Louth hoping for silver lining

THREE near misses in 15 months has left Louth obsessed on winning some silverware.

While the disappointment surrounding last year’s Leinster final centred on the controversial goal that denied them a first provincial title in 53 years, subsequent internal analysis focused on a failure to finish the job.

While there is no doubting the progress the Wee County have made under Peter Fitzpatrick, with leads lost in the closing stages of the last two O’Byrne Cup finals, the players and management have recognised this must be addressed. It’ll start with tomorrow night’s Allianz Football League Division 3 final at Croke Park.

“We sat down at the start of the year and just tried to wipe the slate clean from the Leinster final,” said JP Rooney yesterday.

“Promotion was important to continue the progress but now we’re in the final, what everyone is saying is that this is a chance to win a final under Peter. We have been in three and have led in the last five or 10 minutes of them but let those leads slip.

“This time, if we get to within touching distance of it, we have to try to finish the job. That would get the monkey off our back.

“We’re not thinking about the championship now. This is going to be a great test to see how our training is going but Westmeath in Croke Park at this time of year is better than any training.”

Louth beat Westmeath by eight points in the league opener, a game described by Rooney as the most important of their season after last summer’s travails and the subsequent last-ditch loss O’Byrne Cup loss to Kildare.

Two more wins had them sitting pretty but an alarming lull led to defeats by Offaly, Limerick and Cavan and even Fitzpatrick believed they wouldn’t deserve promotion.

“I don’t think anyone can put their finger on what happened. But we got promotion by digging deep and that’s a positive, although we did have a lot of luck as results went our way and in the end, the teams standing third and fourth in the table going into the last day were promoted.”

If fortune did smile on them, it wasn’t before time. As a Louth senior footballer since 1999, Rooney knows all about adversity, with the Leinster final just another verse of the country and western song that is the county’s GAA history since the 1957 All-Ireland success.

That experience has probably helped when considering his future in the last few weeks that he has been out of work. The 31-year-old is starting a course next week as he intends to swap a landscaping career for one in personal training, injury rehab and fitness instruction.

“These are tough times but it’s not just me. It’s everyone and it’s all over the country. It’s a chance for me to try something new and then see it through.”

Pocketing a league medal would be a very good start indeed.