Louth Senior Final could be a classic sure to attract a bumper crowd
The senior final meeting of St Mary’s and Naomh Mairtín has all the promise of one of the best ever, and it’s not only partisans who’ll want to be there to see it.
Expect a bumper crowd at St Brigid’s Park on Sunday. The senior final meeting of St Mary’s and Naomh Mairtín has all the promise of one of the best ever, and it’s not only partisans who’ll want to be there to see it.
These have been the two most consistent sides of recent years. Mary’s won the title last year after edging out Sunday’s rivals at the semi-final stage. And the year before that, Mairtín’s won out for the second successive year, beating St Mochta’s.
When the Monasterboice outfit were crowned championship-winners for the first time in Covid-hit 2020, playing the match in front of about 100 at Darver, it was Mary’s who they relegated to second place.
So, there’ll be no shortage of familiarity at Dowdallshill, and though, as we know, this can lead to contempt if there’s a 100% concentration on playing the game it could be a classic.
Mary’s are expected to rely on much the same side that squeezed past Newtown Blues in a replayed final twelve months ago, but whatever about Mairtin’s showing a similarity to the team beaten by Mary’s in the semi-final, Sunday’s will have no resemblance to the one in place when the team’s great championship odyssey began in 2018.
That year Mairtin’s were beaten by Blues in the final, and the same fate befell them in 2019. As mentioned above, it all came right in 2020, and the Joe Ward Cup was successfully defended the year after.
Of the team that gave the club representation in its first final, only a handful will line out on Sunday – the likes of Sam Mulroy, Craig Lynch, Thomas Sullivan, Val Leddy, Conor Healy and Wayne Campbell.
That speaks volumes for the club’s under-age policy, which received a tremendous boost with a minor championship win six years ago.
Mairtín’s, however, are not alone in benefitting in this way. To find another example you only have to look at their Sunday’s opponents.
No club has won more minor championship in the last decade than Mary’s, the most recent success coming last year. Wins in lower age groups have also gone to Ardee, and as all of that has translated to honours in senior, the importance of “getting them early” can’t be over-emphasised.
But along with the young guns, many of whom were part of Mickey Harte’s county team over the last two successful years, there are grey beards – if Darren Clarke, Ronan Carroll, and the younger of the plus-30 trio, Robbie Leavy, will allow us to call them that.
Clarke and Carroll are unlikely to be marching behind the band, but Leavy is sure to be before lining up at midfield for the throw-in.
Don’t, however, be surprised if manager, Cathal Murray, tells either of the other two, and maybe both, to get their tracksuits off them at some stage.
Murray is assisted by Alan Rooney and Barry Teather, the former a championship-winner as a player himself, and Teather, who played for Na Piarsigh, winning lavish praise for his work at Páirc Uí Mhuire.
This is the trio that masterminded last year’s win.
There’s an Ulster man in charge of Mairtín’s as well, and he’s hoping to emulate the feat of yet another man from across the border in his spell in Monasterboice.
Armagh’s Fergal Reel was manager for the double; now it’s Donal O’Neill’s turn to try to work the oracle.
O’Neill is still playing club football, and on Sunday was in the Burren set-up as the Mourne club unsuccessfully attempted to wrest the Down title from the all-conquering Kilcoo.
As said on these pages last week, if there’s any advantage to be gleaned from the match being played at St Brigid’s Park then it lies with Mary’s.
They’ve been there on a number of occasions in recent times, no later than in last year’s replayed final.
And while it’s on no relevance to this year, Mary’s, led by the irrepressibly Johnny Ross, won the first-ever final played at the Dowdallshill venue, back in 1960.
This is one even the most ardent of Naomh Mairtin supporters couldn’t answer when queried last week: Have Mairtín’s ever played at St Brigid’s? It’s unlikely. In the 35 years Mairtin’s have been playing in senior, Sunday’s hosts, Dowdallshill, have been in junior or intermediate, and therefore wouldn’t have crossed swords with the men in blue.
Don’t be surprised to hear Donal O’Neill had his charges down for a ‘feel’ of one of the county’s best pitches since the ‘Hill was announced as the venue for this showpiece.
Who’ll win? Mary’s were very good in the semi-final defeat of St Patrick’s last Sunday week.
A couple of days earlier, Mairtín’s needed their talisman, Mulroy, to rescue them with a very late penalty in their clash with Dreadnots.
Mary’s nippy, scoring forwards will test the Mairtin’s defence.
They might get enough to make it their side’s way.