Louth bidding to call time on Kingdom’s minor reign
LOUTH’S minor footballers could be forgiven for feeling like they’re jumping from the frying pan to the fire this Saturday when they bid to topple All-Ireland champions Kerry in Portlaoise (1.15).
The Reds suffered a heavy Leinster final defeat to Dublin after reaching the county’s first provincial decider at the grade for 46 years.
Now they will attempt to halt the Kingdom’s quest for a fourth All-Ireland title on the trot at O’Moore Park.
Manager Wayne Kierans will want his troops to put the Dublin trimming firmly behind them, but he does want them to keep one aspect of the defeat front and centre.
‘We are definitely focusing on making a better start,’ Kierans insisted. ‘We want to produce a performance because as good as Dublin are, we felt we let ourselves down a bit. We let them get a run on us and we felt we could have coped better with them at the start and maybe eased our way into the game.’
Like Dublin, Kerry had it mostly their own way in a 2-21 to 0-3 win over Clare and Kierans insists no-one in the Louth camp will be underestimating just how good they will be.
‘If Dublin and Kildare are the benchmark in Leinster at the minute, Kerry are the bencmark country-wide. A lot of teams at this level have either the athleticism or the skill, but Kerry are athletic and brilliantly skilful. They’ve been churning out super minor teams over the last few years - iIt’s a conveyor belt down there.’
Despite not seeing them live yet, Kierans has analysed DVDs of the Kingdom, while his selector Liam Kelleher attended the Munster final.
‘I think everyone has heard of David Clifford by now, he’s an amazing talent and they have a very good centre-half forward, O’Sullivan.
‘They’ll have quality all over, but we have to concentrate on our own game and try to do ourselves justice this time.’
The Reds played their first game since the Leinster final defeat against Sligo last Sunday week - a game that was arranged even before they played Dublin.
‘You only have the quarter-finalists still together at this stage so your options are limited. Sligo were due to face Ulster opponents and we were lined up on the Munster side, so it made sense for both counties. We lost by four points, but I was happy with the performance.
‘They were a bit down the first time we trained after the Dublin game, but since then they’ve really picked it up and the mood is great again and you could see that coming through in the performance against Sligo.’
Kierans experienced a few anxious moments since the Dublin defeat as a few clubs opted to use their county minor players in club championship games, but he only has one injury concern.
‘Alan Connor suffered a knock in training on Saturday, but I think he sould be okay. We won’t know for sure until he trains during the week, but fingers crossed.’
Goalkeeper Alan McGauley has been cleared to play after a rib injury forced him off against Dublin.
‘He didn’t play against Sligo but he has two training sessions behind him and he’ll have a couple more before Saturday so he should be fine,’ Kierans added.