Louth banish old ghosts to end Leinster title wait

The largest crowd for a Leinster final in eight years witnessed a memorable provincial decider. 

OVER THE LINE; Dermot Campbell of Louth jovially throws the Delaney Cup over the Canal End goal line after the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship final match between Louth and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

LOUTH 3-2-12 (23) MEATH 1-3-15 (21) 

It was never going to be easy. Sixty-eight years of waiting plays tricks with minds. It brings baggage, bogeys and bullshit.

Louth lost four leads in this stirring Leinster final before they eventually held onto one in the most convincing fashion.

Nobody personified their oscillating performance more than Sam Mulroy whose winning display was strangely reminiscent of his close-to-namesake Rory in Georgia last month.

Save for his penalty goal, his first half was on the quiet side but his second couldn’t have been more eventful. He began it with four missed shots at goal, three of them went wide and another dropped short.

A close-range free in the 47th minute settled him and drove over a 45 to bring Louth within a point. His next two minutes later, his first from play, levelled the game and a second in the 59th minute stretched the gap to two.

He must have been impervious in the 62nd minute when he went out to claim a ball in midfield with Tommy Durnin only for them to be turned over. A fit-again Jordan Morris left them for dust, the Meath substitute found Matthew Costello and his strike for his side’s first score in 15 minutes put them back ahead.

Mulroy’s strength of character re-emerged though three minutes later when he arrowed over a two-point free, a dubious one earned by Conal McKeever. It ultimately brought his tally to 1-7 but more essentially put Louth’s mitts on the Delaney Cup and a first senior provincial title since 1957.

Louth still had to keep the ball away from Meath, though, and it was in their possession for three-plus nerve-wracking minutes before Craig Lennon, another of their heroes, sent over the insurance point.

And with that all the anguish of what transpired on the Croke Park field 15 years ago dissipated into the ether. Notwithstanding the contested free, Meath simply hadn’t done enough in the fourth quarter to merit a win and Mulroy could walk up the Hogan Stand steps he had left in tears as a 12-year-old after Joe Sheridan’s winner in 2010.

“Like I said when we were collecting the cup, it's probably that group of players believed when no-one else believed,” he said afterwards. “And I suppose to stand up there for them and collect that trophy was, something I can remember for the rest of my life.” 

With the best crowd for a Leinster final in eight years (65,786), the occasion was guaranteed. Red and green flares darkened the skies above Hill 16. The roars for scores were deafening at times as the game delivered on its staging.

Meath had brought in Morris and Conor Gray as late substitute replacements. Only last week Robbie Brennan was insisting the game would come too early for Morris who torn knee ligaments in the league game against Louth in March.

With one hand, Meath were receiving but the other something was being taken away as Ronan Jones was the man whose injury allowed Morris to be an 11th hour addition to the match-day panel.

Having won the toss, Meath played with the breeze into the Davin Stand and were 0-5 to 0-2 up after 17 minutes. Twice, Louth went ahead in the opening nine minutes but a couple of Eoghan Frayne scores followed by a Billy Hogan two-point free gave them a three-point cushion.

That was swiped from them in the 20th minute when Mulroy sent a penalty to the net. Donal Keogan had fouled Kieran McArdle as he was pulling the trigger and Martin McNally pointed to the spot.

Four minutes later, Meath were rocked by a second Louth goal. Lennon slowed down then turn on the afterburners to engineer the attack. He supplied Ryan Burns whose shot took a small but vital deflection off a challenging Brian O’Halloran to beat Hogan and Louth were three up.

Louth’s explosiveness would not have been many people’s bingo cards but by the end of the half it was their strongest suit. However, they had to endure a sore four-minute period when Meath hit them for seven points.

Against the wind, they struggled with their kick-outs and Meath piled on the scores, one of them a Ruairí Kinsella two-pointer. However, Meath were given another reminder of their opponents' eye for goal when Lennon repeated his trick in the 35th minute, only this time striking himself to make it a one-point game at the break, 0-13 to 3-3.

Meath pushed as far as four points ahead when Hogan sent over a second two-point free in the 41st minute, but 12 minutes later and Louth had restored parity, Mulroy kicking the second of five unanswered points.

Costello’s goal stopped Louth in their tracks but Meath were never able to build on it. “We were really looking for the momentum after that goal, a brilliant finish by Matt, but we just didn’t get it,” rued Robbie Brennan.

“I have to give credit to Louth for that, the way they kept the ball around that period was really good. And little breaks going their way, a few referee’s decisions going their way – all those little bits add up and, before you know it, the hooter’s gone.” 

On its sounding, it was Conor Grimes’s duty to kick the ball into the Cusack Stand and confirm Louth’s third consecutive Leinster final appearance would be a winning one. For that pain they have sustained in the short term, that they have endured from 2010 in the medium term and sustained in the long term waiting to emulate Jim Quigley’s men of ’57, it will be cherished.

Scorers for Louth: S. Mulroy (1-7, 1-0 pen, 1 tpf; 0-2 frees, 1 45); R. Burns (1-3, 1tp); C. Lennon (1-1); B. Duffy, C. Grimes, C. Downey (0-1 each).

Scorers for Meath: E. Frayne (2 frees), R. Kinsella (1tp), B. Hogan (2 tpfs) (0-4 each); M. Costello (1-1); K. Curtis, J. Conlon, S. Coffey, D. Keogan, J. Morris (0-1 each) 

LOUTH: N. McDonnell; D. McKenny, D. Campbell, D. Nally; C. Lennon, P. Lynch, C. McKeever; T. Durnin, B. Duffy; A. McDonnell, S. Mulroy (c), C. Grimes; K. McArdle, C, Downey, R. Burns.

Subs for Louth: C. Keenan for K. McArdle (45); P. Matthews for A. McDonnell (46); C Byrne for R. Burns (62); D. McDonnell for B. Duffy (65); E. Carolan for D. Nally (70).

MEATH: B. Hogan; S. Lavin, S. Rafferty, B. O’Halloran; D. Keogan, S. Coffey, C. Caulfield; J. Flynn, B. Menton; C. Duke, R. Kinsella, M. Costello; J. Conlon, K. Curtis, E. Frayne (c).

Subs for Meath: J. Morris for K. Curtis (45); S. Walsh for C. Duke (53); A. Lynch for R. Kinsella (62); D. McGowan for J. Conlon (68).

Referee: M. McNally (Monaghan)