Louth.. a riddle inside an enigma
Takes a forensic look at the state of Louth football
WHEN Louth travelled to Thurles in March of last year, they won their fifth game from six in Division Three of the Allianz League to seal promotion with a game to spare.
It was a notable feat for then manager Colin Kelly (inset) – a second successive promotion – but in another way it underlined the volatility of Louth football.
Having suffered immediate relegation to Division Three this year, it means they have either been promoted or relegated in each of the last five years.
After that fine run to win promotion last year, they’ve won just one of 12 League and Championship games since.
Leaving aside the awful injustice visited on them in the 2010 Leinster final, as difficult as that is, that day was the high water mark for Louth football since their last Allireland in 1957.
They were Leinster champions in everything but name.
But the following year they lost to Carlow for the first time ever in the first round.
Brendan Murphy inspired them to that one-point win and much of the build up to last Sunday’s meeting of the counties concentrated on his recent departure to America.
This time Carlow won by 11 points without their star man.
There’s a boom and bust streak to
Louth football.
Every time they appear to be on the cusp of something, the roof caves in.
At various stages over the past decade the panel has been decimated by defections, something which occurred once again last winter and severely weakened newly-appointed manager Pete Mcgrath’s (below) hand. With players and managers in the GAA increasingly offering up mundane quotes, Mcgrath’s (left) withering assessment of Sunday’s loss was refreshing.
On reflection, however, he may well conclude it was ill-advised. Amid the fallout to Sunday’s defeat and Mcgrath’s comments, former Armagh footballer Oisin Mcconville spoke on LMFM on Monday and made some telling observations, touching on Louth’s home ground, the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda. To be blunt, it’s the worst county ground in the country and has been for a very long time.
Mcconville said: “A lad going through his footballing career or his footballing development, he aspires to play in the county grounds and I think that’s where Louth would need to start.
“Does anybody really aspire to play in the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda, when you consider the rack and ruin that they’re in at the minute?
“That, for me, epitomises what is going on from top to bottom and I think that’s one of the major issues they have.
“Armagh have a brilliant set up in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh but our coaching system is way off what Louth’s is.
“There’s a lot of things right but there’s also a lot of things wrong.”
There can be no surprise when those extremes manifest on the field for Louth.