Optimism is high that Louth can go one step beyond last season, when they pushed Cork and Mayo close in the round-robin but still came up short, finishing bottom of their group after a last-day pummelling by Kerry.
This time around, they have Kerry again but, before that, will be targeting points against Meath this Saturday (a ‘home’ fixture hosted by Inniskeen) and then Monaghan away the following weekend.
Louth’s impressive Leinster showing against Dublin, reducing their margin of defeat from 21 points to four in 12 months, has fuelled hopes that they can qualify this time around.
“What is the phrase, one swallow never made a summer? And at the moment, that performance [against Dublin] was one swallow,” Brennan cautioned at a Louth pre-match press conference.
“Really, we need to start competing in the All-Ireland series and getting to the latter stages of the championship. Even looking at some of the teams that Louth have beaten in the championship since 2018, we have only beaten London, Carlow, Westmeath, Offaly, Wexford and Kildare.
“Outside of those six counties, Louth have not beaten anyone else so now is a wonderful opportunity to compete against Meath, the old enemy for Louth, and try to get one over them.”
The form graph comparisons make this a difficult one to predict. In Louth’s favour, they pushed Dublin far closer than Meath, who lost their Leinster quarter-final by 16 points.
Earlier in the year, however, Meath overwhelmed Louth by nine points in the O’Byrne Cup and then stormed back from four down (after 40 minutes) to take both league points in Navan via a 1-11 to 1-9 win. That meant they finished ahead of Louth, under the head-to-head rule, in Division 2.
“It is probably historical challenges and traditional challenges that Louth have to overcome,” Brennan ventured. “Again, by just performing relatively well in the Leinster final, that does not mean it is a good year. If it is a good year, Louth have to go further than they did in the previous season . . . so now is about time to start putting it up against Meath, Monaghan and Kerry as well.”
Suffice to say, talk of Louth being ‘the second-best team in Leinster’ (for which there is no cup) won’t cut it for a manager who won two All-Irelands as a player with Dublin.
“If we get to the knockout of the All-Ireland series, then that is absolutely black-and-white progress and that does support the statement that Louth are improving,” he said.
“But again, tradition and history dictate that Meath have all the cards in their hands, given that it’s been nearly 50 years since Louth have beaten Meath in the championship.”
Whereas Louth set up with a very low defensive block against Dublin, they still managed to retain a goal threat. Two second-half strikes brought their league and championship tally to 19 in 10 games under Brennan, conceding just five in the process.
“When you look at some of the stats from the Leinster final, we didn’t always get the ball up to the opposition 45 as quickly as we would have liked,” their manager pointed out. “It wasn’t that we didn’t want to get the ball up there more quickly, it was just that we had a more experienced press coming at us.
“So, if the opportunities are there against Meath, hopefully the lads will take them. But we also have to keep an eye on the house to ensure that we’re not conceding some of those goals and, as you mentioned, Meath are known for getting last-minute goals.
“I think it was Mathew Costello, in the National League game against us, who totally changed that game with a marauding run from outside the ‘45’, so we’re going to have to be on our toes in the defence.”
Last word on the Monaghan venue: Louth have trained there in advance, the facilities are “fabulous” and it’s only a relatively short hop to Louth’s centre of excellence in Darver.
“The crowd is going to be right on top of you; every mistake, score or block is going to be amplified given the proximity from the terrace and stand to the field. So, it has all the ingredients for a wonderful occasion,” Brennan enthused.
As for his post-Leinster final comments that the GAA needs to “accelerate” the development of Louth’s planned new stadium outside Dundalk, he admitted: “I was probably a bit excited last week chatting to ye after the match, given how close we came. I really have to leave those things to the executive. I do know there’s an awful lot of work going on in the background. So, it was a bit of a loose comment from me … it was unfair on Croke Park and unfair on [Louth chair] Seán McClean.”
