Expectations high as Louth open league challenge

First really competitive match of the season for the county’s senior footballers is coming up on Sunday, a league set-to with Westmeath, at Mullingar. Not for a long time has a Louth team readied up for a season under so much of a gaze.

It’s all in the mix, followers’ expectations, management’s hopes, and, without doubt, players’ desire and anticipation.

Those wearing the jersey will surely want to go one better than last year in the championship, and along with that, give the league a right shake. If they can do both, the people in the stands and on the terraces and banks will have no complaints.

All of their panel’s hopes are shared by the management. The sideline team led by Ger Brennan are facing into a second year in charge – it goes without saying that nothing would please them more than to better last year’s performance.

Though the 2024 league campaign had more hiccups than the previous season’s, enough points were garnered to book the Sam Mulroy-captained side another season in Division Two.

Fresher in followers’ minds is the championship run which followed. Another defeat of Kildare, who had to be overcome in the league closer to wipe out all dangers of relegation, left the way clear for a second successive Leinster final appearance, with Dublin – who else? – in the other corner.

The performance in defeat, by four points, was a vast improvement on the 2023 showing, but good as it was that day at Croke Park, better was to come in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

Just when we thought a win over Meath in the knock-out was never going to come, almost 50 years having passed since the previous one, the team’s adopted home, Inniskeen’s Grattan Park, reverberated to the sound of the Red Army, celebrating a huge win.

It was the same when Cork visited Kavanagh Country. The match with Monaghan was also played on Farney soil, this time at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones. By picking up a point, there was enough in the locker to earn Brennan’s team a meeting with Donegal in the quarter-finals.

This was the last step on the journey. Though Louth didn’t let themselves down, Jim McGuinness’ side were that bit better, deservedly winning a place in the last four.

That was last year, when football was being mostly played in a manner that didn’t appeal to followers, a fact emphasised by dropping attendances. Something had to be done – and it was.

Long before inter-county football had been wrapped up for the year, paving the way for club fare, a committee, headed by Jim Gavin, whose name as one of the game’s most successful managers was assured even before he had retired from his Dublin post, was in place.

Its brief: take a look at the rules, scrap some and introduce others, if thought necessary; but, above all, do something to restore the game’s appeal.

What the committee has come up with has been pored over for the past few months. Games under the new rules have been played at several levels, mostly at inter-county and provincial, and, by and large, have met with approval.

The big test, however, will come in the real heat of battle. There are 16 games taking part this weekend over the league’s four divisions, and, of course, the one that counts most for this county is taking place in Mullingar’s Cusack Park.

Louth go into it having had several recent outings, and before that a lengthy training campaign. It can be taken that there’s been no lack of preparation, and when announced, the team will give an indication of how the squad has adapted to the changes, debutants in particular.

That said, the nucleus of last year’s team is most likely to be on show for a match which won’t be easily won. Westmeath have come up from Division Three, having taken longer than anticipated to make progress after winning the first running of the Tailteann Cup with a defeat of Cavan in the 2022 final.

It will be interesting to see who Brennan has posted at full-forward. The one trial game viewed by your writer, Louth’s McGeough Cup meeting with Fermanagh, had huge emphasis on the player nearest the goals. He was the main target for many long range deliveries, most times needing to be quick off the mark.

As speed isn’t Sam Mulroy’s strongest forte, there could be someone new to wear the 14 jersey, with the team captain playing further afield, creating and, as always, claiming all he can from placed-kicks.

Craig Lennon will have a bright light shone on him. Chief among the St Mochta’s clubman’s 2024 exploits was winning an All-Star.

He got this huge honour on the back of his ability to defend from his half-back position, but more so because of the damage he did at the other end of the field.

Lennon’s yield from seven championship games was 4-7, all coming from play. That put him among the country’s top ten. If carrying that sort of form into the league, his team’s task will be made easier.