Louth manager Ger Brennan at Oldbridge House, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre in Drogheda, Meath during a media event for the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Final between Louth and Meath which will take place on Sunday 11th of May in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
Given the staggered starting times for last month's two Leinster SFC semi-finals, Ger Brennan and his Louth players were on the team bus heading home, after defeating Kildare, whilst Meath were playing Dublin.
It was an interesting scene. Brennan, a Dubliner and former county star, was surrounded by a panel of Louth players who have been reared on, as he terms it, a 'healthy hatred' of Meath.
Yet many of the group were hoping Meath would win, to take down a superpower and breathe fresh life into a provincial competition that the Sky Blues had dominated for a decade and a half. Louth also lost to Dublin in the last two Leinster finals.
"Our county chairman, Sean McClean, had GAA+ on his phone so we were watching the second-half on that, everyone was engrossed," said Brennan, recalling the scene.
"Dare I say it, there were probably a few Louth men cheering on Meath for 35 minutes. I remained neutral.
"To be honest, it didn't bother me who we were going to play in the final. It turned out it was Meath.
"But yeah, there was great excitement on the bus coming back to Drogheda."
The healthy hatred part, between Louth and Meath, doesn't take much explaining. Between the 2010 and 2002 Championship defeats that Louth suffered at Meath hands, both last gasp smash and grab jobs by the Royal County, the Wee County feel they have endured quite enough hardship.
Meath, meanwhile, have taken a few jabs to the jaw from their neighbours over the years too.
It was Louth that relegated Meath to Division 3 with a final round win in Navan in 2012.
More recently, Louth enjoyed a first win over Meath in the Championship since 1975 when they defeated the old enemy in Inniskeen last year.
Louth manager Ger Brennan celebrates with Conall McKeever after the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Louth and Meath at Grattan Park in Inniskeen, Monaghan. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile.
They repeated the dose earlier this year, at the same venue, in the league. Throw in Louth's Leinster U-20 final defeat of Meath last week and you have a genuine north-eastern rivalry that's bubbling up nicely ahead of Sunday's landmark provincial decider.
"Between my time in Louth this year and last year, what I have come to appreciate is that there is a very healthy hatred between Meath and Louth," said Brennan. "Similar to what it was with Dublin (and Meath) in the 1990s and that four-in-a-row 1991 series of games between Dublin and Meath.
"There is a real kind of healthy hatred between both counties. It is something I am feeding off myself and I am enjoying."
Injuries hit Louth hard earlier in the year but Sam Mulroy, Conor Grimes and All-Star Craig Lennon were all back for the semi-final win over Kildare. Brennan is hopeful that former AFL player Ciaran Byrne will be available to play some part this Sunday at Croke Park after a hamstring problem.
"Hopefully he'll be in the mix for selection," said Brennan. "Hopefully he'll be a viable option to come in. We've got a bit of strength and depth coming back in thankfully."
Meath, meanwhile, look set to continue again without attacking duo Jordan Morris and Jack Kinlough due to knee injuries.
Having taken out holders Dublin with such a spectacular performance, they may go in as slight favourites.
Meath manager Robbie Brennan and captain Eoghan Frayne, left, with Louth captain Sam Mulroy and manager Ger Brennan, right, at Oldbridge House, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre in Drogheda, Meath during a media event for the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Final between Louth and Meath which will take place on Sunday 11th of May in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
Mind you, with a Leinster U-20 title already secured by Louth, and the county's minors also through to their provincial decider, the county's supporters will travel to Dublin not just hoping, but expecting victory.
"Both teams are going to go in fancying themselves, which is great," said Brennan. "I thought the atmosphere after the Kildare game was a bit, what would I say, a subdued kind of optimism, that we had won and were in another Leinster final but there wasn't as much of a song and dance about it.
"That would suggest the maturity amongst the group, which means there'd be less management required from me in terms of the occasion, on Sunday.
"I think the big thing is, I've always said it, when you're playing with Dublin, the size of the city, you can go anywhere for a few days and nobody would know you or talk to you about football.
"But when you're from Meath or the Louths of this world, everyone knows you. And how do you manage those kind of conversations when people are wishing you well and, 'Hey, you are going to win' and 'You are playing this, that and the other'. So lads managing that external stuff is probably key to preserving mental energy."
