“Now is our time” – St Mochtas boss Kevin McClorey aims for Louth senior football title

St Mochtas senior football manager, Kevin McClorey, believes his side's time has come as they prepare to face Newtown Blues in Sunday's Louth GAA Anchor Tours Senior Football Championship final.

The Louth Village side are chasing their first Joe Ward Cup when they face the 23-time champions at the Integral GAA Grounds in Drogheda at 3.30pm.

Having lost their only previous senior final to Naomh Máirtín in 2021, McClorey believes his players are ready to make history.

He told the Dundalk Democrat, “I think we've been knocking on the door for a couple of years. We've had a couple of hard setbacks. I think now is the time.

“I think we're prime. Now is our time. This isn't a building for the future. We really believe now is our time. We're not going to shy away from that. It isn't a two or three years' time; we'll be back. No, we're here now, and we want to make the most of it.”

McClorey, who stepped up from coach to manager this season, made championship success his priority after the Mochtas reached three successive league finals.

“That's why the eggs were fully in the championship basket this year. We've got what we needed from the league.

“We had a great dinner dance here in February last year where we collected our Cardinal O’Donnell Cup medals and then went to the boys and said to me, I don't want to be here next year collecting a league medal.

“And we would have taken a league medal, no bother, but not at the expense of a championship one.”

That approach influenced preparations, with McClorey delaying the squad's return to training.

“We timed our run a bit better because, and what I mean by that was, maybe in previous years we were out a bit earlier. This year, we just left it for a few weeks.

“Then the torrential rain happened, so that actually pushed us. Our first pitch session this year ended up being the first of March in the Paddy Sheelan Cup. It wasn't ideal.

“That wasn't part of the plan. But we said, okay, this might benefit us later in the year. It has worked out that way. I do think we look fresh and we look fit.”

Belief

Despite a difficult league campaign, the Mochtas have improved throughout the championship, with their victory over Hunterstown Rovers proving a turning point.

“I think the Hunterstown game was a strange circumstance. We started the game six points down. But as I've said a couple of times, we maybe haven't been associated with getting ourselves out of tight corners like that.

“That night was a really, really important night for us. I thought we were excellent that night to keep Hunterstown to seven points, to be as efficient up front as we were, to be as controlled as we were, mature as we were.”

Hunterstown's earlier victory over St Mary's had left McClorey fearing another championship disappointment.

“I was standing there watching that, and my heart was through the roof, and I actually looked at my watch, and it was in triple figures, and I was just standing watching the game.

“I was thinking, I can't believe this is happening to us. And it sort of felt like, oh, it's going to be us again. They had something to hold on to. We didn't.

And we were able to just let the shackles off, let the handbrake off, if you like, and go for it. And that suited us. So yeah, from the Hunterstown game, that gave us a real bounce.”

Warning

The Villagers followed that result with victory over Dundalk Gaels before producing a convincing semi-final performance against St Joseph's.

McClorey, however, knows a comfortable semi-final victory guarantees nothing.

“I've been involved in a few semi-final wins like that, and then we didn't quite get the final performance. We actually got to four finals in a row, and the first one of them we did a semi-final win like that, and we were flat in the final.

“We've been guarded against that. So, if you'd have offered me a one-point win or a sixteen-point win, I probably would have taken the one-point win, to be honest.”

History

Newtown Blues bring considerably more championship experience into Sunday's decider, something the Down native readily acknowledges.

“As I said, they have all the experience, and they expect to be here. It's just in their football DNA, in that club. They have 23 titles; we've none. They expect to be there. Nobody expected us to be here. It's a nice wee storyline. It's a nice setting.”

The Blues also arrive full of confidence after knocking favourites St Mary's out of the championship.

“As the Blues are. They're playing with such confidence as well. Such a good boost for them to knock the Marys out of the competition.

“It's quite exciting. Both teams are coming into the final really, really fancying themselves. All you really want is your players to turn up with energy, and to not play within themselves. Sometimes the favourites tag weighs heavily on teams.

“We seem to be playing nice football and just see if that's enough. I don't think either team's going to be too bogged down on whether favourites or underdogs, really.”

Motivation

The Mochtas will be without injured All-Star Craig Lennon, but McClorey hopes his side can secure a championship medal for him.

“I think we always, as players and as a group, we always have somebody you're playing for. And now Craig's another one of them that we're playing for as best we can. But it's not just that.

“I suppose Craig's influence behind the scenes now has been massive; he's obviously, he's an opportunity now to speak more at training and to do video analysis with us and stuff like that.

“We're getting that help from him. As I said a couple of times, we're doing our best for Craig as well. We're devastated for him. He's such a good influence around the place. And, yeah, hopefully we can do the business for him and get him a chance at a medal.”