Wee could’ve been closer to promotion

GER Brennan says Louth’s style of play is designed around forwards having “a bit of fun” and no player has benefitted more from the less formulaic approach than Ryan Burns, whose 1-2 fired the Wee county to the Division 2 safety mark on Saturday night.

The Reds’ three-point victory over Kildare ensured that Brennan, who succeeded Mickey Harte as manager last October, and co can look forward to a third consecutive term in the second tier.

While finishing three places lower than in 2023, and only a point clear of the relegation places, Louth have scored 5-5 more than last season and an extra 4-2 from play, with Burns bagging 2-11 across the seven matches.

“He’s really flying it,” Brennan said of the Hunterstown Rovers clubman.

“Niall Moyna (selector) has spoken highly of him from his time in DCU and the talent he has. I can’t say nothing other than good things about Ryan in terms of how hard he works and how much he puts in to prepare his body. He’s had an excellent league campaign.

“On the style, having spent time here with Carlow, I can appreciate why you can have to have a really structured system to get out of Division 4, 3 and to be competitive in Division 2 but, obviously, I’ve experienced the other end as a player and you need to be able to play what’s in front of you.

“Yes, you have your structured plays and variations within that structure but you need to sometimes play like you’re playing in the back garden and go for it.

“I’m all for lads expressing themselves in the final third. If they try to take fellas on in our defensive third or middle third, that’s a bit more high risk so you’re trying to create situations where there are support runners and outlets.

“We’ve been working hard on that but when the ball gets up to the other end of the pitch, we want the players to have a bit of fun and be instinctive and creative.”

Though the Dublin-native reckons Louth could have been closer to the Division 2 table toppers and while pleased by the wins over Fermanagh and Kildare, which earned survival, is rueful of chances which weren’t taken earlier in the campaign.

“Overall, I wouldn’t be overly happy,” added Brennan. “The lads themselves would be honest enough to admit that we should have been a lot closer to the top two and pushing for promotion but we’ll have to go at this division again next year and try to get closer.

“You’re looking to be competing at a high intensity as often as possible. Mentally, within games, that’s the biggest area for improvement, for me. Division 1 teams don’t switch off for as long a period as we would have in some of the earlier rounds.

“Against Fermanagh and Kildare, we were able to get back into the match far quicker, which is a huge improvement and it’s an area we’re going to look at moving into the league next year. It’s important that you don’t just switch off.

“Monaghan and Roscommon are going to be looking to get straight back up so we can’t afford to switch off.

“Things are coming rightly and there is a nice panel coming together, with competition for places, which is what you want. But it’s kill or be killed sometimes so there definitely is a bit of relief that Louth, based on the last 10 days, have been able to maintain Division 2 status though, again, I wouldn’t be particularly happy. We could have, should have, been pushing closer for promotion.”