Inside Track: It just keeps getting better for Louth
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
Van Morrison sang: “My Mama always told me there would be days like this.”
What Mama had in mind we don’t know, but as one season gave way to another, defeat after defeat for their county team in games that mattered most piling up one on top of the other, Louth supporters wondered would there ever be something better, something like there was before this generation, or the one before it, was born.
But that has all changed. After last Sunday, and the Sundays before that with defeats of Dublin, Cork, Tyrone and Meath in the championship and league, Louth people are now satisfied. Mama had good things in mind for the Wee County.
Sunday’s game, in a second round of the All-Ireland series, was against Armagh, clear third-favourites behind Kerry and Donegal to win the Sam Maguire.
It was played out in Inniskeen’s Grattan Park, a venue which Armagh whinged about, and several in this county, your writer included, thought shouldn’t have been chosen in preference to Croke Park.
If the wins over Meath and Cork at the venue and the All-Ireland defeat of Dublin a number of weeks back were good, this one was great.
How else can it be described, beating the current Ulster champions and the All-Ireland winners of two years ago?
The Applemen were raging hot favourites, and had included in their line-up Eoin Conaty, reckoned by many to be the second-best player in the country, behind one David Clifford.
But beaten they were by a Louth team that overcame a dreadfully poor start to both halves, conceding a total of 2-2, gave away a two-pointer just before the break, and made blunders leading to the opposition’s two goals.
Yes, the second Louth goal with the last kick of the ball, making it 2-20 to 2-19, was a giveaway, one which will cause Armagh goalie, Ethan Rafferty, to lose a few nights’ sleep.
But no-one can say victory wasn’t deserved. It puts Louth through to an All-Ireland quarter-final for the second time in recent years.
The Reds got each half off to a terrible start, and at one stage in the opening half, trailed by five points.
A hiding looked on the cards, but packing it in is something Gavin Devlin’s men don’t buy into.
Dublin had the same lead in the Croke Park tie, but were overhauled and in the end well beaten.
Armagh had the winning-post in sight on Sunday, leading by a couple of points, but the man himself, Sam Mulroy, went for a two-pointer from play, and to his and supporters’ delight the ball slipped through Rafferty’s hands into the back of the net. A one-point win for Louth.
Cue for almost everyone in a red hue to make it onto the field. Joy was unconfined; many of the county’s great players of the recent past, Paddy Keenan and Séamus O’Hanlon, among the troves wanting to hail their heroes.
“We’re in dreamland”, said one of the revellers. And he wasn’t wrong. A revolution that began when Mickey Harte first came to the county in late 2019 has been gaining momentum.
There have been three Leinster senior final appearances, one of them resulting in a win, and underage teams also giving us good days out.
Ger Brennan succeeded Harte and presided over the Leinster win. Now it’s Gavin Devlin, an assistant to Harte, who’s running the senior show – while Fergal Reel, Jonny Clerkin and Éamonn McEneaney have made their mark at underage. Regardless of what this season throws up, there’s reason to be optimistic about the future.
Devlin bet on last year’s under-20 partnership, Seán Callaghan and James Maguire, doing the business at midfield.
They didn’t let him down, nor did Tommy Durnin weaken the sector when he came in as a second-half sub.
Defence was strong when Armagh threatened to pull well clear in the opening half, putting in several score-saving tackles.
The Armagh forwards made it difficult for them, attacking at pace and taking a direct line towards goals, but those surrounding RTE’s man-of-the-match, Dara McDonnell, at No 6, mounted several roadblocks on the way to goal.
The goal Sam Mulroy poached at the end was no more than his performance deserved. This, like most of his games, was one in which you wanted to see him with ball in hand.
Aside from his match-winner, the team captain landed a two-pointer and put in a magnificent goal-line save just before the break.
He was the subject of some heavy tackles, Armagh obviously seeing him as the one to be watched.
Ciarán Downey was another attacker who more than paid his way. That double dummy of his on the way to scoring a first-half point was straight from the book written by a Newtown Blue of many years ago, Mickey Leech.
Pretend you’re going to kick the ball, causing your marker to go for a block, and then pull it back to you. Downey twice did it to perfection in a match in which he excelled.
Tadhg McDonnell created an impression when he came in, and as always, Conor Grimes gave it everything in the time he spent on the field.
Armagh had all their big guns included: Conaty, Burns, McElroy, McKay, and Turbitt – Rory Grugan came in during the second half.
What they had to offer kept them in the game ‘til the end, but the day belonged to Louth, whose persistence was just one of their qualities.
If this is what Mama was thinking of, let’s hope there is more to come before the season is over.