Top Louth teams ‘as good as what’s around the country’

Caoimhín Reilly spoke to those who have managed in the Wee county and outside to get a feeling for the quality

WHEN Peter Fitzpatrick took over as Louth GAA chairman in December 2019, he told delegates that there were enough good players in the county to raise the profile of the senior team on the national stage.

Within 12 months, the Reds were relegated to Division 4 for the second time in five years and with underage results not overly encouraging, Fitzpatrick’s claim felt more like an attempt to stoke belief as opposed to a substantiated argument.

Alas, the arrival of Mickey Harte catapulted the status of Louth football and despite the Tyrone-native’s departure, last Sunday’s victory over Wexford ensured the Wee county qualified for a second successive provincial semi-final and just a third since 1998.

But club-wise, Louth are one of just three counties yet to produce a Leinster senior club championship winner despite being quite prominent in the intermediate and junior grades. Though there is still a feeling that the standard of domestic football measures up to that of a host of neighbouring counties.

Declan McCoy managed in his native Armagh and Down before coming across the border and leading St Bride’s for four seasons from 2019, guiding the Knockbridge outfit to their first championship title in 53 years as they returned to the senior grade. He’s now in his second term in charge of Naomh Máirtín and holds the Jocks and their Joe Ward Cup rivals, Ardee St Mary’s, on a favourable pedestal.

“If you’re saying Ardee and the Jocks are the top two teams in Louth but were in Down or Armagh, they’d certainly fancy their chances of winning the championship,” he said.

“The top two in Louth actually are probably as good as what’s at the top end of every championship around the country.

“This is my sixth year in Louth and it’s changed a lot since I came in first. I felt Armagh and Down would have been ahead when I came in at the start. Not in terms of talent but regarding coaching and systems of play. It’s more results-based and about effectiveness in those counties whereas here it was about talent more and just playing the game.

“I would say that it’s become more tactical and systematic in Louth over the years but there’s certainly still more talent in Louth than what I’ve encountered elsewhere.”

Hunterstown Rovers boss Seán Kelly, a Meath man who taught in St Joseph’s, Drogheda, for 27 years as well as coaching St Mary’s and Mattock Rangers, agrees.

“Clubs in Louth always seem to produce good corner-forwards or good forwards but the biggest issue would have been size and volume,” he reckons

“What I would say is that the top club teams in senior football in Louth would win the Meath championship and I’ve been saying that for a number of years now, certainly over the last five or six years anyway.

“In 2018, I was with Dunboyne when they won the Meath senior championship and we played Naomh Máirtín in a challenge match and they beat us by a few points. Blues beat Naomh Máirtín in the county final later that year in Louth but I remember talking to Jim Farrell (then Máirtín’s manager) after our game and saying that they would win the Meath championship.

“If you look at the Leinster club championship last year, Ardee were the closest to beating Kilmacud Crokes. Like if they were in Meath, they’d win the championship and the same with Naomh Máirtín at the moment probably.

“I would say the Meath clubs have bigger areas and there are more players for them to choose from but you look at the intermediate championship in Louth, and I know from being with Mattock Rangers in 2019, it’s a very strong grade with five or six teams who could win it in any year.

“Overall, I’d say the level of football is very strong and clubs are probably doing really well with a smaller pool of players, dcompared to what’s available in Meath.”

Indeed, the gradual transition in terms of how Louth clubs now play the game is recognised by Dundalk Young Irelands manager Eamonn Morgan, who is in his second spell with the Marist outfit having previously led them to the Division 2 title in 2021.

Since then, he trained Longstone in Down, steering them into the top-flight and helping them retain their senior championship status.

“The way teams set-up was different when I came first in that they liked to play football and just play the game,” Morgan added.

“The first challenge in many ways was in getting them to play the way they needed to play instead of how they necessarily wanted to. In Down, all teams model themselves on Kilcoo and there is just an expectation that that’s now going to be the case because they’re the team that is winning the most.

“The skill factor in Louth is first class and the workrate and conditioning side of it is getting there. But going back to the Kilcoo thing, other clubs inevitably need to follow what works for the top sides. How can you sell it to the Burren players, for example, that they can beat Kilcoo if they’re not doing the exact same training or preparing in a similar way?

“I’d say there are five or six clubs trying to win the intermediate championship in Louth who are starting to do or are doing the same things as the Mary’s or the Máirtín’s players. They’re following that trend to try and get there.”

MODERN APPROACH

Ultimately, strength and conditioning training now plays a significant role in how teams prepare, as well as having a greater number of people involved in support roles.

Mark Gilsenan, the Corduff clubman who teaches in Ardee Community School and managed Glyde Rangers and Lannléire in addition to Syddan in Meath, can see the change in mentality since first coming to the Wee county.

