Sport

O'Dwyer magic won't be enough to save Louth

Westmeath key man John Heslin has been named at full-forward rather than midfield against Louth. Picture by Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
Westmeath key man John Heslin has been named at full-forward rather than midfield against Louth. Picture by Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE Westmeath key man John Heslin has been named at full-forward rather than midfield against Louth. Picture by Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE

Leinster Senior Football Championship round one: Louth v Westmeath (tomorrow, Drogheda, 3.30pm)

IF a week is a long time in politics, then a year can be a very long time in football, as Louth and Westmeath prepare to meet in the Leinster Championship first round for the second season in succession.

Back in May last year, Louth travelled down to Cusack Park and recorded an emphatic five-point victory against the hosts. Even with home advantage to their name this time, a five-point win seems out of the question, and any sort of win doubtful.

Colin Kelly replaced Aidan O'Rourke as manager at the start of this season, but a disastrous League campaign led to relegation to Division Four.

No team across the four divisions had a worse defensive record than the Wee county. They conceded, on average, over 18 points a game despite preventing the opposition from scoring goals in three of their seven games. Against Louth, you will get chances.

There will also be some significant team changes from that side of 12 months ago. There's no Paddy Keenan, no Brian White, no Shane Lennon. Big names, even if White struggled to truly hit the heights in recent seasons.

But what they do have is a little bit of 'Micko magic' after Kelly added the legendary Mick O'Dwyer to his backroom team in an advisory role.

The Kerry man's arrival would have been a good remedy for the blues of relegation, and it should provide some inspiration before the game in Drogheda.

It's still unclear what role O'Dwyer plays in the camp, but it would be expected that Kelly would have ran his much-changed teamsheet past him.

If, and it's a big if, the team named starts, then there will be five players brought in from the side that lost to Limerick in their final League game.

Darren O'Hanlon, Adrian Reid, Tommy Durnin, Conor Grimes and Paraic Smith all come into the side, and it's undoubtedly Durnin's addition that is the biggest surprise.

Midfield has been a huge problem for Louth this season, and Durnin couldn't break into it during the League. But he will get his chance tomorrow, and a Championship debut to go with it.

The problems heading into the game are not restricted to the home team though.

After Roscommon relegated Weshmeath in Mullingar, manager Tom Cribbin went on the attack and said his senior players had a tendency to "lay down."

The fight, or lack of it, from those more experienced players should give an insight into how Cribbin's words went down inside the camp.

One man who is fighting is John Heslin, who has been named at full-forward rather than in the middle of the park.

He was in extraordinary form in recent challenge matches against Letrim and Offaly and racked up massive totals in both.

Given how porous Louth have been, it's hard to see them nullifying his scoring influence.

Team captain Ger Egan and Daragh Daly also give the side a bit of height around the middle, and they have a chance to dominate against a real problem area for their opponents.

Louth have won six of the last eight Championship clashes with Westmeath, it's a team they perform well against.

There's just been too much upheaval though, despite O'Dwyer's presence, and it should be Cribbin's men celebrating at the full-time whistle.

Louth: N Gallagher; A Williams, P Reilly, P Rath; D Byrne, D O'Hanlon, A Reid; B Duffy, T Durnin; D Maguire, C Judge, J Stewart; R Burns, C Grimes, P Smith

Westmeath: D Quinn; J Gilligan, K Maguire, K Daly; P Holloway, K Martin, J Dolan; D Daly, G Egan; P Sharry, R Connellan, J Stapleton; C McCormack, J Heslin, S Dempsey