Unheralded Dempsey striving for recognition

AS long ago as 1977, when he was still a teenager at Carlow CBS, people could tell that Luke Dempsey had the makings of a seriously good football manager.

Leo McGeough is a reporter with the Nationalist newspaper in Carlow these days but he was frequenting the same school halls as the current Longford manager back in the mid-70s who was making waves even then.

“He was a year ahead of me in school and even then he was a bit of a hero figure because he was so enthusiastic,” says McGeough. “He was the best footballer in the school but it wasn’t just that.

“I have no proof of it but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was giving the two lads over the school team advice even then. That’s the way he was. Football was kind of dormant at the time in the CBS but he started a resurgence.”

The school rode the wave Dempsey’s momentum gave them, reaching a handful of Leinster ‘B’ finals in the following years and their former pupil has been breathing new life into tired old teams around the midlands ever since.

Westmeath, Carlow and now Longford can all vouch for that, but the inter-county game has never held sole ownership of his attention. He has spent time with his school team Rochfortbridge, Kildare club side Leixlip and the Leinster representative side as well.

Impressive as his batting average has been, his achievements haven’t garnered the recognition they should have, due largely to the fact that he has yet to take charge of one of the top-tier counties.

It’s a fact that rankles.

“There was a great sense of vindication in my own coaching style,” he said after the defeat of Westmeath three weeks ago. “There was this notion put out that this guy is only good with underage players. I never agreed with that. Any guy who is good at underage level can succeed at senior level.”

Though he has been known to let fly with some scathing criticisms — Tommy Lyons and Colm O’Rourke have copped a load in recent weeks — the secret to Dempsey’s success is his relentlessly positive nature.

“Luke always stresses the positives,” says Longford chairman Martin Skelly. “Win or lose, he is always very enthusiastic with the players and they respond to that. Sometimes I find myself scratching my head when he is looking on the bright side. I can’t even find the bright side, but it works.”

That Midas touch was never better illustrated than in the six weeks he spent over Carlow in the summer of 2004. Managerless and in turmoil after a number of players embarked on a drinking spree the night before a game, Dempsey took the reins on short notice and righted the ship in time to surprise Longford and give Laois and Longford the fright of their lives.

McGeough went along to do a story on one of his first training sessions that summer and was struck by the intensity of the drills, his boundless enthusiasm and the fact that he already knew every one of his player’s first name.

“I remember after we beat Longford that time and Laois were up next,” McGeough says, “he was in no way phased by the prospect of sharing the same sideline as Mick O’Dwyer. Another new manager coming in might have been intimidated by that and that could have transferred to the dressing room. Not Luke.”

Dempsey himself regards the recent defeat of Westmeath as his biggest achievement in management so far. Though it was Longford’s first win in Leinster in six years, he would be the first to accept that the credit must be shared.

Former Longford players Declan Rowley and Eugene McCormack have been particularly key links in the management chain. As locals, they have been invaluable in sieving through the talent that has dropped in their laps at an opportune time.

Longford’s minors won the Leinster Championship in 2002 but the county really struck the mother lode 12 months later with St Mel’s winning a Leinster Colleges ‘A’ championship, Moyne an All-Ireland ‘B’ and the Vocational Schools a national title of their own.

Westmeath’s minor and U21 All-Irelands under Dempsey in the 1990s suggested he would be the perfect man to mould those raw materials and the evidence of the last two years have backed that up.

“If ever Longford were going to produce a decent senior team, they were going to have to make use of those years,” says Skelly. “That was always going to be a platform, even though there are no guarantees of bringing that through to senior.

“If the right management got to work with them they had a chance of doing something at senior level and that seems to be the case at the moment. The three lads have their ears to the ground.”

Ever since it took Westmeath three attempts to shake them off in the Leinster minor final 12 years ago, Laois have been a sub-plot in Dempsey’s story and they make another appearance today in Tullamore.

Victory then and the entire country will have to sit up and take notice.