“I’m naturally going to be biased but I would have said that Monaghan was a few years ahead in terms of S&C and buying in to the idea of it, but other counties are catching up and from I came into Louth first, where there was very little of it across the board, to now, it’s certainly improved.

“Like, in Monaghan, it’s almost frightening the training they’re at and it’s now more of a norm that clubs have multiple coaches and that’s going to filter down. When I started in Louth, it was more common for one man to come in as manager with three local fellas as selectors.

“I don’t know if it’s needed as much but the players now are from a different generation and maybe they would rather be doing the S&C than what we would have done as players. You have to be careful too not to be sickening players too much and realise that sometimes less is more.

“Although it can be an image thing for modern players now as well in that they look after themselves better in the off-season and are used to using gyms and doing weight training.”

Coming at it from the opposite angle, Ciarán Marks played for Na Piarsaigh Blackrock before stepping into management and having guided clubs in Louth and Meath, is now at the helm of Laragh in Cavan.

On the subject, he said: “If you go into an interview now and say you’re not interested in S&C, you just won’t get the job – or you’d have to question a club who do give you the job with that attitude.

“With Seneschalstown and now with Laragh, I don’t think there was a great culture of S&C there. It was the same with Cooley in 2021, there would have been no S&C as an organised group. In all counties, there is probably a certain amount of catch-up being played in terms of the top teams have that base.

“We played Wolfe Tones in the third round of the championship with Seneschalstown in 2022 and you could see that we were seasons behind in terms of S&C by their sheer power. We had a lot of talented youngsters but they just blew us away in Páirc Tailteann.

IF YOU GO INTO AN INTERVIEW NOW AND SAY YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED IN S&C, YOU WON’T GET THE JOB

“Barry Teather (Louth senior S&C coach) would tell you that from his time in Meath. From U14 upwards, there is a focus on S&C and the size of the player they’re creating can put them a level ahead in ways. I say all this as someone who is certainly not an S&C freak – I’d take someone in with me to do it and in Laragh, we have the lads doing one night per week at it, 45 minutes on a Monday and I don’t even need to be there for it.

“It’s not the winning or the losing, ultimately, but for the clubs that have it, it can make a big difference and it’s just now a necessary evil. In the scenario between Seneschalstown and Wolfe Tones, Seneschalstown had a lot of talented, young players but Tones literally had the power to blow them away.

“I’m not talking about a Kildare scenario where they’re all huge men but you could have a case of 5ft 9in lads who are in the shape of their lives. Now there is always room for the one-off forward, like a Barry O’Hare in Roche, but if you look at most successful teams, they are in the shape of their lives and I know the work Barry (Teather) is doing in the Mary’s to have them doing what they’re doing.”

HOLDING LOUTH BACK

McCoy, who hails from Dromintee and was in charge of Glenn in Co Down, believes the lack of an S&C culture was holding Louth back until quite recently.

“I felt conditioning and S&C was what was holding Louth back at the start and it takes years to address that but it has started and you can see with the county seniors and the work they did with Mickey Harte and his management, they’re well down the road in that regard.

“Four or five years later, you can see it in the way they play and the difference in their physiques.

“Louth have always had talented players but now they’re big and strong as well and can match other counties in that regard. I think S&C is at a really high level in the senior clubs in Louth and that is filtering down through the grades but it takes time to catch up, ultimately.

“There probably is a bit much of the S&C dynamic now but you’re at a loss if you don’t do it. Back in the day, you had to be an out and out footballer whereas now you probably need to be more of an athlete. The game has just gone down that road where you need to be doing your two gym sessions a week on top of training.”

For Morgan, it isn’t so much a mindset thing for players but for the clubs they play for.

“In Down, it’s a given that every club has a gym and in Carryduff, who have made great strides in senior football, their gym is right at the entrance to the pitch so everyone passes it walking in.

“You can bet that any player who is not on the first-team squad on a Friday night is in that gym working hard to try and improve and make it on. I actually think it’s positioned brilliantly because it can be quite intimidating to see that type of application.”

Gilsenan agrees that players in Louth are no less devoted than those in other counties.

“Players in each of the counties would be giving the same commitment, by and large, but in Meath I’d say there was more bite to the games and I love the league in Monaghan where you move up and down in the league and the championship, where they’re linked.”

STRUCTURES

In relation to structures and how the leagues are made up, there are different opinions.

Kelly: “From a coaching point of view, it’s easier in Louth than Meath because there are fewer dual clubs so you can plan out your training more and do more work on an individual basis with players

“The leagues are taken seriously in Louth and so they should be but with the county players being unavailable for so long, the leagues are not as strong as they would have been, I would say. There used to be a star game model in Louth whereas in Meath you practically have always played most of the league without your county players.

