By Paul Keane

John Doyle grimaces when you remind him of Kildare's difficulties against Louth in the football Championship over the years; 1991, 1995 and 2010. The Lilies lost each time.

"I think you missed out on a qualifier in '07 too, when they beat us in Newbridge. Not a good day either," smiled Doyle, whose 1-4 haul still wasn't enough to prevent defeat that day.

One of the county's greatest ever forwards, the former All-Star is part of Kildare's management team now and they will face Louth all over again this Sunday in Tullamore.

It's a Leinster SFC quarter-final tie with banana skin written all over it. Or maybe that's doing Louth a giant disservice because while they played in Division 3 this season, and Kildare played in Division 1, both teams will meet in Division 2 next year.

Louth are a team on the up, crowning back to back promotions with their first Championship match win under manager Mickey Harte last weekend, a 15-point shellacking of Carlow. Afterwards, they were complaining that they didn't even play that well. Kildare certainly can't say they haven't been well warned.

"I looked at Louth last weekend and I was very impressed with them," said Doyle at the launch of the Leinster GAA 2022 Beko Club Competition. "They were very organised, as you would expect from a Mickey Harte team, very disciplined, scoring heavily and they got some very good goals. I would know Carlow will because Niall Carew, a good friend of mine, is obviously involved there and I know the work he has done.

"Louth definitely seem to be building strongly, a good league final win over Limerick and they are going well in the Championship so I have no doubt about the challenge that is ahead of us on Sunday. We're looking forward to it but there is always that bit of apprehension too.

"I suppose that comes from our playing days, where Louth would have put us to the sword on a good few occasions when we thought we were in a good position. So that is always at the back of the head as well."

Doyle sees something very familiar about Louth these days. Their progress under three-time All-Ireland winning Tyrone manager Mickey Harte reminds him of how Mick O'Dwyer landed in Kildare many years ago and catapulted the county forwards.

"I remember when Micko came to Kildare first, I remember being at the county final that year in 1990 and he was introduced to the crowd at half-time, the place was absolutely jammed to the rafters because Mick O'Dwyer was coming to Kildare," said Doyle. "It was like the messiah.

"Kildare had been in the doldrums for so long and I think it was the fact that someone like Mick O'Dwyer saw something in Kildare that it lifted the whole county.

"I'm sure in Louth it's something similar. We can see a lot of similarities to what Mickey's doing. I was talking to one or two of the Louth lads when he came first and there were players who had decided Louth football wasn't for them but they came back and put their shoulder to the wheel and that's always a good sign.

"They're playing for Louth football again, they're playing because they believe that someone's going to lead them to something bigger than they've seen and that's huge in a county.

"It filters down to everything when a county is going well. All of a sudden there's more Louth jerseys going around Drogheda and Dundalk and these places and young lads want to play at underage levels. A rising tide lifts all boats and certainly the evidence is there now in Louth."

There was similar euphoria in Kildare when Doyle agreed to join Glenn Ryan's star studded management team of local legends. Dermot Earley and Anthony Rainbow are involved too. Paul Galvin isn't a local but they somehow convinced the Kerry great to come on board as well.

"It guarantees nothing," insisted Doyle of all the trophies they have won as players. "Does it bring pressure? Personally, for me, it doesn't. It doesn't put any extra pressure on. When Glenn asked me to get involved, the reason I got involved was because of the fact that I thought I could make Kildare better. I wasn't trying to prove it to anybody. I had nothing to prove to anybody.

"I'm not there trying to put numbers on a CV or anything like that. I'll be back with my Allenwood U-9s or U-10s whenever this is over so certainly I don't feel any pressure."

* The 2022 Leinster GAA Beko Club Champion is a competition to reward and celebrate local GAA club heroes who go above and beyond to help their local community and club. For more information visit leinstergaa.ie/beko-club-champion-2021