Mulroy: 'Gaelic football has gone that way. It’s not about being exciting'

Mulroy made his apologies for Sunday’s low-scoring win over Cork.

WINNING FEELING: Louth's Sam Mulroy celebrates with supporters after the All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final win over Cork at Grattan Park in Inniskeen, Monaghan. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Sam Mulroy won’t say Louth are in bonus territory against Donegal this weekend but he appreciates it is a new horizon for the county.

The county’s first-ever All-Ireland quarter-final was an objective of the captain and his team-mates at the outset of the season, although there is some trepidation going into unchartered territory.

“I think we have to be realistic as well,” said Mulroy, who kicked over the winning free. “I’m a very ambitious man but you have to be realistic at times and you look at the teams who have had a longer spell of development under their belts and a lot more players playing at this standard the last 10 to 15 years.

“For us, it’s about gathering momentum and year-on-year just improving. At the start of the year, it was about going one better and there was a change of management and that takes time and we found that out through the league but thankfully we worked out stuff together and collaborated really well and come up with a gameplan that has let us win games.” 

What Louth won’t worry about is the venue having given such a sterling account of themselves in the Leinster final against Dublin in GAA HQ last month. “Getting back to Croke Park is massive for us. After the Leinster final, that was probably the objective for us and see what happened. It’s been a hell of a ride and hopefully we can keep it going.” 

Mulroy makes his apologies for Sunday’s low-scoring win over Cork. It was simply a case of pragmatism over entertainment and implementing a gameplan that was going to give them the best chance of reaching the last-eight.

“We had to respect Cork’s running game. If you press them too much up the pitch, they have pace all over so we respected that and it probably led into it being a boring spectacle but that was the gameplan and we knew what we had to do.

“At the end of the day, Gaelic football has gone that way. It’s not about being exciting, it’s about winning unfortunately for the spectator. We knew it was going to go right down to the wire and there has been nothing between the sides in the last four or five encounters so we know each other really well. It was just fine margins and thankfully Craig won a big free and we (he) kicked it over.” 

In manager Ger Brennan and coaches James McCartan and Niall Moyna, Mulroy says Louth’s players have a management group that genuinely believe in them. “The lads have been excellent. They have been around All-Ireland winning dressing rooms and they know what it takes.

“Sometimes it’s just about belief and those lads back us and we back ourselves and it’s nice to play with that belief in us. Sometimes, it is tactical but they bring a lot of experience which is massive to the group. We have thrived under them and hopefully we can keep going next week.”