For the Louth hurlers in 2009, a mixed bag was sandwiched between away defeats to Fingal on January 11 and June 20. The year brought a Leinster Junior Hurling Shield crown as well as appearances in the latter stages of the Nicky Rackard Cup (quarter-final) and Kehoe Shield (final) and a fourth-place finish in Division 3B of the NHL. Two-thousand-and-nine also marked Pat Clancy's last year as Louth boss and the Westmeath man certainly brought hurling in the Wee County to a higher level during his three-year tenure.

After the wonderful highs of 2008, when they contested three finals and collected two major trophies, Louth's hurlers faced into a much more difficult 2009. Clearly, '08 was going to be a tough act to follow. To make things more daunting, unnecessary re-structuring of the main league and championship competitions - as well as a rash of injuries and unavailabilities - made life decidedly harder for Pat Clancy and his backroom team. The Westmeath man was in the third of his three-year term at the helm and he decided once the dust had settled not to renew his contract as Louth boss.
The Reds had little or no chance in the Nicky Rackard Cup due to the involvement of relative big hitters Meath and London in the third-tier championship, while the standard in Division Three was also much higher than it had been the previous year. Still the Wee County gave a decent account of themselves overall, retaining the Leinster Junior Hurling Shield, finishing fourth in Division Three (pushing both London and Fingal close), and reaching the quarter-final stage of the Rackard Cup. They also got to the final of the new Kehoe Shield, beating none other than Mayo along the way.
The season started with a 3-9 to 1-8 Kehoe Cup defeat to Fingal in Dublin on January 11 and ended with a narrow 0-16 to 1-11 defeat to the same opposition in the knockout phase of the All-Ireland at Swords on Saturday June 20. In between, it was frustrating to time and time again come up against opponents who were punching below their weight, but at least some silverware was gleaned and the players got to enjoy the honour of pulling on their county shirt for a plethora of competitive games.
Louth's hurlers opened their competitive season with a trip to Dublin to face Fingal in the Kehoe Cup on Sunday January 11. Paul Clancy's charges had only resumed training on January 2 after the enforced winter break and the manager knew they faced a difficult assignment at Fingallians on that Sunday afternoon, commenting at the time: "We didn't know much about Fingal this time last year but they were a good side. Dublin hurling is strong and I'm not sure they even had a full squad last year. It was a bit of a shock when they were beaten in the semi-final of the Nicky Rackard by Sligo." The Reds suffered a pre-season blow when learning they must manage without Brian Hassett for the year as the Pearse Og clubman had travelled to Australia. Johnny Carter was also out for the year with a knee injury.
At the home of Fingallians GFC on a miserable Sunday afternoon in early January, Louth succumbed to a first-half blitz and found themselves 3-6 to 0-2 adrift at the break. Without the services of Diarmuid Murphy, Collins Connolly, Brian Hassett, Gerard Hoey, Stephen Smith and Shane Kerrigan, the manager went with a young, inexperienced side and they recovered reasonably well after the restart to lose by seven points.
The genesis of the Kehoe Shield presented an opportunity to get that defeat out of their system immediately: Trinity College provided the opposition at Darver the following Monday, January 19 and the Reds produced a devastating performance to win convincingly by 3-11 to 0-3. Woeful conditions of wind, rain and snow couldn't prevent the Wee County from teaching the students a lesson, with Diarmuid Murphy, Brian Corcoran and Wesley Morrissey each notching 1-2.
In the semi-final of the Kehoe Shield, a point from midfielder Trevor Hilliard on the stroke of full time gave Louth a thrilling 0-13 to 0-12 victory over Mayo at Darver on Sunday January 25. Ronan Byrne scored five points for the Reds as they recorded a brilliant, morale-boosting victory over Christy Ring level opposition.
The final was also fixed for Darver at 2pm on Sunday February 1 and another high-flying Ring Cup side - Kildare - stood between Louth and a historic piece of silverware. Unfortunately, the Lilywhites proved a bridge too far and a much stronger Kildare team (managed by Kilkenny great Andy Comerford) romped to a facile 4-16 to 1-2 success at a cold, windswept venue. The resounding nature of the defeat came as a definite disappointment but, all in all, this wasn't a major competition and four matches on successive weekends had provided good preparation for the national hurling league…
