New Louth management team have hard act to follow
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
There was no pressure on Mickey Harte when he came to this county in 2020, having failed in his attempt to have his role as Tyrone manager extended by a year.
At the time, Louth were down near the bottom of the pecking order, ready to play in the league’s lowest division. Harte’s predecessor, Wayne Kierans, had done his best, but didn’t enjoy the best of luck.
A win over Westmeath instead of a draw in the final league match at Drogheda would have won Louth significant promotion; and in his last championship campaign the former O’Connell’s player had the might of Dublin to contend with.
Having to take his new charges up a rung in his first campaign presented Harte with a task far removed from anything he ever had to face with his native county.
He succeeded in his first Louth league campaign and again in the next, steering his charges to Division Two. Later on there was a place in the Leinster final and a commendable run in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Harte made a success of his visit here, but is now history. His successor, Ger Brennan, is a former Dublin player who’ll be working in unison with James McCartan, who guided Down to the 2010 All-Ireland final, and head of sport at DCU, Dr Niall Moyna.
No doubt there’ll be someone to say it’s a dream team. The job, however, carries more pressure than the one Harte filled for three years before riding out of town. The only way for the Tyrone man when he came in was up – facing the new regime is the task of keeping their team on the level they now occupy.
A schoolteacher by profession, Ger Brennan was an All-Ireland winner with Dublin, playing mostly at centre-half-back. He took to coaching when his playing career was over, and had charge of a number of club teams and also figured for a time on Jim Gavin’s backroom team This is his first county team assignment.
Brennan is said to have been recommended by Gavin after he and fellow countyman, Pat Gilroy, had turned down the offer to look after the Louth team. He becomes the third Dub to call the shots in this county, following on from Mickey Whelan, in the mid-1980s, and Val Andrews, two decade ago.
James McCartan is another with All-Ireland form, helping Down win two All-Irelands, in 1991 and again four years later, both masterminded by Pete McGrath. He almost did the double coveted by so many when the Down team he managed missed out to Cork by a single point in the 2010 All-Ireland final.
The highly-respected Dr Niall Moyna is head of sport at DCU. He is not expected to have any direct involvement in the preparation of teams, instead mapping out a training regime and a dietary programme.