Luke’s gospel preaches patience for young Longford lions

LUKE DEMPSEY has always preferred to look beyond the confines of today to what tomorrow might bring.

In nine years with Westmeath he steered them from the wilderness to unimaginable heights, delivering All-Ireland minor and U21 titles in 1995 and ‘99 and taking the county seniors to within a whisker of a semi-final in 2001.

With his Longford team dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in their preparations for Sunday’s Leinster Championship opener against Dublin, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that the Carlow native is concentrating on the here and now for a spell instead.

Reasonable, but wrong. Dempsey may be a day-today coach of high repute but he always likes to keep the bigger picture in focus. Longford is no mere stop-off point for him, but a county to be another ‘Westmeath’.

Four youngsters make their championship debut in Croke Park on Sunday and, win or lose, Dempsey insists that more fresh-faced talent will get its chance in the match to follow.

Donncha Corcoran, a star for Dublin minors not so long ago, will start on the bench after a plague of injuries stalked his season while Stephen Lynch will be given his go next month when his fitness returns after a spell off on a world tour.

Dempsey can see the potential waiting for its chance to shine and sees a reflection of much that he liked in Westmeath when he sees some of the players Longford are producing.

“The difference I see between the two is that Westmeath had a greater supply of players in their mid-20s up when I took over. I’m talking about lads like Rory O’Connell and David Mitchell, the type of guys who were already ready to reach the climax of their careers by going on to win a Leinster title.

“I was hoping to do that with them myself but it didn’t work out, but what I will say about Longford is that the talent at underage levels is every bit as good as I found in Westmeath. We proved that by beating Westmeath in the U21 this year and next year I think we’ll have a real good team at that level. Trophies are the objective in the not so distant future.”

The new manager has already made significant strides. An air of depression lingered in the county after last year’s relegation from Division One and a championship campaign that stalled from the off with defeat by a Carlow team trained by none other than Dempsey himself.

From a start where he had to twist arms to get players to training, Dempsey brought them to within a kick of a return back to the top flight. Needing to win their last game against Monaghan, Longford turned an eight-point deficit with 15 minutes left into a one-point injury-time lead.

Monaghan managed one more point to give them the draw they needed to go up before Trevor Smullen, one of the side’s key forwards, got himself sent off and suspended for Sunday for verbally abusing the ref.

Intriguingly, it’s the loss of the Ballymahon man this week that Dempsey felt far more of the two disappointments.

“Had we been promoted we would have been facing teams like Kerry, Armagh, Mayo and Cork and, with our panel the way it is at the moment, I don’t think we would have been strong enough for that next year.

“Division 2A will be hugely competitive next year with Donegal and Westmeath joining the likes of us, Fermanagh and Clare. Longford will be a year further along coaching-wise as well. David Barden will be back from America and we’ll be far better prepared to go for Division One.”

As for Sunday, Longford will be without players of the calibre of David Blessington, Liam Keenan as well Smullen. Key men all and players a county like Longford miss twice as much as most.

Dempsey points to a Dublin bench decorated with talent though he’s confident of Longford doing themselves justice all the same.

“It’s a huge uphill task for us, but there’s great patience in Longford. What we’re looking for is a run of at least four or five games. Westmeath came of age with eight games in 2001.

“That gave them plenty of visits to Croke Park and got them to an All-Ireland quarter-final. That gave a lot of those guys the confidence to go on and win Leinster last year. We’re looking for something along those lines to get the ball rolling in Longford.”