“We want to maximise our potential” says Louth boss Brennan

Leinster Senior Football Champions, Louth are back in action this weekend as they begin their All-Ireland series campaign against Monaghan in Kildare on Saturday.

After a historic provincial win, the focus has quickly turned to Cedral St. Conleth’s Park in Newbridge, where Ger Brennan’s side will look to carry their momentum into the next phase of the season.

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The All-Ireland Series opener is a repeat of last year’s clash, and a rematch of this year’s Allianz National Football League meeting, both games that left Brennan with plenty to reflect on.

But this time, he says, his players know there’s more in the tank. Looking back on the Leinster final win over Meath, Brennan says there were a number of lessons. 

He said: “It's probably that more potential. How do you put a limit on someone's potential?

“And what you're saying to the guys, really, is that once you do put your mind to something and a group of people come together and you make a commitment and you do your best to try to reach those goals, again, all sorts of wonderful things can happen.

“We know there's no guarantees. You lose more than you win. So you do have to savour those victories, which I think most of the county has done for the last few days and rightly so.

“But you also then have to look at what got us there and what got us there is a real honest group of management and players where we reflect on the performance just as a game by itself.

“And as a game by itself, there's a lot of elements of it where we were poor, especially in the first half. We were quite static. And funny enough, one of the management team picked it up in our analysis during the week.

“You even saw that in the first half. We were quite static, I think. It was a turnover from Andy McDonnell passing to Conall McKeever. We'd won a short kick out to Dermot Campbell and he took the solo and go. We were static.

“So that's something that we have to eradicate extremely quickly because you're going to play against a Division 1 team and you get punished far greater than playing against a Division 2 team.”

Celebrate success

While quick turnarounds are part of the new condensed season, Brennan still encouraged everyone to savour the moment, if only briefly.

“Of course, it has to be celebrated. You lose more than you win and this was a great victory for Louth GAA and for the whole GAA community within the county.

“And further afield even talking to a few of the backroom staff and management team during the week they were getting emails and phone calls from fellas in Australia and Dubai who were in the red of Louth shouting at their screens and how much joy it brought to them.

“So, these things absolutely have to be celebrated. But given how quickly these games are coming, if you celebrate for too long you reduce your chance of success and progression in the All-Ireland Series.

“We had a good few days and then went back trying last Wednesday and started to review aspects of our performance against Meath.

“We won, but then performance is there to be improved, and you lads will see a lot of what we're seeing as well that we need to get some of these things right now going against Monaghan on Saturday.”

Focus

Brennan is asking for everyone around the county to get behind the players again, but to keep things balanced for this next challenge.

“I'd almost make an appeal to the Louth supporters and clubs to just go easy on the lads as they prepare for Monaghan and if they can just put a lid on talk of the Leinster championship win.

“Just wish guys well for the challenge ahead and keep pushing on and build on that confidence which is obviously there now having secured a provincial title.

“That's probably one of the biggest challenges I'd say for lads. When you're together as a group we are quite process-driven in how we review things and try to improve things going into the next game.

“So it's easier when you're part of the group but look at the lads are only with us a couple of times a week so it's all those other hours with family, with friends and in work that people can leave the Leinster final alone and we'll come back to that at the end of the year.”

Monaghan

Last year’s All-Ireland series game between Louth and Monaghan could have gone either way and Brennan remembers the frustration of letting a chance slip.

“That was one that got away last year in the All-Ireland Series. We had an opportunity in that second half to probably push on with a couple more scores.

“It's probably a pattern that I probably see in the Louths of this world where maybe they're still not used to being ahead of the scoreboard.

“Whatever's in the mindset historically seems to pop its head up where they begin to hang back and then invite the opposition on you.

“Whereas we're hoping to try to break that mould where if you can get a couple of scores on the board and push ahead in the game that you keep doing what you're doing.

“And keep building on that as opposed to sitting back now there's again historical reasons for that but then there's also the new rules as well that do play a part.

“Which makes it very exciting for the viewers and everyone else but the opportunity for your two-pointers certainly does keep the game interesting.

“The National League this year, Monaghan made mincemeat of us in the first half and thankfully our lads in the second half got it back to three.

