth’s development at underage is not being measured in medals but in inter-county minutes, with the likes of Tadhg McDonnell, Dara McDonnell, Sean Callaghan, Sean Reynolds, Kieran McArdle, Padraic Tinnelly and James Maguire having made the step up from the past two under-20 teams.
In a county perceived to be too small for its own good, that has not only provided Louth with depth but with the kind of winning mentality that has dissolved any sense of an inferiority complex. For the past three seasons they have beaten Dublin at under-20 level, while their minors dished out a double score hammering to the boys in Blue in last year’s semi-final.
In truth, that perception of it being the “Wee County” does not marry with the reality of a huge increase in population, as a consequence of being on the front-line of the Dublin commuter belt, but they are harnessing those resources, aided by an increase in coaching funding, to make it count.
Above all, though, as a group Louth have, as Harte indicated back then, lived and learned.
After leaking five goals that could easily have been double that amount in the 2023 Leinster final, Brennan brought defensive structure which paid off with the immediate dividend of taking the county to a first ever All-Ireland quarter-final in his debut season, prior to last season’s giddy success.
Devlin, though, has found a way to add to that by ensuring they have become one of the most direct counter-attacking teams in the game, in the process weaponising an attack whose threat this season goes far beyond the sublime headline act that is Sam Mulroy.
If in its infancy Jim Gavin and his FRC imagined what their new fangled game might look like, Ciaran Downey’s goal against Cavan in their round five Division 2 clash in Breffni Park might have been it.
From the moment Niall McDonnell gathers the ball to Downey’s soccer style first time finish, it goes from one end to the other in four kicks, taking just nine seconds to execute the move.
That may just be one score but it sums up the clarity of thought and belief in their game-plan that has provided Louth with the kind of identity that in contrast Dublin have really struggled to find thus far this season.
Of course, what we don’t know is how they will cope with the expectation of not just going toe to toe with Dublin, but with beating them.
The last time that happened was 53 years ago, when they prevailed in a replayed second round clash in Navan.
That was no shock either, Dublin were regarded to be in disarray, Kevin Heffernan was in a spectator role and the team was being managed by a selection committee on the sideline.
Dean Rock, in the absence of the suspended Brennan who will watch on from the stand in Portlaoise, heads up the selection committee this time, as Dublin seek to find some rhyme and reason in a disrupted season.
Within 12 months of that 1973 loss to Louth, Dublin, led by Heffernan, would be All-Ireland champions.
There might be some perverse comfort in that for Brennan and Dublin.
But while they have every chance on Saturday – no matter what way you throw it up it comes down as a 50/50 game – when it comes to the bigger picture, this time they are the ones who are peddling faint hope in the face of a grim reality.
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How will Leinster champions Louth cope with expectation as they face off against Dublin?
IT IS ONLY three years since the lights literally went out on Louth football.
As Mickey Harte faced up to his media inquisitors in the aftermath of the Leinster final, the auditorium deep in the bowls of Croke Park was plunged into darkness as a result of a brief power outage.
“Perhaps, it is for the best,” quipped Harte ruefully, who could hardly have been blamed for wishing the outage had extended to the electronic scoreboard which neon flashed Louth’s shame, beaten by 21 points, as Dublin scorched to a record equalling 13th Leinster title in a row.
‘It is a harsh lesson for players but sometimes that happens in football and you have to learn from every outcome,’ he continued.
At the time, those words felt about as profound and meaningful as a hormone-fuelled teenager caught up in a losing battle with his tied tongue and who in defiance of his frozen brain, casts one last thought in the hope of a bite, “So, do you come here often?”
Sometimes, you just say things because if you don’t all that is left is damning silence to fill a painful chasm in time.
Harte was merely paraphrasing what a line of other vanquished bainisteoirs who were rolled out behind the same desk, year after year, to put words on the misery of being drowned by a blue tidal wave had offered up, forced to sell the faint hope that a humiliation might qualify as an education.
Except, Harte’s words have dated well enough to even have a tinge of the prophetic about them.
This weekend, before the ball has been thrown-in between them, Louth enjoy the rarest of spaces, facing Dublin not as fanciful giantkillers in waiting, but as marginal favourites to get within 70 minutes of a successful defence of their Leinster crown.
