Louth vs Offaly Preview: Underdogs Tag means little to Mickey Harte

With just hours to go until the return of championship football when Louth make the short trip to face Offaly in Navan (Throw in 1:30PM), excitement is at fever pitch as to what may lie ahead for Mickey Harte and his troops.

The Wee County will enter the contest as underdogs, given the recent results of both counties but that label is not something the former All Ireland winner is too worried about.

He is too long in the game to allow his side be effected by comments made outside of their camp and knows in the end it will come down to what ability both teams show. Be they tagged as the favourites or massive underdogs by the Bookies.

“These tags or labels that people give, they are always somebody else’s opinion, I don’t pay too much attention to them" he exclaimed. "I suppose the bookmakers and the people who access these things would definitely make Offaly the favourites, there’d be no reason why they wouldn’t.”

“If we are considered underdogs, it doesn’t really matter as it won’t win the game for us, it is what we do on the day, how we play and how we perform, we’ll perform to the best of our ability which gives us a real fighting chance of getting a result.”

It hasn’t been plain sailing, a loss on the opening day of the National League putting a spanner in the works before they regrouped with wins over Leitrim, Sligo and Carlow to book their spot in Division Three for 2021.

Speaking to media throughout the year, the Tyrone native has talked about the need to improve on every game and learn from their mistakes, something he feels they have done to great effect so far this year.

“Nobody is perfect and no team does everything the way they want to, but it is a work in progress and you try and do as many things well as you can.”

“There’ll be mistakes, some bad decisions and some serious things too and we have plenty of footage now to reflect on these issues.”

“The players not only speak about them, but they get to see what happened, on occasions that they didn’t get to make the right choice we can look back on that and decide on what we could’ve done differently and that is always good.”

The wily veteran is under no illusions to the task his side face this weekend, taking on an Offaly outfit that will be full of confidence having just secured promotion to Division Two.

He was particularly taken back by their performance against Fermanagh, a side he knows well from his time managing in Ulster, beating them showing the credentials of John Maughan’s side.

“You don’t win all your games without building a good spirit in your team, they’ve done that.  They won their three round games before the winning the semi-final, I know Fermanagh from a number of years playing them and they are not easily beaten.”

“We (Tyrone) played Fermanagh in the year we played Division Two a few years back and we didn’t lose any games but Fermanagh managed to draw with us in the midst of all that so they are a formidable side, and I would take note of the fact it was them Offaly beat in the Semi-finals.”

“John Maughan has brought a good spirit to the team, they are a work in progress too but they are at it a few years longer than us so it will really be a big challenge to defeat them.”

A factor that has been missing in the GAA so far this year has been the support of the vocal fans, an element that can turn a tie on its head in an instant.

Harte could hear the small but loud following in Carlow and is looking forward to their voices being heard from the stands in Navan.

“The supporters can often be the 16th man, they enjoy getting behind the team and when you are doing something well and the crowd is getting behind you it lifts the whole squad.”

“It doesn’t take too many supporters to give you that atmosphere, even last week we could feel the noise when good pieces of play happened and feel the crowd getting energised by it and that can only help and enhance the players.”

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