Louth take on the Dubs for Leinster title

Louth travel to Croke Park this afternoon to take on Dublin in the Leinster Senior Football Championship final for the second year in succession.

The Wee County has not lifted the title since 1957 and it is their first consecutive provincial final appearance since 1958 when they lost to Sunday’s opponents in blue.

Ger Brennan’s side will look to put a stop to the Dubs provincial dominance and aim to find a way to break their thirteen-year winning streak of the Delaney Cup.

Louth secured Allianz Division 2 status after a less than impressive campaign of three victories and four defeats, but have improved in their quest for a provincial title.

With a solid start in the Leinster Championship, they defeated Wexford in Portlaoise, led by Captain Sam Mulroy's exceptional performance.

They capitalized on Kildare's mistakes in the semi-final with Mulroy leading the charge once again alongside Conor Grimes, Ciarán Downey, and Ryan Burns.

Dublin’s Leinster campaign has seen them pull off decisive wins over Meath and Offaly in the quarter and semi-final, respectively.

Seán Bugler, Paul Mannion, and Con O'Callaghan showcased their scoring prowess against Meath, while O'Callaghan, Niall Scully, and Colm Basquel found the net against Offaly.

The experience of Mannion, Ciarán Kilkenny, and Cormac Costello's played a crucial role in securing victory for Dublin.
Speaking ahead of the game Louth manager Brennan is under no illusions how strong his former side are, but has faith in his players to perform to their abilities and potentially cause an upset.

“All great teams, all great legacies come to an end”, Brennan began. “So maybe this is Louth’s time to end Dublin’s dominance of Leinster.

“That dream, that hope is always there you don't have to look too far in the recent past to look at different sport and codes where teams that are unexpected or not the favourites going into a game to win.

“That they end up pulling one out of the bag and putting the favourites on the backfoot. So, there is always that hope there. There are numerous examples of where it has happened before.

“More specifically to Louth, you look at the work the lads have put in not particularly this year but since they’ve been kids growing up.

“Playing schools, playing club, going through development squads, and the hours, weeks and months that they’ve been playing the game.

“Certainly, more recently the work rate that they put in to try to represent the county with pride. There is a lot of work done, so they should take confidence from that.

“We see what Derry was able to do in the national league final which is a very good template. We’ve seen Kerry and Mayo in previous seasons push Dublin close quite often resulting in replays in the latter stages of the All-Ireland series.

“So, there are a good few examples there of how we can get at Dublin and put Louth best foot forward going into the match.”
When assessing the Reds’ road to the final the manager said: “It's a very honest group of players. They’re always looking to get better they’re looking to come off the field knowing that they’ve got most things right.

“Obviously, everything is not going to fall perfectly for you but if you get the majority of them right you put yourself in a position to come out on the right side of the scoreboard.

“In the first round against Wexford we were very impressed, and the lads were probably taken aback by how well structured and how fit Wexford were and we struggled to deal with them bar the couple of goals we got from Sam (Mulroy) and Ciarán Downey.

“Going into the game against Kildare last week we had an opportunity for a goal to put us eight points up going down the home stretch. We missed it and brought Kildare on us but to be fair to the lads they stuck at it.

“When we looked at the post-game analysis, we seen that Kildare took one more shot from play than we did, and we had a slightly better shot-to-score ratio which is obviously something else we had been working on. But there are always huge areas for improvement for the players.”

“I think context is hugely important and looking at where Louth are, and the history of Louth Gaelic football. It’s a massive achievement to get to back-to-back Leinster finals.

“It is a huge opportunity to see how close we are to the top teams and go out and perform to the best of our ability and take the learnings from it into the All-Ireland series.

“So, for Louth senior football and obviously as a Dub, and a few of us in the backroom team not living in Louth, when you are travelling to training or calling into a garage in local towns you can see the buntings are going up. The excitement and the chat going on in the county is hugely important.

“The U20s lost out to Meath last Monday, but to get to a final for them and Fergal Reel’s team was a huge achievement. Albeit they faced a very fit and athletic Meath team.

“Then the minors beat Wicklow in the quarter-final of Leinster so they are now in a semi-final on Tuesday against Longford. Louth people love their Gaelic football so for Louth to be in a provincial final of any age is a huge achievement.”

The manager continued to speak about the dominance Dublin have held over the Leinster football competition over the last decade.

“The Leinster competition there have been numerous conversations around that at this stage. The Ulster football competition is obviously the most competitive one” he said.

“The Munster hurling is next, and then depending on how the draw goes in Connacht if the three teams are on the one side or opposite side of the draw.

“If you look at it, it’s probably illogical at this stage to have uneven numbers in different provinces that once were very traditional and very proud competitions.

“I think the national league is one of the best competitions that we have. Whereby an even number of teams, most teams in the national league can beat each other on any given day. There are less one-sided results compared to the provincial games bar again Ulster football.

“So, there probably is a need to look at things in Leinster but I am sure the administrators in the Leinster council and the County board executives are better placed to make their decisions than I am.”

Ger Brennan has named the following starting fifteen: Niall McDonnell; Donal McKenny, Dan Corcoran, Peter Lynch; Conall McKeever, Anthony Williams, Craig Lennon; Tommy Durnin, Bevan Duffy; Tom Jackson, Ciarán Keenan, Conor Grimes; Ryan Burns, Sam Mulroy (c), Ciarán Downey.

Substitutes: Craig Lynch, Chris O'Neill, Peter McStravick, Liam Jackson, Dermot Campbell, Ciarán Murphy, Niall Sharkey, Leonard Grey, Ciarán Byrne, Conor Early, Paul Matthews

The previous five Leinster Senior Football Championship results between Louth and Dublin:

14th May 2023 - Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Final, Louth 0-15 - 5-21 Dublin.

25th May 2019 - Laois Hire O'Moore Park, Portlaoise, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final, Dublin 5-21 - 0-10 Louth.

3rd June 2012 - Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final, Dublin 2-22 - 0-12 Louth.

8th June 2008 - Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final, Louth 0-12 - 1-22 Dublin.

1st June 2003 - Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final, Dublin 1-19 - 0-9 Louth.

The game will be part of a double header with the LGFA Leinster final between Dublin and Meath. Throw-in at 11.45am.