Inside Track: Sun will shine brightest of all if there’s a win on Sunday

Never before has the record book been thumbed with such regularity in an effort to establish when football in this county was firing on so many cylinders. Most of the pages are dog-eared.

As stories on these and other pages record, three Louth teams, the seniors, under-20s and minors, are still standing, the under-20s having already won one of the two titles available to them.

READ NEXT: Inside Track: Minors out to make it to their final

The flagship sails on Sunday next, hoping to emulate the under-20s by winning provincial honours. Before then, on tomorrow evening, the minors play in the knock-out semi-final, taking on Dublin. Dare we dream, that for the first time ever, three provincial titles come to the county in the same year?

A search revealed that in 1953 the minors and seniors won their provincial titles. Both were in finals five years later and again in 1960, but there was nothing to show for it.

The ’57 seniors’ Leinster win was added to by the juniors, then playing in a grade that carried prestige, but is no longer contested. What was unusual at the time, the two teams’ semi-finals were played on the same day at Croke Park.

The juniors went down to Mayo, but the seniors beat Tyrone before going on to glory. At the time, the under-21 grade (now under-20) had yet to be added to the calendar.

That was then, this is now, and on Sunday next the game that most Louth supporters will want to see goes ahead at headquarters (4.15). Louth play Meath in a game that has much written all over it, mainly history.

Yes, there were the many Herculean jousts in the 1940s and ‘50s, when it often took more than one game to decide the issue; but for the one most of those either populating Croker on Sunday, or at home taking the game in on television, you only have to go back 15 years for the meeting that resonates.

The 2010 final hadn’t been a classic, but that didn’t concern Louth supporters as the finish-line loomed large. Their team was a point ahead – the scramble to get on to the pitch had begun.

No need to go into detail of what happened next. Let’s just say it’s been the subject of a television programme and has been told over and over again in print, and probably will be many times more between now and next Sunday.

Ger Brennan was playing for Dublin at the time, James McCartan had charge of the Down team, and Niall Moyna was looking after GAA affairs in DCU. All are now in the Louth camp, and in preparation for next Sunday might not even mention the 2010 final.

They’ll be concentrating on the now, putting together a strategy they hope will bring the Delaney Cup to their adopted county for the first time since 1957. To achieve that aim, their team will have to step up on what’s been seen so far in the competition.

The result of the game with Laois was in doubt until ‘Casey’ Byrne goaled from close range inside the final quarter. Prior to that, the team’s performance had been popmarked by mistakes and poor passing. Tommy Durnin and Craig Lennon’s introduction over the 70 minutes was as valuable as Byrne’s goal.

Both were in from the start, as was Sam Mulroy, for the semi-final with Kildare. They played a part in a three-point win, but we wondered would the result have been different had Kildare made better use of their chances.

A few hours after Louth had stumbled over the line at Tullamore, Meath brought a proud and historic Dublin run to an end, winning the other semi at Portlaoise. It’s a win that has the Royals installed as favourites on Sunday.

Favourites are the there to be beaten, however. It will happen if Louth can move up a gear, maybe more. A repeat of what happened at Inniskeen when the sides met in the concluding round of the National League might just do the trick.