“Like I was with St Colmcille’s last year and we had practically no county players. We got to the league final and played Ratoath, and it was only then that they really had their Meath players back. In all cases, championship tends to be number one.

McCoy: “In Down and Armagh, the leagues aren’t a massive priority any more and it’s all about getting ready for the championship.

“The split league format is a bit of a drain on county players because when you get them back, they need a break and you’re then hitting those big league games without them.

“When I was with the Bride’s, there was a big push on each year to make the top six and every game was important in order to achieve that. With the Jocks, it’s about pushing for the league title but you have more players and given the greater number of matches, the bigger squads and clubs can take the hit of players being away and injuries, etc.”

Morgan: “The league structure would be pretty similar in Down in that 90pc of it, if not it all, is played before the championship starts, which is key because you can’t be fighting on two fronts at one time.

“The priority for teams would be largely the same as well as we’re all trying to get up and compete, or you should be if you’re looking at winning the intermediate championship. In my opinion, it’s the hardest championship to win because you could have a few teams in it who are in Division 1 and used to that higher level of games and quality.

“Depending on the draw, if you’re in Division 2 and the intermediate championship, you may need to beat two first division teams to win the championship or get to the final, so that adds to the importance of getting up in the league.”

Marks: “The leagues are not taken as seriously in Meath and the skillset doesn’t differ hugely from my experience but I would say there are more teams who are more competitive in Meath.

“In Seneschalstown, we were operating towards the top of Division 1B and between the teams at the top of 1A and 1B, on any given day, there may not be much between them.

“In Louth, take the Mary’s, Máirtín’s and maybe Mochta’s, I don’t see any of the teams at the top of Division 2 necessarily being capable of taking a scalp off those leading clubs.

“Our first year in Seneschalstown, we drew St Colmcille’s in the first round of the championship. We’d missed out on promotion from 1B and they were one of the stronger 1A clubs and heavily fancied but we beat them. I don’t see that that scenario exists in Louth.”

The gulf between the leading few and chasing pack was something that Gilsenan alluded to as well.

“I’ve had more experience of the junior grades across the counties and

I wouldn’t see much of a difference in standard really, although there’s probably a bigger gap between the best and the weakest teams in the grades in Louth.

“You could say that Ratoath and Summerhill are the two strongest senior clubs in Meath, like Ardee and the Máirtín’s in Louth, but Wolfe Tones won the championship in Meath quite recently as well.

“Meath football probably isn’t as predictable in that there are more teams who could win it whereas you know at the start of each year in Louth who is going to be in contention for the championships, and the majority won’t be.

“In Monaghan, I’d say there are fewer weaker teams who you just know won’t win, and maybe the Meath championship structure is better where you have a junior A and a junior B. Although, given the fewer number of teams in the grades in Louth, it mightn’t be feasible and I wouldn’t be in favour of allowing reserve teams into those championships.”

Though McCoy rates the club championship format very highly compared with the offering in Down and Armagh.

“It’s the best I’ve come across and Louth is the most enjoyable county to coach in that I’ve experienced,” he said.

“In the championship, there are very few games which have no meaning and there’s a great sense of community across the scene. The local media coverage is outstanding and creates a massive interest in the competitions too.”

Morgan has developed a similar affection for football in the Wee county.

“For me, it’s about factoring in the geography too. It’s quicker for me to get to Young Irelands’ pitch than it was to go to Longstone two or three times a week.

“But you can’t possibly do the job well if you don’t get close to the people in the club and the community that surrounds it. To be a success with Dundalk Young Irelands, you have to become a Dundalk Young Irelander for the time that you’re there.

“It was the same for me in Longstone over the last two years. It’s my job to win and if that involved having a row with Conor Laverty or our fella (Declan Morgan – his brother, a county team selector) to get players released, so be it because it wasn’t about how Down got on on a Sunday, it was about Longstone on the Friday night.”

SUSTAINABILITY

Louth clubs, as far as Marks is concerned, have suffered less from players relocating, either to Dublin or abroad, and supposes that its close proximity to the capital has a lot to do with it.

“You don’t really see it in Louth but it’s a huge issue in other counties with players emigrating or moving away and for small communities, it can have a major effect. Like I took the job in Laragh and one of the first things I was told was that four players were going away. And it’s hardly going to get any better across the board for clubs across the country, especially rural ones.” “There would be a lot of clubs in north-Meath who are probably just surviving but the same could be same for areas in Louth, too, I suppose,” added Kelly. “There are big catchment areas in Drogheda and Dundalk but some of the clubs seem to be struggling a bit whereas the rural clubs probably have that stronger identity which helps them.” Fitzer could have a point, after all.