From there to here inside 36 months has not only been quite the journey, it has been an even better story, with a byzantine plot line.
Louth found their competitive feet by hiring a Dublin champion as their rookie manager, and while Ger Brennan could not prevent his native county from making history by winning 14 in a row in 2024, he would deliver Louth a first provincial crown in 68 years last summer.
His reward was the keys to his own city, or at least Donnycarney, while to sweeten the plot, his successor in Louth is Harte’s long-time assistant Gavin “Horse” Devlin.
Revenge, apparently, is best served not only chilled, but also by a familiar hand.
Of course, that is getting ahead of ourselves.
While the result is everything on Saturday evening, the fact that these counties, in defiance of tradition, size and resources, have traded places (at least according to the market) is astonishing in itself .
Of course, It is as much about time catching Dublin as it is about being Louth’s time, but the latter have made it happen for themselves.
Dublin’s dominance may have been spelled out in a glossy “blue wave” strategy document, but Louth have not been operating off the back of a post it pad either.
Their Darver training centre has not been a centre of excellence by name, but by reputation.
Their development of talent has taken them to the front of the underage pack in recent seasons, and last year saw them come within a kick of the ball in the minor final of completing the provincial treble, on the back of winning the senior and under-20s.
No sooner had Devlin handed in his coaching bib with Derry than he was snapped up by Louth to oversee that project as director of football, before taking over in the hot-spot.
And Louth’s development at underage is not being measured in medals but in inter-county minutes, with the likes of Tadhg McDonnell, Dara McDonnell, Sean Callaghan, Sean Reynolds, Kieran McArdle, Padraic Tinnelly and James Maguire having made the step up from the past two under-20 teams.
In a county perceived to be too small for its own good, that has not only provided Louth with depth but with the kind of winning mentality that has dissolved any sense of an inferiority complex. For the past three seasons they have beaten Dublin at under-20 level, while their minors dished out a double score hammering to the boys in Blue in last year’s semi-final.
In truth, that perception of it being the “Wee County” does not marry with the reality of a huge increase in population, as a consequence of being on the front-line of the Dublin commuter belt, but they are harnessing those resources, aided by an increase in coaching funding, to make it count.
Above all, though, as a group Louth have, as Harte indicated back then, lived and learned.
After leaking five goals that could easily have been double that amount in the 2023 Leinster final, Brennan brought defensive structure which paid off with the immediate dividend of taking the county to a first ever All-Ireland quarter-final in his debut season, prior to last season’s giddy success.
Devlin, though, has found a way to add to that by ensuring they have become one of the most direct counter-attacking teams in the game, in the process weaponising an attack whose threat this season goes far beyond the sublime headline act that is Sam Mulroy.
If in its infancy Jim Gavin and his FRC imagined what their new fangled game might look like, Ciaran Downey’s goal against Cavan in their round five Division 2 clash in Breffni Park might have been it.
From the moment Niall McDonnell gathers the ball to Downey’s soccer style first time finish, it goes from one end to the other in four kicks, taking just nine seconds to execute the move.
That may just be one score but it sums up the clarity of thought and belief in their game-plan that has provided Louth with the kind of identity that in contrast Dublin have really struggled to find thus far this season.
Of course, what we don’t know is how they will cope with the expectation of not just going toe to toe with Dublin, but with beating them.
The last time that happened was 53 years ago, when they prevailed in a replayed second round clash in Navan.
That was no shock either, Dublin were regarded to be in disarray, Kevin Heffernan was in a spectator role and the team was being managed by a selection committee on the sideline.
Dean Rock, in the absence of the suspended Brennan who will watch on from the stand in Portlaoise, heads up the selection committee this time, as Dublin seek to find some rhyme and reason in a disrupted season.
Within 12 months of that 1973 loss to Louth, Dublin, led by Heffernan, would be All-Ireland champions.
There might be some perverse comfort in that for Brennan and Dublin.
But while they have every chance on Saturday – no matter what way you throw it up it comes down as a 50/50 game – when it comes to the bigger picture, this time they are the ones who are peddling faint hope in the face of a grim reality.
Mind, that turned out just fine for Louth.
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