Declan Carroll was one of three Sean McDermotts clubmen involved with the Louth U21s in 2002. Speaking to Gerry Robinson, he reflects on a Leinster championship campaign that ended prematurely. At Pairc Na Gaeil on Saturday March 2nd, Louth took on Westmeath in the first round of the 2002 Leinster U21 football championship. It was a game the Wee County were capable of winning - IF they played to their full potential. Alas, however, the Louth lads never got into their collective stride at all. In spite of this, they still only lost by four points, 1-6 to 0-5. Which leads one to ask the question: 'how far would this team have gone had they actually produced the goods on the day?' Certainly, they could have accounted for underage specialists Westmeath. After that, who knows? Lining out at right half forward on the Louth U21 side was Declan Carroll. Declan was one of two Sean McDermotts clubmen represented in the half forward line, the other being centre forward Ronan Valentine. Another Sean's man - Daniel Woods - was on the bench. It was a proud day for Declan and for his club - but defeat was nevertheless a bitter pill to swallow. Fact is, here was a Louth team that probably could have done much better: "We had a strong enough team on paper, but just didn't get it together on the day. Possibly, we didn't have enough time behind us because, even though we had a lot of good individuals, we never really played as a team. "It was very disappointing to be out of the championship after only one game, but having three local lads on the panel meant a lot to the Sean McDermotts and it was great to be a part of that. It's just an awful pity we didn't get a run in the championship." Indeed, to note that they had players involved in virtually every intercounty team at one stage during the past season is a tribute to how much Sean McDermotts have improved. The aforementioned trio of Declan Carroll, Ronan Valentine and Daniel Woods were also with the county juniors - as were John Curran (who captained the Sean's to the 2001 county IFC final) and Kenneth Taaffe (who actually captained the Louth juniors). Meanwhile, Valentine trained with Paddy Carr's senior team for a while and David Matthews was with the Wee County minors. This all comes as a great fillip for the club, who are no longer languishing in the shadows but are getting the recognition they deserve on the back of their tremendous 2001 performance. Says Declan: "In previous years when players for our club went for trials with county teams they were overlooked because the Sean's were just a junior team and were going nowhere. But now when we send lads in people say 'Oh you're from the Sean's - you have a great young team' and they automatically think of our run in the intermediate championship in 2001. So the profile of the club has been raised which is very pleasing." Two-thousand-and-two was Declan Carroll's first year with the county U21s. As he has just turned 20, the Sean's man will be eligible again next year. While he was overage for the Baile Talun team that captured the county minor championship in '01, his brother Kevin was on that side (which was captained by Daniel Woods). On the back of the club's 2001 IFC heroics, a number of Sean's players were catapulted into the limelight. And county U21 manager Gerry Sheridan (from the nearby Glyde Rangers club) was more than keen to check them out when it came around to picking a panel. How did Declan learn that he was up for inclusion? "It was around Christmas time. Ronan had been with the senior panel and he passed word on to me that we were going to be selected for the county U21s. Word then came back to the club through Gerry Sheridan that we were invited to take part. Gerry called us in and gave us a fair chance. "I found that he was a great man to play under and he knows his stuff. At the start, we had some trials and a few challenge matches and you had to come through that before it was whittled down to a panel of 24." From there, Declan never looked back. But, unfortunately, Louth failed to get over their provincial championship first-round match. The Sean's man is quick to point out that nobody was to blame . . . it just simply didn't happen: "Preparations weren't exactly ideal but the selectors did their very best and you couldn't really point the finger at anybody. We just didn't have enough time to get it right. "When I look at the team we had, I believe we had players as good as any other county. We had a lot of very good players, but it just didn't go right for us on the day. I'm sure we'd have done better if we'd somehow managed to get more time to gel together as a team. There's more to football than just good individuals and we never really got a chance to play as a team. "The championship game against Westmeath just came too soon for us. We had played Antrim in a challenge a couple of weeks earlier and we were happy with how things were going. [Louth had beaten Meath by 1-13 to 0-13 in their first challenge in late January.] It was looking good for us. But nerves and different factors got to us against Westmeath and we never got on top of them. "We were always playing catch-up and that made them look good. We only lost by four points - against a county with a good recent tradition of winning All-Irelands at minor and U21 levels. It's an awful pity we didn't manage to draw level and give them a game. "It was a little frustrating to see a team like Meath getting to play Kilkenny in the first round. We could've really done with a nice handy opener like that. If we'd been able to play a game like that first, it would have brought us on in leaps and bounds. As it was, we never got into our stride and we underachieved big time..." Losing wasn't the main disappointment. The fact that Louth didn't do themselves justice caused most anguish: "To still finish so close to Westmeath, without ever actually playing well, was a major disappointment. After the game, we realised that we could have beaten them if we'd got going and that was the most disappointing aspect. We hadn't done ourselves justice. And there had been quite a lot expected of this team, so we were a bit deflated." Nor could the players be faulted. With so many demands being placed upon them these days, especially at this particular age, it can be very difficult to squeeze U21 football into the equation. Gerry Sheridan was only able to assemble his panel in early January, which left him with no more than two months to prepare. Collective training was held on a regular basis and no stone was left unturned in the quest to prepare the team as thoroughly and meticulously as possible. However, as Declan points out, there were always players missing due to club commitments or some other reason and it was rare enough that the whole team was together at any one time. Under such testing conditions, they faced an uphill task. Still, playing for the county under 21s remains a very worthwhile exercise. "It was definitely a useful experience,"Declan confirms. "The more you play, the more you want to play and it's great to have opportunities of playing at various levels. When you lose, you will always come off the field disappointed but when you get a chance to sit down and have a think about it you realise it was a hell of an experience. "I think Louth can definitely turn it around. There's no reason why not. Look at the Armagh seniors winning the All-Ireland this year - that proves that anything is possible. A lot of people in Louth have an inferiority complex and believe that teams like Dublin, Meath and Kerry have an automatic right to win. That's untrue - there's no reason in the world why Louth should roll over and make things easier for them. "I'm really looking forward to playing with the Louth under 21s again next year - if I'm picked. There are a lot of the same players available again and we can give it a real go. The way things are at the moment. It just can't go on much longer. There's no point in Louth teams going out and putting on a bit of a show and saying we did alright. We have to realise we're good enough to go out and compete and beat these other counties. "They've had Louth too easy for too long and it's time we turned it around." For the record, the Louth U21 side that took on Westmeath on March 2nd was: Alan Fedigan; Emmet Page, Stephen Delahan, Ambrose Kane; Jamie Carr, Ciaran Drumm, Fergal McGuigan; Ciaran Fox, Andrew Rogan; Declan Carroll, Ronan Valentine, Eoghan Judge; Ronan Byrne, David Bracken (0-5), Barry Sullivan. Subs: Brendan O'Neill, Eamonn Carroll, Paul Savage. Tweet

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