Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
There’s no ceiling, we will keep improving
LOUTH COACH DEVLIN ON WEE COUNTY’S RISE AND RISE
YOU can imagine it’s been said a few times to the Louth lads around their Darver training centre over the past two seasons.
“We don’t want to be that county that people poke fun at and think it’s only a matter of turning up and beating,” says Gavin Devlin.
Devlin is the Louth coach and Mickey Harte’s right hand man in the Wee County.
He was also Harte’s number two with Tyrone.
If Louth shock Dublin at Croke Park tomorrow, Harte, Devlin and their backroom team will have masterminded the astonishing coup of taking Louth up three divisions in three years.
Even to have arrived on the cusp of that is something special when two years ago they were playing Division 4
“We want to be as competitive as we can possibly be,” says Devlin. “We want to grow as each game and competition evolves.
“We have a saying in Darver at our training that ‘becoming is better than being’, and we feel every day we are becoming a different version of ourselves.
“I don’t think there will ever be a ceiling where we have got to the final destination. That just evolves through time — everybody getting better.
“Our boys are in a place now where they are comfortable in their own skin.”
Down
Before a ball was even kicked Louth were one of the favourites to go back down to Division 3.
“I noticed that,” says Devlin, who won All-Ireland titles as a player at minor, under-21 and senior with Harte as manager.
“I was watching ‘League Sunday’ the night maybe after the first game (defeat in Clare) and a good mate from our own county, he had us relegated after one game.
“Here in Louth, to be quite honest, we find that very offensive because we are trying our best and trying to be the best version of ourselves on a nightly, weekly basis
“They don’t want to be that team that people poke fun at, look at and demean and think there is only a limited ceiling.
“Obviously, we are not the Dublins or Tyrones or Mayos or Kerrys — we get that.
“We have small resources and a small base, but it doesn’t stop us from fighting every week to be the best team that we can possibly be.”
Limerick were the other side in Division 2 that were widely tipped for relegation.
Not only did they drop straight back down, but their manager Ray Dempsey resigned along the way.
“In all sports at this level, it’s a results based business,” says Ardboe man Devlin.
“Although you want time and there is no magic formula, no magic switch, it’s a process,
“But you know in the back of your mind, you need to be winning games.
“You need to be putting in performances because it’s a fickle old world out there and if you’re not ticking boxes, winning and keeping momentum along the way your lifespan can be very, very short.
“Coaching and management is difficult, tough game now to be in. The ceiling is sky high.
“It’s a revolving door. It’s revolving on a weekly basis, on a yearly basis.
“Personally, I really, really enjoy it and it’s something you really need to dedicate your life to and to be devoted to it.
“You have got to love it.”
Highlight
Devlin does and he says his time in Louth with Harte has been the coaching highlight of his life so far, even topping 2018, where the duo helped Tyrone to the All-Ireland final.
“Coming from Division 4 and the serious challenge of knowing there was potential to grow and where these boys wanted to get to, from day dot I knew the possibility was there.
“If we could get them to see the vision of what was possible.
“When I get up every single morning, when you are brushing your teeth and looking in the mirror you are thinking, ‘Right, what am I going to do today to make this team better?’
“Obviously, when we were with Tyrone we had that as well, but just personally for me it’s at a whole different level.”
A whole different level is Dublin at Croke Park in late March, knowing they have to win to
make a return to Division 1.
What makes it harder again for Louth is two of their top players are on the long term injury list, Ciarán Byrne and Sam Mulroy.
“The Dubs in Croke Park is a massive challenge, a mammoth ask coming from Division 4.
“We don’t need to build that up. You are coming up against one of the greatest machines our game has ever seen.
“You just have to look at Tyrone last year coming off the back of winning the AllIreland and what we see this year of Kerry, to see what that Dublin team done for five or six years.
“How classy, how relentless they were. I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of that.
“That said, we all know they are now in a transition period with their team.
“Nothing lasts forever, but that transition period still leaves them one of the best teams in Ireland.
“A lot of other teams in transition fall back to sixth, seventh or eighth, or further down the pecking order.
Top
“They are still in the top one, two, three teams in Ireland.
“You have got your Brian Fentons, Con O’Callaghans, Kilkenny, Murchan, Small — those boys are still at the peak of their powers.
“It’s a free hit for us. We go and we want to give the best version of ourselves.
“Bar that day in Tullamore against Kildare (in last year’s Leinster Championship), from when we arrived in Louth we have been competitive in every single game.”
It’s hardly been plane sailing either, going from Division 4 to the brink of Division 1.
“When we were in Division 4 there were times we didn’t think we were going to get to Division 3,”admits Devlin.
“We lost our first game by a point to Antrim at Haggardstown. Enda (McGinley) and Stevie (O’Neill) were with Antrim.
“That year Covid meant it was a really short season, which meant we had to win the very next week.
“In Division 3 we lost to Laois in the first game and only drew with Longford the second day.
“The thing was, ‘Could we stay up?’ Then all of a sudden we got promoted.
“And it’s been the same this year. Now we have done that and worked our way into a position where we could get promoted.
“Everyone and their dog don’t think that’s a realistic prospect. We are there and we’ll show up on Sunday and let’s just see where i t takes us.”