McKeown tipping Louth to turn tables on Wicklow
HIS team will be heavy underdogs heading to Birr on Monday afternoon, but Micheal McKeown is backing his Louth troops to turn the tables on all-conquering Wicklow in Sunday’s Lidl National League Division 4 final.
The Garden girls won all of their seven league matches this spring, racking up some big scores in the process.
But they only had five points to spare over Louth in Stabanoon on April Fool’s Day and experienced coach McKeown believes his team can bridge that gap.
‘Wicklow are no bad team, they came through the league unbeaten, but we feel we can close the gap. When we played them in Stabannon we had two players sin-binned and they got seven very handy close-in frees, so this time I’d say there won’t be much more than two or three points in it either way.
‘I’ve looked at the video 10 times and I know where we can penetrate them and these girls rise to a challenge. I knew against Limerick in the semi-final that they would have a big second-half in them with the breeze behind them and they kicked 1-10, but the work they did in the first-half was just as impressive and just as important.’
It’s been an impressive first season in charge for McKeown, but he has the pedigree. Originally from Channonrock, he guided Mongahan ladies to back-to-back All-Irelands in 1996 and ‘97 and his Farney minor (boys) team reached three Ulster finals in a row, only to come up against an emerging Tyrone dynasty on each occasion.
But if his many tears in the game have told him anything, it’s that youth is the way forward.
‘I’d say the best advice I received coming into the job was to look at the younger players coming through to see who could step up and there’s been quite a few that have proved they can,’ he revealed.
‘We’ll take in a few more now after the minor final last weekend. But we have a few elder lemons, as we call them, still there too, so there’s a nice blend of youth and experience. We got a few back like Aine Breen and Michelle McMahon.
‘It’s also very pleasing to have a squad of 34 girls from 17 different clubs, that’s very encouraging too and it definitely augurs well for the future of Louth football.
‘I’ve always said unless you start with youth you’ve got nothing and Louth is reaping the benefit now. There were over 200 young girls at an U-12 blitz in Darver recently so that’s great to see. You have to get into the schools early, there’s no other way. We did that in Monaghan with 25 FAS coaches and it worked. Both the mens and ladies are at the top of their game now.’
McKeown revealed that Kate Flood was nursing a minor knee injury 10 days out from the final, but apart from that his players are fighting fit and win, lose or draw he says they’ve already done their county proud.
‘Our goal at the start of the year was to reach the league final and we’ve achieved that so we’re more than happy.
‘I couldn’t ask for anymore from them, they’re a fantastic group of people and athletes. We have 30-plus at every session and long may it continue. When you’re doing well people want to be part of it.
‘I have to hand it to the county board too. Once we reached the final we had a meeting discuss logistics and that and the first thing they asked was what do you need. We have great sponsors too in Blackstone Motors, Watters from Collon and Dooley’s in Edmonstown,’ he added.