Ollie McDonnell epitomises the feeling within the Louth senior football camp as they look forward to 2003 and another assault on the Leinster Senior Championship writes Paul Clarke. On a very similar line to the thinking of team manager Paddy Carr, the highly talented St. Joseph's clubman can see no point whatsoever in looking back and reflecting too much on what might have been and prefers instead to look ahead with a positive frame of mind. Of course, it's the right approach and the only one to adopt if you genuinely want to succeed with your goals. Louth are hungry and ambitious and are extremely focused as they do everything in their power to reach the promised land that would be a first provincial senior title since that glorious year of 1957 when they also captured the All-Ireland crown. They have watched their neighbours Meath enjoying so much success on the big stage during the past decade and a half, including four All-Ireland senior titles, and they possess a passionate desire to be right up there with the top counties, competing well and, most important of all, winning major trophies. But it isn't enough to dream about making such breakthroughs. Dreams have a habit of remaining just that - dreams. The reality is that it takes a huge amount of commitment, effort and organisation and plenty of positive thinking to achieve big ambitions at the top end of the Gaelic football tree. McDonnell fully appreciates what it takes and that's why he and the rest of the Louth panel already have a fair few miles on the training clock late in 2002. It's all geared with the 2003 Leinster Championship firmly in mind, starting with a match against Wicklow and, all going to plan, a crunch assignment against reigning provincial champions Dublin to follow at the quarter-final stage. Training during the depths of winter on cold, wet nights, with the summer campaign seemingly so far in the distance, isn't everybody's cup of tea, but that's what it takes at the top level. There's no room for half measures of anything. "The reality is that if you want to make progress and make that breakthrough, that's just what has to be done," said McDonnell, who had a particularly impressive outing in the 2002 Leinster Championship preliminary round replay against Longford at Navan in May, scoring 1-4 in a runaway 11-point victory. "It's what the other counties are doing, so it's clearly an essential part of your preparations if you are serious about what you are doing and if you have big ambitions like Louth have." Louth's ambitions appeared to be getting bigger with each passing second as their All-Ireland qualifier against Meath drew to a close at Pairc Tailteann in Navan on the last Saturday of June. The Wee County were on the verge of a famous victory over their neighbours and great rivals who they haven't beaten in senior championship football since 1975 when they dumped the new National League titleholders out of the Leinster race. Unfortunately, there were too many of those seconds and Meath pounced in dramatic fashion as first two-goal substitute Richie Kealy and then Graham Geraghty found the net, the latter deep into injury time, to earn Meath one of their most remarkable victories. Louth played some superb football that evening, McDonnell himself scoring a fine goal at the start of the second half. They appeared to possess a certain confidence and a feverish desire to win and they certainly didn't deserve such a cruel ending. As Meath celebrated after their amazing last-gasp triumph, Louth could only look on in horror and disbelief. But, like manager Carr, McDonnell has put that painful experience well behind him and is focused on the future. "Losing to Meath, especially the way it happened, was a massive disappointment," McDonnell added. "Why wouldn't it be? But you can't dwell on things like what happened that evening. That would achieve absolutely nothing for us and the reality is that you have to move on and think ahead. "We have to take the positives from the 2002 campaign and I believe there were a lot of positives. I think we made great progress and the reality is that we should have beaten both Kildare and Meath, two of the strongest teams in the province. "Looking back on that match against Kildare, we really kicked it away. We had the chances to win it, but just didn't take enough of them and were beaten by a point. And everybody knows what happened in the All-Ireland qualifier against Meath. "But we remain very positive and extremely focused. There are a lot of young guys in this panel and the atmosphere in the camp is very, very good. There's also a great commitment among the players and the self-belief that is so essential if you are serious about making the breakthrough is there too." Carr is the manager charged with the task of guiding Louth towards that breakthrough and McDonnell is impressed with the man who took over in the hot seat from Paddy Clarke. "Paddy Carr took over as manager last year and is having a very positive influence on us," McDonnell said. "He's very passionate about his football and is a great motivator. He has been drilling it into us just what it's all about, why we're doing what we're doing, and telling us that there has to be an end goal." And how would he compare the two Paddy's, Carr and Clarke, as managers? "It's not easy to compare one manager with another," McDonnell said. "Obviously, they have a different approach to the way they do things; after all, no two managers are going to be the very same. But both have had a big influence on the team." Carr is now the man who must make that influence count. There's the National Football League to come in the spring, which will undoubtedly play a role in the further development of the team, but Louth's great ambitions are championship-related. Just how far they can progress in 2003 and beyond will be very interesting, particularly as they came so close to beating both Kildare and Meath during the summer gone by - lines of form that suggest they're not too far off the pace. "I suppose the first goal would have to be to reach a Leinster final," McDonnell added. "I've never played in one and it would be just great to get there. Of course, you have to realistic, but if you got that far you would obviously want to win it. "After that, an All-Ireland title would have to be your big goal. We mean business and have big ambitions over the next few years. There's absolutely no point in putting in all this hard work if you haven't." Tweet

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