Unfortunately, it was the same old story for Louth at minor level in 2010 as yet again the Wee County departed the Leinster MFC stage with barely a whimper. April hadn't even been consigned to the sands of time and already the Reds had exited the championship by virtue of back-to-back defeats to Laois and Dublin in just over a week.

If I was a lazy man of little or no repute, this could be an easy feature to write every year. A simple copy and paste would almost suffice. Louth's minor woes are well documented in the annual Wee County Yearbook and '10 was a case in point as Colm Nally's team was put to the sword twice inside eight days - first by Laois at the Gaelic Grounds and then - even more emphatically - by a rampant, fired-up Dublin side with a point to prove at Parnell Park. The month of May was still a week away but for this particular crop of players their year was done and dusted…
While the actual performances were decidedly disappointing (what can be more demoralising for Louth GAA than yet another underage pasting at the hands of Dublin?), it is only fair to point out that the Minor Class of 2010 weren't exactly steeped in luck. Having fallen to Laois at the first hurdle (a match in which they produced a more-than-competent first-half showing), the county U18s had every right to expect some kind of shot at salvation via the loser's section of the Leinster SFC.
However, to find Dublin standing in their way at the back door was horrendously unfortunate. In the so-called losers' group, one might anticipate a clash with the likes of Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny or Wicklow - but, seriously, what are the chances of the resourceful Dubs being there? Alas, however, that's exactly how things transpired… The Sky Blues were well beaten in their first-round clash with Kildare and Louth were thus presented with the dubious honour of locking horns with a wounded band of Dublin youngsters at Parnell Park on Saturday April 24.
Managed by former Louth senior boss Val Andrews, Dublin were in control from start to finish. The Wee County managed to share the first four points but the winners pulled away to lead by 2-6 to 0-3 at the interval. The one-way traffic continued upon the resumption and the Metropolitans had bagged their fourth goal before the end of the third quarter to run out comfortable 4-11 to 0-5 victors. Alarmingly for Louth, the result meant they had conceded nine goals in their two Leinster MFC outings.
A week earlier, the Reds had fallen to a heavy 5-9 to 0-14 defeat to Laois at the Gaelic Grounds. Himself a former Dublin minor and U21 player, Louth minor boss Colm Nally admitted that his side had been beaten by a better team as they prepared to lock horns with the Dubs:
"Laois would have more tradition and pedigree than us and it showed. They have been working with that panel for the last two years; thirteen of last year's squad were there and you could see that. We earmarked their dangermen from the start after doing our homework on them but our best players struggled on theirs. It's always going to be tough after that. It's very disappointing. I know people in Louth are hoping to see a good minor team. We were playing well before half time but after that the scores we got were just token gestures."
The sun shone in Drogheda on Saturday April 17 as the bank-raided nation basked in the rare joy of some early summer cheer, but the lights went out for the Louth minors in the second half as the O'Moore County put them ruthlessly to the sword. The home side started well and built up a four-point lead as they dominated the early exchanges. However, their hopes suffered a fatal blow when centre back and captain Conall Hoey was shown a red card in the 22nd minute. Only second earlier, Laois had struck for their first goal.
Louth still managed to take a one-point lead into the interval and their prospects appeared to receive a huge boost when their opponents were also reduced to 14 men within moments of the restart, but it was Laois who took a stranglehold of the game thereafter, with big full forward Daryl Hayden proving particularly troublesome.
Glen Emmets clubman Danny Grimes opened the scoring after good work from Shane McMahon and Alan Lynch, and the centre forward added another before full forward Lynch also got on the scoresheet. When Grimes bagged his third score of the match to make it 0-4 to no score after eight minutes, things were looking decidedly encouraging for the hosts.
Laois finally pointed from a free that was moved forward and Louth had four successive wides before Sean Donnelly and Grimes added to their tally to make it 0-6 to 0-2. Then came the game's opening major and the sending-off of Hoey (for an off-the-ball incident), both of which had a huge bearing on the outcome. After the midlanders had drawn level, Louth demonstrated great character when midfielder Tony McKenna fired over a point to give them a slim interval advantage.
Having had Kevin McGrath sent off, the visitors hit 2-3 without reply to effectively finish the game as a meaningful contest. Louth kept going and picked off nice scores through Grimes, Michael Keane and substitute Alan Quigley but there was no way back into the game and news that Louth would face none other than Dublin in the back door seemed to rub salt in the wounds.
Louth, 2010 Leinster MFC V Laois: Kevin Brennan; Tiarnan Woods, Cian McEvoy, Anthony Williams; Shane McMahon, Conall Hoey, Eoin Duffy; Tony McKenna (0-1), Dermott McConnell; Michael Keane (0-1), Danny Grimes (0-6), Sean Donnelly (0-1); Patrick Reilly, Alan Lynch (0-1), Paudie Clarke (0-1). Subs: Owen Braydon, Alan Quigley (0-3), Robert McCabe, Nicholas O'Callaghan.
As they assembled on March 1, the Louth minor squad had been together for less than two months. They displayed impressive form in the early part of the season as their championship preparations saw them book a place in the Leinster minor football league final. Therein, they trailed Longford by six points at the break and fell to a 2-11 to 1-10 defeat in the end. So it was Longford who took the Seamus Heeney Cup at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday April 4.
The Leinster minor league decider was originally meant to act as curtain-raiser to the provincial U21 FC final between Dublin and Westmeath at Parnell Park but was switched to Drogheda at the last minute. With the championship looming, a piece of silverware would have been nice, but it just wasn't to be.
Louth, 2010 Leinster MFL final V Longford: Kevin Brennan; Anthony Williams, Cian McEvoy, Tiernan Woods; Shane McMahon (0-1), Michael O'Kane, Ryan Murphy; Dermott McConnell, Sean Donnelly (0-2); Tony McKenna, Conall Hoey, Daniel Grimes (0-2); Paudie Clarke (0-2), Alan Lynch (1-2), Eoghan Osbourne. Sub: Patrick O'Reilly (0-1). Tweet

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