Louth team still waiting for a first Leinster win over Dublin opponents

History is not on St Mary’s side going into today’s final – is it ever when there’s a championship meeting of Louth and Dublin sides?

This year’s meeting at under-21 level aside, nearly everything has gone Dublin’s way, and that’s particularly true of the Leinster Club championship.

Since the competition was first played in 1970, the counties’ champions have met eight times at various stages. The score stands at 8-0, Louth still waiting for a first win.

It’s Mary’s who have book ended the series, and that will still be the case after Saturday. Two years after Newtown Blues had been beaten by Offaly champions, Gracefield, in the first final, Mary’s played St Vincent in the second round and went down by 0-8 to 0-6.

The following year Cooley made it to the final at Drogheda, and gave the eventual All-Ireland champions, a star-studded UCD team, their fill of it before losing by a couple of points.

Geraldines were next to try their luck, but in a 1982 Croke Park second round match, they couldn’t keep pace with Barney Rock’s Ballymun Kickhams, losing by 0-13 to 1-3.

Next up were Cooley, and having beaten Kilkenny side, Muckalee, in the 1990 first round, the last Kickhams team to win the Louth senior championship lost out to Thomas Davis at Fr McEvoy Park.

The 1997 semi-final meeting of Stabannon Parnells and Erin’s Isle was a semi-final played at Navan, and it ended in a 0-11 to 0-8 defeat for the Louth standard-bearers.

The sixth Louth/Dublin clash was at St Brigid’s Park, St Patrick’s, making their Leinster bow, taking on St Brigid’s at Dowdallshill in 2003. A close one this, Pat’s missing out by a point, 0-6 to 0-5.

Kilmacud Crokes, who went on to win the All-Ireland, beat Blues 1-13 to 1-9 in Drogheda, and then last year, Mary’s gave the same Dublin side a stiff test at Pairc Mhuire.

Time, surely, for a Louth win. Cuala have had two significant wins this year, a defeat of Kilmacud in the Dublin final and win over Naas in the Leinster quarter-final. But Mary’s were at their very best last Saturday, and if they carry that form into the decider, won’t be found wanting.