THE number 19 was very much on the mind of Louth manager Ger Brennan ahead of their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final clash with Donegal this Sunday.
That may be the tally required to see off Jim McGuinness’s men, he reckons. It was also the number of people on their media Zoom call, which he noted as an indication of the big interest in ‘the wee county’.
A first ever appearance at the last eight stage explains much of that increased attention. Many managers might have downplayed the historical significance of that, fearing the consequences of hype, but Brennan believes the Louth players must embrace what they’ve done:
“I’d say they’re the most successful Louth team in 67 years, when you look at it in black and white. That’s obviously a huge achievement for this group and for a county like Louth.
“So that has to be acknowledged and you have to harness that energy and put it into your preparations then.”
Louth will have to draw on all their reserves of energy if they are to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals for the first time since they went on to collect the Sam Maguire Cup in 1957.
Brennon acknowledged that consecutive matches against Kerry and Cork have taken it out of his team, both in minds and bodies: “Fellas are emotionally drained after the weekend and the two games on the bounce. It does take a bit of time to get over it.
“Then, as a player, physically, that load, that demand on the body, to be playing week after week and to eke out the results, they’re going to need a good few days to come back down and take to the field refreshed for the weekend.”
Opponents Donegal earned themselves an extra week’s preparation by topping their group, whereas Louth had that tense, tight victory over Cork in Inniskeen.
Even without that probable disadvantage, Brennan accepts that overcoming the Ulster champions will be significant task.
Beating Cork in that preliminary quarter-final was huge for Louth, but achieved by only scoring 1-9, and the boss accepts that their scoring return will need to be improved:
“Yeah, I think we got 19 shots off against Cork at the weekend, so did Cork, we just came out plus one which is great. You’ve got to be getting mid 20s and close to 30 shots off, a lot of the Dublins and the Kerrys manage to do. They’re getting the shot to score ratio around 65%.
“Donegal were very good in their three games during the All-Ireland series, even going back to the Ulster final where it finished 0-20 apiece after extra-time.
“Cork got the three goals on them in round 2 but Donegal have been averaging 18 or 19 points in their last four championship matches to date so we know Donegal will be looking to hit something similar.
“If we can kind of get them down to the low teens, it would be a big achievement for the group from the view of getting a few more scores on the board in Croke Park and hopefully get out with the result.”
Despite doing such mental arithmetic, the Dubliner insists that Louth won’t simply be in Croke Park “to make up the numbers - we’re there to compete and represent the county with pride.”
Indeed, never mind their county nickname, Brennan points out that others with smaller resources have achieved plenty in recent times, notably one set of neighbours:
“Since I have gotten involved with Louth I have used the example of Monaghan. They have half the population of Louth but they are a success. Ten years in Division One, getting to All-Ireland semi-finals and they were the only side to have won their All-Ireland quarter-final last year having gone through a preliminary.
“So that’s something I will be mentioning to our players again: if Monaghan can do it, why can’t Louth?”
The appreciation of Monaghan extended to Louth holding several ‘home’ games there in Inniskeen, where the scenes of celebration after seeing off Cork were memorable. Brennan hopes such support can inspire his players on Sunday:
“I would be very confident that it will, that feel-good factor, the couple of thousand people on the pitch at the end of the game in Inniskeen, you could barely see a blade of grass in the images with all the supporters on it. That was wonderful for the players to experience that and to receive those accolades.
“There does come a point in the week… whereby you just have to park that, acknowledge it and move on for the next game. If you spend too much time dwelling on what was done, it doesn’t serve you any good in the long run.”
