Arthur enjoying the Wee life
HE’S shooting the lights out on a weekly basis and is now gearing up for a crack at a national title in his debut season.
It’s safe to say Niall Arthur is enjoying the Wee life!
The Clare man, his brother Gerry, and Wexford’s Mark Molloy are availing of the hurling residency rule for weaker counties to line out with Louth this season and the trio have contributed to a remarkable revival in the Reds’ fortunes.
It’s not the first time Louth have made use of the residency rule - which is capped at three players per season - but Arthur has undoubtedly been their biggest catch, helping himself to 4-12 in a single game against Longford.
In an ultra-tight division, the trio of imports have added a clinical edge, as Louth went from losing all of their National League games in 2017 to qualifying for this year’s 3A final and setting up a shot at promotion.
The Arthur brothers arrived with a particularly strong pedigree. Niall is a former Clare minor hurler of the year and played with the U21s for two seasons, while Gerry had a couple of spells on the senior panel.
Niall works in Donacarney NS and it was former principal John Joe Conneely, an old family friend, who recruited the brothers.
The duo were playing with O’Toole’s in Dublin up until the end of last season, but when they decided to transfer back to their hometown club Inagh-Kilnamona, John Joe spotted an opportunity. The rest as they say is history.
‘It’s been brilliant,’ Niall enthuses about his debut season in red. ‘I knew a few of the Fechin’s lads as I trained with them a few times over the last few years when we were with O’Toole’s - Paddy Lynch, Tom Ryan and obviously Seaghan and John Joe [Conneally].’
Those few friendly faces have helped Niall and Gerry to settle in quickly and he has been very impressed by the quality and application in Philip O’Brien’s panel.
‘The standard is very high and we’ve some fine hurlers who are seriously fit. There are seven or eight there who wouldn’t be out of place at any level of the game, so I suppose it’s about strength in depth and obviously you wouldn’t have that here in the way we would down the country.
‘I know the scoring I’ve been doing has made the headlines, but we’re the furthest thing from a one-man show. Stephen Kettle is a top-class hurler, Mark Molloy and my brother Gerry have been excellent and, look, it’s a 15 to 20 man game and you don’t get to a final carrying anyone.’
The nature of importing players from stronger counties means Louth have to make hay while the sun shines. Gerry is off to Bahrain with his girlfriend in September for a couple of years and with Niall returning to his home club, he could well be pushing for a spot in Clare’s panel next season.
‘It’s Gerry’s last shot at inter-county hurling. I
The standard is very high in the panel and we’ve some fine hurlers who are seriously fit. There are seven or eight there who wouldn’t be out of place at any level of the game.
suppose I’d like to think if I played well back with my club this year, [Clare] would have a look at me, but it’s a fine team. But yeah if I got the chance to prove myself it would be great.
‘We’ve a very strong club team. The lads have been in three U-21A finals in a row and there’s eight or nine on the county U-21 squad, so it’s a coming team.’
For now the brothers are focused on securing silverware for Louth, starting on Saturday in Trim. He’s expecting nothing easy from the Exiles, however.
‘It’s a very tight grade. If you take out the Roscommon game where we lost fairly heavily, we beat Tyrone by four with a last-minute goal, drew with Warwickshire and drew with Monaghan. We beat Longford by seven or eight, and that could maybe have been more, but when you look at the top four or five it couldn’t have been any closer.
‘I was keeping an eye on Warwickshire’s results and it was nip-and-tuck in all their games. They’ve had a settled team and they’ve a really good hurler in Paul Hoban from Galway.‘We had chances to beat them the last day, but when you think back through the game, we could easily have lost it too. We went in ahead at half-time, but we were five or six down at one stage and it could have been more, so in that sense we were lucky the game didn’t get away from us.
It’ll be very, very tight I’d imagine, but finals are there to be won.’