Louth GAA club | Judge: You have to turn up

Newtown Blues legend Eugene Judge is a decorated former player, long-time mentor, and now part of manager John Kermode’s backroom team, and his connection to the club runs deep.

Ahead of Sunday’s Louth Senior Football Championship final against Naomh Máirtín at Integral GAA Grounds in Drogheda, shares his thoughts on the challenge ahead.

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When asked how many senior championship medals he’s collected, Judge said: “At this stage now, I can't remember. But I probably didn't win enough, to be honest with you.

“I had a good run of it when I was playing and enjoying it now again. I've sort of been involved. I've dipped a toe in and out.

“So, at this stage now I'm just delighted to be in the final now again. Any day you're in a final, for any club, it's a great day. It doesn't matter how many you win. The next one's always the most important.

“Look, you can win championships all over the country, but the key is, the main ones, the ones you remember most of all, are actually when you win with your own club.

“We've a great tradition, and it's something that you try to uphold right through your career, and then if you get involved with teams, it's something you want to hand on as well at the same time.

“So, as I said before, we're just to get over the line. The ambition from the very beginning is to get to the final of the championship. It's a two-horse race now, and it's anybody's game now at this stage, really.”

Standards

Newtown Blues are Louth's most successful club with 23 senior titles to their name.

“I think the key there is that you're always hoping that you're bringing lads through, and there's always a period in any club that you're not going to have that success.

“You're going to have to regroup, and we've done that relatively well over the years. We've always got players in the team, young players, before guys with championship medals got out.

“So, they set the standard, those players that have championship medals, actually, they raised the standards, and that's the tag for the younger guys coming in.

“Can you get up to that standard? And it's something we've been lucky with over the years. It doesn't always work that way, but overall, we've been very lucky in that sense.”

Competition for places

The current Blues squad has a balance of survivors of recent finals with a blend of youth coming through.

“That's important, really, because that just gives the whole team, the competition for places is the key.

“If you have competition for places, you don't really have to drive it on that much; the players are driving one another on because they want to get on the team, and if you're successful, that's a plus.

“That means if you have a toss up there for any chap, and you take rugby, take soccer, you take Gaelic, or ping pong.

“You ask any chap or any young person, girl or boy, what are you going to select, they'll always come with the chance they're going to win. They'll take the team they're going to win with.”

The league

The Blues’ league form this year was patchy, largely due to county call-ups and injuries.

“It is a priority, really, always, with the club. But in the case when you have so many fellas and we had seven guys, a couple of injuries then, you don't want to flog fellas who are moving on in years as well.

“So it was very difficult. But at the same time, it gives us a chance to actually bring guys in. And lucky enough, we held our own and then, as the fella says, when the cavalry came back, we were always in a good position then.

“So it gives us a chance to bring in lads like Eoin McCoy and Ryan Kelly, these guys. Look, they still have a long way to go with these lads.

“But I mean, they are going forward and there's a couple of lads, another one or two or three guys there, and hopefully they'll step up there next year as well.

“Because that is very important. If you have no one coming behind you, you can't be shoving someone out the front door unless you have someone coming in the back door.”

Cardinal O'Donnell Cup

Judge is forthright about the impact of the split season on the Cardinal O’Donnell Cup.

“I think the sad thing about the Cardinal O’Donnell now is, for me, my memory of the Cardinal O’Donnell, there were always great, great matches in them.

“And you knew generally, right through the league, you were going to be up against an inter-county player if you were playing inter-county. And that was the thing about it.

“I just think the Cardinal O’Donnell has been diluted, really. It nearly looks like, for the first phase anyway, it's nearly like two Sheelan Cups.

“And I think that's something that the Louth County Board definitely needs to have a look at. Because you do need that little bit of competitive edge.

“And in fairness to supporters, they want to go down there and they want to see strong teams, really, and they want to see competitive games.

“You go out some weeks and you're playing against a team and they're full strength.

“And the next week you go out and you could be playing against that same team, there could be six, seven, eight players. So it is diluted in that sense.”

Lessons in defeat

The Blues' championship campaign began with a narrow loss to Sunday’s opponents, Naomh Máirtín. For Judge, that setback was a turning point.

“You always learn more from losing, really. And we probably came home, came back a couple of nights later, we talked it over, we looked at things that we should have done and that we didn't do.

“So, I mean, from that sense, if we probably had won the game by a point, we might not have actually done that. So, we'd like to think that we've improved since that, really.

“But it was like we're playing against a good opposition, and it's proven they're in the final of the Championship. And then we came out against the Joes, who were going well right through the league.

“And I think, to be honest, really, we were up for that game, and we were certainly up for the Marys game. We knew what we were up against there, and we had to be there.

“If we didn't show up, we knew we wouldn't win. And again, we didn't take that for granted.

“We knew that was even going to be a more difficult game in the Marys because the fact is, things had swung around, the pendulum swung then basically from going in as underdogs against the Marys, now we were favourites.

“So, that was another pressure in that sense. But the main thing in the semi-finals is you have to win. It doesn't matter who you win.”

Hard test

The Blues have been battle-hardened by a run of tight games, which is something Judge believes can only help.

“We've had no easy match, and hopefully that will stand us. That's what we're hoping for. We've definitely had no easy match whatsoever. You could maybe swan your way through one or two games, maybe if you've got a certain draw.

“But to be honest with you, we probably needed these games as well. This is what it's all about. If you want to get to the next step, this is how you judge yourself.

“Sometimes you think you're going well, so maybe you stand up and you meet about their opposition. If you're interested, then you'll go home and you'll think about it and you'll try and put it right. That's the whole thing.

“This is a learning process for more or less the younger guys as well. But also, we've a good middle section of players there.

“The captain of the team, Conor Branigan, you have the Conor's, you have the Nally’s, and Fergal Donoghue, who, of course, came back and has done well.

“He had to bide his time, but the whole thing with Fergal was to get fit. And he hasn't looked back. Fergal's done it before and he knows what it's all about really.”

Squad depth

For Judge, the bench has been just as crucial as the starting fifteen

“Colm (Judge) has been struggling with injuries for the last year or two. There's one thing about certain players, you could put them on the field and in 10 minutes you'd be thinking, who do we bring on?

“But Colm's not one of those players. He's just one of those players that, within seconds, has the ball in his hands.

“Paul Galvin was the same when he played with Kerry. Just throw him out there and he’d have the ball in his hands straight away. There are players like that.

“Niall Devlin has done the same thing, done a great job for us as well. Anybody we've brought on, they've done what we've asked of them. It's a team game. It's a panel game.

“You need everybody. We're at a stage now where we just have a couple of guys, and maybe there's not a full game on them. There's not a full 60 minutes. We have to be playing our cards properly.”

Final

Judge knows better than anyone that finals are decided on the day.

“If you don't turn up, whether you like it or not, we know that over the years. When we turn up, we generally have got across the line.

“But there have been occasions when we haven't. We've probably, as the fella says, got what we deserved really. So, you have to turn up. For us now, it's been a couple of years since we won the campionship. We'll be very much up for this game.

“But I'm sure the Mairtins will think it's a great opportunity for them as well to get back and get to Joe Ward there as well. It's in the Gaelic Grounds. If you get a half-decent day, I think you'll get a very good game, to be honest with you.”