Joe Carroll: Sunday's Louth and Limerick clash is one the Wee County simply must win

The Louth and Limerick match with the thickest line under it was the very first. Apart from everything else, it provided the most staple of quizmasters’ questions until they got fed up asking it: “Who won the first football All-Ireland and who did they beat in the final?”

Way back when goalies went out to stop shots and maybe kick out the ball, full-forwards hung around the edge of the square, except when they spotted the chance of landing the said goalies into the back of the net, and ‘press’ was a word that only applied to those who were taking notes along the line, Limerick, represented by the club team Commercials, beat Louth champions, Young Irelands.

The game was played on a pitch between Clonskeagh and Donnybrook, in Dublin, and the final score was 1-4 to 0-3. Referee was Tipperaryman, John Cullinane. Of course, you all knew that.

The game as it’s played by many teams nowadays has changed a lot since then and for many, many years afterward. I often wonder is it for the better.

Fifteen behind the ball, goalkeepers taking up attacking roles, and those looking on from the terraces not knowing where players are supposed to be lined out, can make a football match interesting for only those whose teams are playing, and better if theirs is winning.

I say it as a non-partisan who was present at the recent controversial All-Ireland club final, it can be a very hard watch.

No doubt the game will evolve, just as the catch-and-kick gave way to the one practised by the great Down team of the early 1960s and the Galway representatives from later in the same decade.

Let’s hope that when it does, there’s lots of emphasis on going forward and not across the field and players are allowed to show a bit of adventure.

There have been a few games between Sunday’s Ardee contestants in recent years, and Louth have done all right in them. The most recent was last season, and it was played at Croke Park. Both teams had already won promotion from Division Three of the league – this was to decide the champions.

Louth won, bringing a second successive league campaign to a winning conclusion. Sam Mulroy was really on top of his game at the time, and not surprisingly, was chosen on the RTE Sunday Game Team of the National League, slotting in at full-forward and leaving the choosers to find somewhere else for David Clifford.

Limerick play on a Louth sod for the first time on Sunday. The green-and-whites’ meeting with Louth is in the third round of the league, and because both sides have yet to chalk up a point in the table, there’s no need to emphasise how valuable a win is.

Louth have fared better than Limerick in their matches to date, without winning either of them. They lost a game to Clare in Ennis that should have been sewn up, especially when it became clear the home side couldn’t hit the target for nuts, wasting chance after chance throughout most of the second half. A dodgy referee decision didn’t help.

In contrast, Limerick took a hiding from Derry the first day and another from Dublin next time out. Louth found Derry a much tougher proposition on Sunday week last, but again were left to consider what might have been. A glaring mistake at the back and missed chances at the other end made it much easier for the Ulster champions than they might have expected.

If the remaining games are to be meaningful, especially the one coming up a week from next Sunday – against Meath at Navan – Louth must come away from Ardee this time with both points.