WEE POINT TO PROVE
RETURNING to county training in the middle of November can be a fairly bleak experience. The sunshine of Championship afternoons seems a world away on those cold, floodlit nights while GAA protocol dictates that it’s those teams who had experienced the most disappointing of summers who are the first to resume collective training.
Of all the teams that reconvened last November, none experienced a more disappointing 2015 than Louth footballers. The retirement of a number of high-profile players, including their beating heart for nearly a decade, Paddy Keenan, ensured a difficult first year for manager Colin Kelly. Few anticipated how difficult. Louth slid into Division 4 before their brief summer ended with a heavy qualifier defeat to Tipperary.
There may not exactly have been a spring in their step as they arrived for those early sessions but Adrian Reid certainly noticed a change in mood among his teammates. Former Derry manager Paddy Crozier was brought in to assist Kelly and his fresh pair of eyes ensured that players were keen to impress.
However, Reid felt there was also more motivation within the squad. This wasn’t simply the chance to redeem themselves for what happened last year. It also came down to realistic targets and goals.
Louth may be one of the bottomfeeders for this year’s National League. But being at the bottom gives them something tangible to aim for: promotion and a Division 4 title. In the world of Gaelic football, where, increasingly, some county teams are seen as more equal than others, that has made a big difference.
‘There has been a better mood in training this winter, there has been more motivation among the players,’ explains Reid, who’s a software developer, an unusual profession in a modern GAA landscape populated by students and teachers.
‘And it’s because the players have a realistic target in their heads. It is getting out of Division 4 and maybe getting some silverware. The Leinster championship is not a realistic target for Louth at the moment. Given how far ahead Dublin are, you’d wonder if it’s a realistic target for any other side in Leinster. But we can aim for the Division 4 title and that creates its own motivation.’
A Division 4 title is a strange kind of glory, as is a place in the O’Byrne Cup final which is the prize if they beat Meath in Drogheda. But as the gap widens between the top and the rest, teams like Louth need to look for motivation in different places.
Many of the proposals to re-structure the Championship system were devised with counties like Louth in mind. Reid saw a lot of merit in the GPA’s proposals and feels that a B Championship could also work, if there was a tangible reward for players at the end of it.
‘Something has to give,’ Reid says. ‘The Championship system is broken, at the moment. It needs to change. Even if they brought the GPA proposals in, on a trial basis for two years, what have they got to lose. Those proposals came from the players themselves, so they should be taken heed of, as we are the ones playing in the Championship.
‘It’s like I said, we have a target in Division 4. But the way the Championship is structured, if we were drawn against Dublin in the first round of Leinster, how can we motivate ourselves for that game. Lads would just throw their head up, some would probably head off to the States for the summer.
‘What teams need is realistic targets for themeslves. That creates its own motivation for players. If there was a Champions League-style group, teams could target a home game as taking a scalp of a bigger team.
‘If a B Championship is done properly, then it should be looked at. If a team wins it and gains entry into the All-Ireland Championship proper, if there was a real reward for it, then it would certainly be worth doing.’
An appearance in an O’Byrne Cup final will be just reward for the toil of the past few weeks. But whatever happens against Meath this afternoon, it is only a springboard for their league campaign.
‘It is another competitive game, our fourth this month, which is good, but we can’t lose sight of our real goal for this season and that begins with playing London on January 31. That is when the real work starts.’
Crozier’s appearance in the backroom has helped to restore some self-belief among a group of players that had lost a bit of confidence. ‘Back-to-back relegations can seriously dent confidence. When you are losing games, and have lost a number of big players and big personalities, that all has an effect and confidence can ebb away.
‘But sometimes when an outsider comes in, like Paddy has, with a fresh pair of eyes, it can take him just to let us know that there are talented footballers in Louth. And that can give us a bit of confidence.
‘When we have been losing matches in the past two years, the tendency was for players to feel sorry for themselves and they lost sight of the bigger picture, didn’t stick to the game-plan and began playing their own game. Players would drop their heads during matches. But the fact that we have a goal this year − albeit a Division 4 title − that will help to make sure heads don’t drop.’
Reid’s hometown of Collon is only a few miles from the Meath border so the sight of those green jerseys will have always stirred something primal in the natives.
That rivalry has only intensified since Louth were robbed of the 2010 Leinster title by inept officiating.
As Louth captain, Reid probably felt it necessary to kick for touch when the topic of that Leinster final and Joe Sheridan’s ‘goal’ was broached.
‘That’s a long time in the past now. Most of the players that played that day aren’t even playing anymore, so it has no bearing anymore.’
Still, it’s the closest Reid will come to a Leinster medal. He almost touched the Delaney Cup but the world of Gaelic football has changed since that afternoon. Reid and his Louth teammates have to target a different kind of success and that’s in Division 4.
It may be at the bottom but at least, they can see a clear pathway to brighter days in their future.
O’Byrne Cup LOUTH v MEATH Drogheda, 2pm