The trip to north Dublin was a familiar one in '09. Louth also opened the defence of their Division Three crown with yet another visit to Swords to meet Fingal on February 15, and the manager acknowledged that they faced a much tougher programme of fixtures than in 2008: "The league is at a higher standard this year. We are still playing in Division Three but it is a stronger Division Three, and the Nicky Rackard is very strong."
Louth had a Bye for the first weekend of the league, but that made little difference to anything as all games scheduled to be played in the section that weekend were called off due to heavy snow nationwide. Thus, the Reds started off on a level playing field. Fingal represented an extremely difficult first test for the Wee County, who also had to face strong London and Roscommon sides in Division 3B, as well as squaring up to familiar rivals Longford, Donegal and Tyrone.
Reds boss Clancy opened a new chapter in his three-year reign at the helm, as a number of his regular players were unavailable for a variety of reasons. The list of unavailable players included Johnny Carter (knee) Shane Fennell, Mark Kirwan, Stephen Smyth, Brian Hassett, Paul Dunne (retired) and Shane Darcy. "I'd say at this stage we have five or six U21s in the panel and five or six more new players, so we've moved on," he noted.
With the Antrim official effectively active as the sixteenth man for Fingal, the home side recorded a 0-15 to 1-8 win. Thus, the holders were on the backfoot straight away in the league, playing catch-up…
Things got worse when the Reds also lost their second Division Three outing - to London - at Dowdallshill a fortnight later. The Wee County came close to shocking the Exiles but a late collapse saw them lose an entertaining match by 3-18 to 2-14. The game went right down to the wire and Louth had seven different players on the scoresheet before fading out of the match late on. Successive defeats perhaps - but a vastly improved performance from the Fingal game.
On Sunday March 22, Louth got their league campaign on track with a super 3-18 to 1-8 defeat of Longford as a practically deserted Pearse Park. Only 20 paying customers were at the Longford venue as Shane Fennell netted the first-minute goal that sent the Reds on their way. David Dunne and Collins Connolly got the other majors for a slick, free-flowing Wee County.
There were five times as many present at Athleague the following weekend as the Reds lost to Roscommon by 1-16 to 2-8. It was an encouraging effort from the visitors, with Diarmuid Murphy hitting 1-5, but the reversal effectively meant that Louth's promotion hopes were ended.
With crushing wins over Donegal (1-18 to 0-8) and Tyrone (0-24 to 0-9), both in Dowdallshill, Louth closed out their 3B programme in considerable style to finish in a respectable fourth place on the table, above Donegal, Tyrone and Longford and just two points behind both Roscommon and Fingal.
The 2009 Nicky Rackard Cup was hardly worth the pieces of paper the fixtures and results were written on as far as Louth were concerned. With the tiers restructured, both London and Meath were regraded to Rackard Cup status and these were always going to be the dominant teams in this championship. The others were just making up the numbers.
Louth opened with a 1-12 to 1-8 defeat of Monaghan in Dundalk on June 6 but were thumped by the Royal County in their second outing at Navan seven days later - 1-26 to 0-12. A quarter-final defeat at Swords followed. David Dunne's goal in the eleventh minute of the second half had edged the Reds in front but they were narrowly beaten and manager Pat Clancy decided after the final whistle that he had taken Louth hurling as far as he could.
Louth, 2009 Nicky Rackard Cup quarter-final V Fingal: E McArdle; M Wallace, A Carter, A Wallace; J Greville, R Byrne, M Martin; T Hilliard, D Callan; D Dunne (1-0), E McCarthy, S Fennell; C Connolly (0-3), D Murphy (0-8), K McNally. Subs: B Corcoran for K McNally (ht), D Kettle for E McCarthy (55), B McCabe for B Corcoran (63)
Just ahead of the championship, Louth retained the Leinster Junior Hurling Shield when beating Warwickshire by 2-12 to 1-9 in the decider at sun-kissed St Brigid's Park on Saturday May 30. Naomh Moninne's Diarmuid Murphy gave a Man of the Match exhibition as he struck 1-10 in a blistering 25-minute second-half purple patch. This helped the Wee County - captained by Aiden Carter - turn a six-point interval deficit into a fantastic 2-12 to 0-9 win.

Louth, 2009 Leinster Junior Hurling Shield winners: Eddie McArdle; Conor Kerrigan, Aiden Carter (1-0), Adrian Wallace; Donnach Callan, Ronan Byrne, Mick Martin; David Dunne (0-2), Trevor Hilliard; Kevin McNally, Eddie McCarthy, Gavin Kerrigan; Diarmuid Murphy (1-10), Gary Rellis, Collins Connolly. Subs: Darren O'Hanrahan, Brian Corcoran, Darren Reid, Tony Teefey. Tweet

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