Louth take over the Dubs for Leinster title

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

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

Ger Brennan’s side will look to end Dubs’ provincial dominance and try to find a way to break their 13-year Delaney Cup winning streak.

Louth secured Allianz Division 2 status after an unimpressive campaign of three wins and four defeats, but have improved in their quest for a provincial title.

Making a solid start in the Leinster Championship they defeated Wexford in Portlaoise, led by the exceptional performance of captain Sam Mulroy.

They capitalized on Kildare’s mistakes in the semi-final, with Mulroy again taking the lead alongside Conor Grimes, Ciarán Downey and Ryan Burns.

Dublin’s Leinster campaign has seen them score decisive victories over Meath and Offaly in the quarter- and semi-finals respectively.

Seán Bugler, Paul Mannion and Con O’Callaghan showed 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 that of Cormac Costello played a crucial role in securing victory for Dublin.
Ahead of the match, Louth manager Brennan is under no illusions about how strong his former side are, but he is confident his players can perform to their potential and potentially cause unrest.

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

“That dream, that hope is always there. You don’t have to look too far into the recent past to look at various sports and codes where teams that are unexpected or not the favorites go into a match looking to win.

“That they eventually take one out of the bag and put the favorites in the background. So there is always that hope. There are countless examples of where this has happened before.

“More specifically for Louth, you look at the work the boys have done, not specifically this year, but since they were growing up as kids.

“Playing schools, playing clubs, going through development teams and the hours, weeks and months they spent playing the game.

“Certainly, more recently the pace of work they’ve put in to try and represent the province with pride. A lot of work has been done, so they have to have confidence in that.

“We see what Derry could do in the final of the national competition, which is a very good example. We have seen Kerry and Mayo come close many times in previous seasons, resulting in replays in the latter stages of the All-Ireland series.

“So there are some good examples of how we can get to Dublin and put Louth’s best foot forward in the game.”
Assessing the Reds’ path to the final, the manager said: “They’re a very honest group of players. They always want to get better, they want to come off the field knowing they’ve got most things right.

“Obviously not everything is going to go perfectly for you, but if you get the majority of them right you put yourself in a position to get to the right side of the leaderboard.

“In the first round against Wexford we were really impressed and the boys were probably surprised by how well structured and how fit Wexford were and we struggled to cope with them apart from the few goals we got from Sam (Mulroy) and Ciarán Downey. .

“Going into the game against Kildare last week we had a chance to score a goal which put us eight points ahead at home. We missed it and brought Kildare on us, but to be fair to the boys they stuck with it.

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

“I think context is hugely important and look at where Louth is, and the history of Louth Gaelic football. To reach back-to-back Leinster finals is a huge achievement.

“It’s a huge opportunity to see how close we are to the top teams and to perform to the best of our ability and take the lessons from that into the All-Ireland Series.

“So for Louth senior football and obviously as Dub, and a few of us in the backroom team who don’t live in Louth, you can see the flags going up when you travel to training or visit a garage in local towns. The excitement and conversation in the province is extremely important.

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

“Then the Minors beat Wicklow in the Leinster quarter-final and now face Longford in the semi-final on Tuesday. Louth people love their Gaelic football so for Louth to play in a provincial final of any age is a huge achievement.”

The manager continued to speak about the dominance Dublin has had in the Leinster football competition over the past decade.

“With the Leinster game, there have been numerous conversations about that at this stage. The Ulster football league is clearly the most competitive,” he said.

“The Munster swing is next, and then depending on how the Connacht draw goes, whether the three teams are on one side of the draw or the other.

“If you look at it, it probably doesn’t make sense at this stage to have odd numbers in different provinces that were once very traditional and very proud leagues.

“I think the national competition is one of the best competitions we have. Where an even number of teams, the most teams in the national competition, can beat each other on any given day. There are fewer one-sided results compared to Ulster football at the provincial games.

“So there is probably a need to look at things in Leinster, but I am confident that the directors in Leinster council and the district council executives are better placed to make their decisions than I am.”

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

May 14, 2023 – Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Final, Louth 0-15 (15) – 5-21 (36) Dublin.

May 25, 2019 – Laois Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final, Dublin 5-21 (36) – 0-10 (10) Louth.

3 June 2012 – Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter Final, Dublin 2-22 (28) – 0-12 (12) Louth.

8 June 2008 – Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter Final, Louth 0-12 (12) – 1-22 (25) Dublin.

1 June 2003 – Croke Park, Leinster Senior Football Championship Quarter Final, Dublin 1-19 (22) – 0-9 (9) Louth.

The match will form part of a double header with the LGFA Leinster final between Dublin and Meath. Throw-in at 11:45 am.