Old hands contribute to Louth making winning start to league

New league, new game and some new faces. But there was also something tried and trusted in the mix, Louth picking up full points in the opening match of their Division Two campaign.

Tommy Durnin and Andy McDonnell can give a few years to most on the panel, the latter more than the Inniskeen Grattan. But they have more than age on the side.

There’s experience, and on Sunday at Mullingar’s Cusack Park, both put it to good use in their side’s two-point defeat of Westmeath.

McDonnell, the only survivor of the 2010 Leinster final still playing county football, was a surprise inclusion in the panel named by Ger Brennan.

Maybe the manager sees him as a 20-minute man, someone to call up in if the ship needs steadying, or maybe a score or two, we thought.

Not so. The Newtown Blues clubman was in from the start, and what’s more, finished out the energy-sapping 70 minutes-plus.

His ratio of scores from chances wasn’t the best, but no-one covered more ground, and he was going as strong at the finish as he had been when setting out.

“Come on, Tommy”, was the shout from the stand when Tommy Durnin threw off his top, ten minutes into the second half, ready to enter the fray.

This great crowd-pleaser, who is rumoured to be making a return to club football here, immediately made his presence felt in a midfield area where his side had been troubled.

He knocked a point over, but a more valuable contribution was the way in which he helped Louth gain parity where it was so badly needed.

Crucial as Durnin and McDonnell were to the win, had there been a man-of-the-match award neither would have been given it. This was Luke Loughlin’s from a long way out.

On a day when the game was played according to the new rules, the Westmeath full-forward had it all sussed out, scoring a pair of two-pointers on his way to amassing 0-12. But there was much more to it than that.

Occupying himself on the edge of the square, much in the way N0 14s did in the ‘old’ game, his speed off the mark won him possession nearly every time the ball was posted forward, and only on a couple of occasions did he end the move without a score.

It was a relief to see that John Heslin wouldn’t be playing, hanging up his inter-county boots, having been in the past a pebble in the shoe of Louth and other teams. He has a natural successor in Loughlin.

While Westmeath folk had Loughlin’s performance to celebrate, their counterparts glowed in the aftermath of a gritty performance. It wasn’t perfect, and for a time the best supporters could have hoped for was a share of the spoils.

This was after Westmeath went three points clear with the game entering the home straight. It was a complete turnaround from early on.

Benefitting from Ryan Burns and Sam Mulroy’s two-pointers, Louth went into a 0-9 to 0-3 lead, building on a solid first-quarter performance.

From then to the end of the half, there was a near-complete fade-out, with Westmeath closing the gap to just one score.

Kicking the ball away after having a free awarded against him saw Conor Grimes being punished with the referee moving the ball 50 yards to within spittin’ distance of the goals. Loughlin was never likely to miss from that range.

This, along with two points being awarded for scores beyond the widest of the two arcs, was the most noticeable of the new rules. Contravening it can turn a team from attacking to having to defend, and can be a game-changer.

Louth were back on level terms when Seán Reynolds, not long on the field, got a fist to the ball, knocking it to the back of the net.

The game was now into time added on; but Westmeath weren’t giving up. They got back to within a point, and fought hard for the equaliser.

The Louth defence, at this stage without the black-carded Donal McKenny, put in a few good tackles, while at the other end, Sam Mulroy eased supporters’ nerves by landing a free to finish it at 1-17 to 0-18.

The Louth team bore no resemblance to the one carried in the programme. Included were a number of league first-timers, last year’s under-20s Leinster finalists, Kieran McArdle and Dara McDonnell, among them. Two others, goal-scorer Reynolds and Pearse Grimes-Murphy, came on in the second half.

The crucial element of the Louth performance wasn’t so much their application of the new rules, but the manner in which they battled to the finish.

All too often in the past, we’ve seen teams crumble after giving away a decent lead, or, as happened in this outing, fall three points behind late on.

Put that down to a new-found confidence, initiated in the Mickey Harte era and now nurtured by Ger Brennan and his sidekicks. Getting two points on Sunday was good – even better was the way in which the win was achieved.