“Again, we had a couple of breaches with the new rules that took away that momentum in the second half but again, at the moment this Louth team is a kind of second-half team.

“So, we're trying to become a large part of the first-half team and another large part of the second-half team and if we don't do that or manage to achieve that dominance within both halves when you're playing against Division 1 teams, which Monaghan arem you will get punished.”

Players to watch

Brennan has a close eye on the Monaghan squad and knows what his side is up against.

“Monaghan are a great bit of stuff obviously watch their game I know the lads quite well they've driven my time in UCD.

“The likes of Ryan Wylie, Ryan O'Toole there's lots in there Conor McCarthy, Ciarán McNulty, Killian Lavelle I'm probably missing a few there David Garland.

“There's a lot of these lads, all great lads and the Monaghan fellas are sound fellas I've said it before too, and they're quite a talented bunch.

“So those lads are fairly ruthless if we do make mistakes and we don't get our ducks in a row. But again, you always have to give credit to Monaghan. I think Louth probably just have double the population of Monaghan.

“But Monaghan bar one season in have been in Division 1 in the National League, they went down, they got back up straight away and then they played in All-Ireland semi-finals and were unlucky enough to get to a final in one year.

“A couple of instances in that game, if memory serves me correctly, in the second half but they're a wonderful football county.”

New rules

Discipline remains a focus, particularly under the current rules, which have proven costly at times.

“The fellas are chatting a bit more on the field and they're scanning around and they're looking to make sure that there's none of those breaches.

“It is like anything, any new rule, it takes time to familiarise yourself with it. I guess you have to make those mistakes in order to ensure that you avoid them the next day.

“But even stuff like we're still getting caught out on the last day, while Martin McNally had an excellent game, probably a couple of soft ones for them and then a couple of soft ones for us.

“I thought that Donal McKenny one being brought up was probably a bit harsh but again, we just have to be so disciplined.

“We are giving away a free or we are being pushed over a sideline that you put the hand out and you give the ball back because we have got caught in all our games in that way then it's a two-point score against us.”

Newbridge

The Wee County are back in Newbridge, the same ground where they defeated Laois earlier in the year, a venue Brennan is happy to return to.

“Look, that's the main factor, it's a good surface, it's a good ground. I know Seán McClean working hard behind the scenes there.

“I'm very grateful to the Kildare County Board for allowing us access because I know it was a Kildare Championship match, a hurling game on beforehand too.

“So, we're very, very grateful to get to play somewhere and then hopefully when the stadium gets up and running very shortly, we'll have our own place to play Championship games the next season or two.”

Injuries

There’s good news for the Louth camp, with no major injury concerns.

“No major worries again I have to credit the medical team, the S&C team and the work they've done all season. It was a tough season as has been well documented at this stage.

“Then the diligence, the discipline, and hard work of the players to get themselves right but no, we trained hard the last couple of nights.

“We've gone back at it two nights now to get ourselves right and represent the county properly on Saturday, all the lads are training hard.”

Big decisions

Bevan Duffy’s return for the Leinster final was a bold move, and one that paid off.

“Credit the management team, analysis team, and together we come up with a lot of different suggestions and some of my ones are mad some of their ones are more sane.

“But we always find a happy medium and ultimately, I obviously make an executive call at the end to make sure that it's as balanced a team as possible.

“Look at Bevan he was someone we were trying to get going in the National League this year, but it just didn't happen for a variety of reasons just with knocks.

“But that's just the credit to Bevan and the talent that he has that he was called upon for his first game of the year in the Leinster final and it wasn't a bad run out for him.”

Potential

With confidence rising and support growing, Brennan knows the potential is there for something special.

“We want to maximise our potential and we certainly have a belief that we can really push hard into the end of the All-Ireland Series and really give this thing a good rattle.

“All we want to do is whenever the time comes that we've left it all out there and we'll hold our heads up high and be represented as jersey pride and that's always the aim that we have.

“If you're looking at the groups, let's call a spade a spade. You've one Division 3 team, you've two Division 2 teams, you've a Division 1 team who’ve played in Division 2 this year.

“It's the most favourable group and all four counties in that group would fancy beating each other on any given day. Some of those other groups are quite tasty to be in.”