Paul McCormack expecting huge challenge from Longford as Louth Hurlers begin their Lory Meagher Title defence

It is a great time to be involved with Louth Hurling. Last December they landed an All-Ireland crown when winning the Lory Meagher Cup in Croke Park, fast forward to earlier this month and the Boys in Red had doubled their silverware by landing the Division 3B crown on home soil in Darver.

Their manager Paul McCormack has been front and centre to that success, but while he says they enjoyed bringing another title to the county they will not let that victory linger long in the memory with championship glory again up for grabs.

“It was probably the first target for the season and that is now ticked off” he stated. “I felt that we got what we deserved in terms of our preparation and training, we had a short run in and then three games in four weeks, so I felt we deserved to win those matches and that took us up.”

“That achievement doesn’t mean the hurling has stopped, that we can sit back and relax, pat ourselves on the back. That was just phase one of the year and now that we’re into the second phase we will par that success quickly.”

Despite winning the Lory Meagher Cup last year, The Wee County were not promoted to Nicky Rackard and so will be in the rare position of defending their title this season.

Some might worry interests will wain having already tasted All Ireland glory, but the Armagh native doesn’t believe this as he feels his group are as eager as ever to earn another day out at HQ.

“If you take Limerick, the All Ireland champions, they are in the same competition again, Donegal the Nicky Rackard champions are in the same competition so it is just another thing to deal with and to be honest winners always want more.”

“Last December in Croke Park I said it to the lads if you want more, you’ll come back and they are all back and seem hungry for more.

“Every day you have to work and you have to prove you are the best team on the day, every sports person and team has to do that and we are asking our guys to do it again.”

They begin their 2021 defence away to Longford this afternoon (Throw in 4PM) in Pearse Park, despite playing at a higher championship level in recent years the two teams have collided on numerous occasions in the league.

Last year Louth made the same journey and were defeated by 1-15 to 1-10, while the Wee County came out the better in a high scoring affair in 2018, 4-17 to 5-9 despite only leading by a point at half time.

They last met in the championship in 2018 in the Nicky Rackard Cup, again the Midlanders were victorious, winning out by 0-19 to 0-12. The Armagh native is aware of these recent meetings and is expecting a huge challenge from the home side.

“We haven’t overly looked at them yet, our focus was always on the league. We played them last year in the league and we were disappointed at the performance, as we felt there was more in us that day and they rightfully beat us.”

“Down through the years there hasn’t been much between the teams, and we’ll be expecting something similar today and we’d be hopeful we’ll be on the right side of it, but we are expecting a tough game.”

Longford have been plying their trade in Division 3A this year and have come up against some stiff competition. They bagged a draw in a high scoring affair against Tryone and came up short against Monaghan at home, however their other games saw them fall to strong Sligo and Armagh outfits.

They have shown an ability to get high scores throughout the league, notching 2-22 against Tyrone, 1-20 in their battle with Monaghan and 3-13 in defeat to Sligo. Their habit of putting up big scores hasn’t gone undetected by McCormack, who knows his troops will need to be on their game to win.

“There is no doubt they are well able to score, every team nowadays has at least one sharpshooter, they have a couple who have chipped in a lot. I’ve noticed their scores have been OK, but I didn’t really read too much into that.”

“Any team that is posting 23 or 25 points, they would like to feel they have a chance at winning the game, so we know that we have to keep it tight and try get our big scorers on the board. It is certainly going to be a challenge on Saturday we will need to meet.”

“We have prepared as best we can, we’ll know a lot more Saturday evening how exactly our preparations have gone.”

The competition has fives teams involved this year, with Louth and Longford coupled with Monaghan on one side of the draw while Fermanagh and Cavan clash on the other side.

The top two teams in Louth’s group progress to the Semi-Finals, while the team in third will play the losers of the Fermanagh and Cavan game to grab the final spot in the Semis.

Despite this safety cushion, the former All Ireland winning footballer and hurler believes it is important they put the many permutations aside and do everything they can to keep their recent momentum going.

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“We want to keep our momentum going, keep up these winning habits which is our target on Saturday, I think we would be naïve to look at any other game apart from the one directly ahead of us.”

"It’s all about getting ourselves out on the front foot in terms of this competition. There is different permutations if we want to really drill into it but we are not interested in that and it is all about Saturday in Pearse Park for now and trying to get a good performance.”