IT’S NOT JUST their footballers, but Louth manager Aidan O’Rourke has to recalibrate the entire county’s ‘expectations of themselves.’
But the former Armagh All-Star is in no doubt that he is the man to overcome the ‘mindset that exists within the county’ ahead of their Leinster championship opener against Westmeath this Saturday.
“If I felt I couldn’t change it I wouldn’t be there,” he says.
“Louth are unique. There is a certain mindset that exists within the county. That is not necessarily football specific. They don’t expect to do well, they don’t expect to excel or to exceed expectation so that kind of does permeate into minds. So much of the work we have to do is to recalibrate their own expectations of themselves.
“We would feel they have their own very talented group of players there. What they don’t quite realise is how talented they are.”
Louth were relegated from this year’s Division Two league, with five losses and two draws in their seven games.
“Obviously the impression of Louth outside would be that they have been relegated from Division Two,” he says, “not quite at the level of the top teams in Leinster, it’s understandable but we feel that there is a different story to be told.”
“Mindsets do change. There are strategies and approaches that can adjust them but the greatest indicator of that adjustment is that they achieve. They have a great summer ahead of them if things fall their way and they get the bounce of the ball at the right time in the game that matters that gives them that bit of belief in themselves, they can have a very strong summer.”
O’Rourke believes that the county’s poor league campaign was down to changes within their squad and an “overall culture change this year”.
“Starting off we had to remodel our forward line from last year because it was built around Shane Lennon, Ciaran Byrne and Brian White. We played the first half of the league without any of those three.
“We were good last year but fundamentally it just wasn’t good enough. The league was probably difficult from that point of view, adjusting what we were trying to do, so that probably all meant that the league was difficult.”
At the centre of these changes has been the departure of 19 year-old Ciaran Byrne to AFL club Carlton, and the injury concerns of Shane Lennon.
“(Ciaran) was a phenomenon for us last year. We’re disappointed to lose him but we don’t begrudge him the career he has ahead of him,” he says.
“Shane had a very serious hip injury a couple of years ago and he just had to have some corrective work done. He had an update in January and he had to make a decision then as to whether it was more beneficial then and miss the league or try and manage it through the season and we took the view that the championship was the most important thing.”
He is absolutely right. For far too long the mentality is and this even goes to the our nick name the ” wee county ” that we are a small county so we dont expect to do well. If we beat a Kildare or a Meath the year is a success which is not acceptable. We have a bigger population than most. Louth does have a large choice to pick from. Look at the counties that surround Louth. Dublin, Meath, Monaghan, Armagh and Down have all enjoyed success in All Ireland competition were Louth is left behind. The question has to be asked, why? Cause the mentality is not right, we shoukd be expecting to beat the teams I just mentioned except for Dublin who are a professional team in everything but name. Dublin are showing the future of GAA and fair play to them.
what would you describe as success would it be winning Leinster?
Winning a Leinster Championship would absolutely be a success for Louth as it has not happened for a long long time. Its all about making baby steps forward to an ultimate target. Why cant they get to the knock out stages of the All Ireland series and build from there year on year. Ciaran Byrne a superb talent whi recently joined Carlton in the AFL even said it himself in an Irish Independent interview “we are a small county so we dont really have a chance in winning a Leinster or All Ireland” so if a mentality like that is in a young star at that stage its definetly an issue and it shouldnt be. 2 of the biggest towns in the country in our county. Some people forget this. We have been perennial underachievers in my opinion.
Winning a Leinster Championship would absolutely be a success for Louth as it has not happened for a long long time. Its all about making baby steps forward to an ultimate target. Why cant they get to the knock out stages of the All Ireland series and build from there year on year. Ciaran Byrne a superb talent whi recently joined Carlton in the AFL even said it himself in an Irish Independent interview “we are a small county so we dont really have a chance in winning a Leinster or All Ireland” so if a mentality like that is in a young star at that stage its definetly an issue and it shouldnt be. 2 of the biggest towns in the country in our county. Some people forget this. We have been perennial underachievers in my opinion.
improvement in the league might be more realistic over the next couple of years as this dublin squad and management have a fixation on winning and that includes Leinster titles and I agree as a dub I would love to see Louth challenge for leinsters
Louth have a bigger population than Kilkenny…so it’s not about population.
Patrick you say you should be expecting to beat teams except Dublin that’s great mentality way better so getting to a Leinster final and its against Dublin do you reckon there’s any point in heading up to croke park
infairness Robbie he is been realistic
Baby steps Robbie, baby steps!!!
Baby steps for life I’m afraid !