Sam Mulroy happy for Louth to keep climbing the Leinster football mountain

Looking across the ever-changing landscape of the Leinster football championship – with the obvious exception of Dublin, sitting atop a mountain of their own with 19 of the last 20 provincial titles – Louth are arguably the county making up the most conspicuous ground of late.

Last year they contested back-to-back Leinster finals for the first time since 1958, albeit losing to Dublin for the second consecutive year, 1-19 to 2-12. Yet with Dublin on the other side of the draw again this year Louth’s progress to another final appears relatively straightforward.

Beat Laois at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Sunday (3pm), they’ll then face either Kildare or Westmeath in the semi-final – two teams below them on the last league standings – and in Ger Brennan Louth also have a manager who knows a thing or two about winning big games in Leinster.

Sam Mulroy gently takes the praise. One of their leading scorers since making his debut in 2017, Mulroy also remembers the leaner times of late, particularly in 2020, when they were relegated to Division 4, winning only one of their seven games. Still, the chase on Dublin is definitely on.

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“Dublin have been so far ahead, for so long now, it’s hard to think of it any other way,” he says. “But what is positive is the rest of the teams in Leinster improving, there’s lots of good stuff happening.

“I think it’s credit to the group, and everyone involved in Louth, the progress we have made over the last four or five years after being relegated back to Division 4. It was a downfall, very disappointing, and a low time for Louth.

“The county has done very well to get back where it is, but it’s a case of not resting on laurels, continuing to push on. I’m always looking for what’s next, and hopefully we can still improving. We’ve two massive games first, so before you even start to talk about playing Dublin we’ve two massive jobs to do over the next few weeks.”

Indeed not making the Leinster final could be seen as a setback as Louth will need to make that stage to ensure Sam Maguire football this summer.

“It has to be something we embrace, that’s where we want to be,” says Mulroy. “It’s a massive challenge, brings some pressure, but it’s all or nothing now.

“And no disrespect to the Tailteann Cup, as a team with the experience of playing in the Sam Maguire last year and the year before it’s where we want to be competing, growing and developing, and trying to get back to that is the number one goal over the next few weeks.”

Mulroy missed Louth’s win over Meath in the last round of the league, which ensured they stayed in Division 2, also denying Meath promotion. He’s still nursing that hamstring injury and likely to miss Sunday’s game too.

“Getting there, on the mend,” he says. “Just not likely ready for Sunday, unfortunately. A bit of a blow timewise, but these things happen. We’ve been missing I think eight starters from the Donegal game last year, all big players, so it was a massive win against Meath, being able to perform without some of those key players.”