Louth hurling manager Paul McCormack not fazed by high class league opposition

Last Summer brought about another great day for Louth Hurling, as the county created history by becoming the most successful side in the history of the Lory Meagher Cup.

Since then, St Fechins retained their county crown and put up a great fight in defeat to eventual Leinster Junior Champions, Horeswood from Wexford.

So, despite few people noticing, The Wee County has been holding their own in the small ball world. Front and centre in the county team’s resurgence has been their manager, Paul McCormack.

However, ahead of the start of the National League this Saturday against Armagh in Darver (throw in 2PM), he admitted that despite these successes there has been plenty of turnover in personnel.

“There has been a bit of movement in the squad” he stated. “People go to do different things for a variety of reasons and there are guys who have moved on and we will try to replace them with some younger players.

“But the squad is settled, lads have been putting in a big effort, applying themselves well, responding well to training. Things are going in the right direction.”

Unlike most inter county sides, football or hurling, Louth have not spent the month of January preparing for the league with a series of pre-season matches.

With no Kehoe Shield in Leinster this year, their only competitive outing was in the Conor McGurk Cup, ran by Ulster GAA, which in 2023 was a purely knock out event. Just days into the new year, an experimental Wee County outfit was defeated by Queens University Belfast, 5-24 to 2-9.

The Armagh native was aware the result was poor, but with this being so early into the season and with so many of his troops having concentrated on football over hurling since last August, he had always penciled this in as a warmup tie. A chance to reintroduce players to competitive hurling.

“It was a real makeshift team that night, and it was about trying to get minutes into lads who needed it most, i.e. those who hadn’t played much club hurling.

“The result was always irrelevant; it was just about getting back out and playing. I know some people might be reading into it, but anybody with any understanding of the way the game works at this level will just take it as a match played.

“It was good to get up and running. We had a couple of challenge matches since and that has been important for us. It is not the same as competitive games or a pre-season tournament, but nonetheless they are all worthwhile exercises.”

It won’t take long to see where Louth stands in the pecking order, as there will be plenty of tough tests ahead as they look to remain in Division 3A for another year. In fact, this year it is probably even more competitive than ever, with very few hiding places.

They do have three home games in their schedule against Armagh, Fermanagh and Mayo, plus trips to Roscommon and Monaghan, but none stands out as an easy place to pick up points.

Speaking about the opposition in the League and their targets for the competition, McCormack noted how they were looking forward to every single tie. Staying up is the goal, but at the very least these clashes will show where they are at before another big challenge. The Nicky Rackard Cup.

“We are under no illusions that we have a big task ahead of us, so consolidation would be the number one aim in the league” he stressed.

Injury time heartbreak sees Louth footballers defeated in Ennis

First half goals secure a valuable victory for Louth against Offaly

“Those other teams have more experience than us, bar possibly Fermanagh, who to their credit have a good crop of young hurlers coming through and a few outsiders. The other counties, they are all looking upwards to compete in league semi-finals and ultimately the final.

“Armagh were in the final last year against Tyrone, so they have that tradition there and experience of 3A and even up to 2B. Mayo is coming down having been in a Christy Ring Final last year, so we know those two teams are going to take a huge effort to compete with.

“Then there’s Roscommon, who will be sore from their Nicky Rackard Cup Final defeat against Tyrone. They have maybe seven outsiders, six from Galway and a Clare lad.

“That is the standard of teams you are going up against. We intend to keep our head down, keep working, stay together and look forward to those challenges as we want to test ourselves.”