IF Louth’s players won’t turn out for Mickey Harte then they’re in the wrong sport, says forward Sam Mulroy.
The St Martin’s clubman hailed a massive coup for the ‘Wee County’ as the beginning of a new era in Louth and says he’s excited to begin working with the three-time All-Ireland winner.
Harte’s move from All-Ireland contenders and Division One challengers Tyrone to the Leinster also-rans and Division Four hopefuls is a seismic shift, but Mulroy – scorer of his county’s entire tally of 1-7 in their only Championship match this year – says the talent is there for him to achieve success.
Harte officially stepped down from his position as Tyrone manager less than two weeks’ the narrow Ulster Championship loss to Donegal but his ‘retirement’ lasted roughly two weeks and on Monday night it was announced that he had signed up for three years in with Louth (who finished 20 places below Tyrone in this year’s National League).
“I think the appointment has taken the nation by storm,” said Mulroy.
“It’s a bit of privilege that we have him in Louth and I’m excited to see what he is going to bring. We probably lack standards and a real platform to build from. We’re at the bottom at the minute and the only way is up and Mickey isn’t going to come here just for the craic, so he’ll give it a good lash. It’s a good project for him.”
Louth won just one game this year. They were already relegated and Down were promoted when they beat a second string Mourne outfit in Dundalk and then bowed out of the Leinster Championship following a two-point loss against Longford. Times are hard but Mulroy insists that the players want to work harder.
“We know ourselves that over the last couple of years it hasn’t been good enough and we’ve been half-doing the job. It’s been: ‘Are we in, or are we not in?’” he said.
“There’s a good core group of players there now, a young-enough squad that we can really build on over the next couple of years and it’s exciting to see Mickey take over the U20s as well. I think he means business and it’s exciting for any young footballer in Louth at the minute.
“If you don’t want to come and play for Mickey Harte I think you’re in the wrong sport. He is obviously one of the top managers in the country, he had Tyrone for 18 years, he was won three All-Irelands so he will command respect and everyone will be jumping at the chance to play for Louth and that will be a big plus.”
The first target for Harte and assistant Gavin Devlin will be to clinch promotion from Division Four which will include a clash with Enda McGinley’s Antrim. Louth results should certainly get more attention next year.
“There will be a bit more publicity around Louth football and everybody will be looking to see how we get on,” said Mulroy.
“That will bring added pressure but I suppose that pressure is a bit of privilege. We will have to perform every week and not be slacking off because everyone is going to be gunning for us now. Opposition managers and players will want to be beating Mickey Harte’s team so there’ll be a little bit of pressure but that is something we can deal with hopefully.”
Mulroy’s only previous contact with his county’s new manager came when Harte visited the St Martin’s club to comfort the players after the sudden death of their team-mate Brendan Reilly who tragically died after suffering a heart attack on the way home from a match.
“We try to do our best for Benny every day,” Mulroy explained.
“It was a tragedy and Mickey came down and spoke about his experiences with the sad passing of his daughter Michaela. He spoke about how he dealt with that and how we needed to stick together as a team and try to do what was right. It was nice to hear that from him and a lot of us took something from it to help cope with the tragedy.”
Mulroy says he came out of lockdown “hungry and mad for football” and he was his county’s only scorer in the 1-9 to 1-7 loss to Longford in the Leinster Championship preliminary round. This year has been desperately disappointing for his county but the talented forward is confident that Louth will make progress under Harte’s astute management.
“Absolutely there’s that potential for us to be a Division Two team,” he said.
“Louth football is competitive, there are a lot of good players here and it’s just about everyone rowing in behind Mickey Harte and looking for that common goal. It starts from the top down and if there’s a good set-up in place I think players will want to buy in a bit more. We’ll be aiming to win Division Four next year and then it’s about winning your first Championship game and seeing where it goes from there.”
