are louth now good enough to win leinster/

slumped

simple question. do you think louth are good enough to win leinster/

Beat wexford in quarters then who knows!

S

Flukey

No.

aran5

dont think so, they werent able to build on their league win last year and then got beaten well by a poor meath team, wexford are a good team and 've seen them this year and play lovely football. plus even if they do beat wexford they wont beat meath or dublin they'd both be too good. also think wicklow are a very poor team

aran5

dont think so, they werent able to build on their league win last year and then got beaten well by a poor meath team, wexford are a good team and 've seen them this year and play lovely football. plus even if they do beat wexford they wont beat meath or dublin they'd both be too good. also think wicklow are a very poor team

meathman 007

is this thread serious......? theres not a chance in hell that louth will win the leinster, it took them 3 games to beat a woeful wicklow team. Its virtually guaranteed that Dublin/Meath or Laois will win the leinster. Was talking to a hardcore louth fan today and he said he would be delighted if they could make it to the semis and win a game or 2 in the qualifiers.....

WH BONNEY

No.

3 attempts to beat Wicklow, you cant be serious.

Cant see them getting past the Mattie Forde show.

Haven't a Clue

They'll be the surprise package of this summer and end up in the semi or final (whenever they've to play Dublin). Only time I've really seen them was last year in the division 2 league final against Donegal and the qualifiers when they should've beaten Tyrone. Their forwards are relatively handy, e.g. Darren Clarke, but their defence'll stop them from winning Leinster outright.

Nalced_irl

Definately not.

meathman 007

if you look at louths team, you would struggle to pick out players that would get anywhere near the Dublin/Meath and laois teams. The only top quality player they have is paddy keenan, the rest of them are fairly average by inter-county stardards. I played alongside and against a number of their players over the years and i dont think they are anywhere near good enough to win leinster........

Nalced_irl

To be honest on Saturdays performance i dont think Laois are either this year altho it really depends on the day with them i suppose

blackbelt

I'm going on record to say I think the winner of Dublin-Meath will win Leinster.

As far as Louth is concerned,I think Wexford will edge them out.Wexford tend to be a better championship side.Don't read too much into their league performances.

mise_me_fein

It seems pretty obvious that most of you don't know many of the Louth players. Paddy Keenan gets a mention on the Sunday game and suddenly he's the only good Louth player. Darren Clarke did most of the major scoring for Louth last year so his name rings a bell also.

Louth have a decent team and they've a decent shout at Leinster. If we got to the final it would be an achievement I don't deny that.

Our problem is consistency but a few things happened against Wicklow that gives us a bit of hope. Normally we were the team that would have lost to a point in the last minute to mess things up, like Vs Tyrone last year or Meath a few years ago when they got a goal in injury time, this year it was us getting out of jail.

We played decent the the league this year but a few late scores meant we lost or drew games we could have won. Armagh got an injury time goal in Cross to beat us by 1 point and Laois scored a late point to prevent us from winning also.

We'll def beat Wexford....didn't Wicklow beat them this year? Laois will be tough. They'll be a lot better than they were last week I'd say.

I hope Meath beat Dublin coz I think we'd have a decent shout at beating them if we got to the final...local derby and all that. Have to say could not see Louth beating Dublin.

Wicklow are not as bad as you all think.

Louth were 20 - 1 to win Leinster. They're not that bad. I'd have them as 50/50 to beat Laois and once you're in the final anything can happen.....sure the Dubs always choke don't they and the royals well we're due a victory against them LOL

kevmy

Not this year. Tighten up the defence and get more experience then maybe next year. Leinster is still weak enough. They could easily be the second or third best team by next year. After that a bit a luck;)

blackbelt

No offence Mise_Me_Fein but LMFAO at all of the above

Ah no,seriously,you have reason to be hopeful as no county will do well without confidence from their supporters but I can't see Louth winning against either Dublin/Meath.

The standard of football from Louth in the first game against Wicklow was bad and Louth seem to get bad luck in the late stages of matches too so for that reason,I have to say its an outside chance.You have to fancy Dublin/Meath/Laois.

cruiserweight

IMO (completely unbiased) Louth won't get past Wexford. Wicklow are not a great team and Louth struggled to put them away and were lucky. Yes Wicklow did beat Wexford in a maeningless O'Byrne Cup fixture, but in the corresponding game in the league Wexford won. As for Wexfords league form, they had one slip up when they were complacent against Waterford, the drew away in Cavan and hammered Meath who went on to win division 2.

Smarmore

I think Louth have a very strong chance of winning Leinster this year or at least getting to a Leinster final. If they can produce a performance like the second half on Sunday they're a match for anyone in Leinster. If any of the Meath and Dublin fans had come in early enough to watch the game Sunday they would have seen the best performance by any of the 4 teams was Louths. From what I saw Louth, or anyone else for that matter, have nothing to fear from either Meath or Dublin. Louth should have put Meath to the sword last year and Meath should have beaten Dublin on Sunday!! If they get their act together like they did in the second half they will easily beat Wexford. Laois will be a tough game after that but they're well beatable. It will more than likely be Meath or Dublin after that but I certainly wouldn't be getting cocky about that prospect if I was a fan of either of those teams. A lot of people posting here may not realise why the Louth performance improved so much on Sunday but the main 2 were JP Rooneys first full game and John O'Briens return. Also Martin Farrelly made a big difference when he came on. If he gets back fit Farrelly and Keenan are as good a midfield as any in Leinster.

blackbelt

I tend not to take past form into account too much but from what I saw in the first match,Louth were scrappy against Wicklow ie kicking balls into the defending players.For that reason you may say Louth don't look likely.

However,I did see the match against Wicklow on Sunday and I saw a very impressive Louth team finally pull away in style.I was hoping for a tight match to the end but it didn't happen.Louth were always favourites against Wicklow from before the first match but fans soon came to realise that Wicklow were up for it and it was 50/50.

I just think Dublin/Laois/Meath are too physically gifted and too fit for Louth.Their passing and shot selection are also a higher standard.I'm not ruling Louth out of it but I can't see them progressing further even if they defeat Wexford.

mise_me_fein

Well I can see there's no point in aruging.

Yeah they're probably 4th in Leinster but nobody would have said Meath would have had any chance at Leinster before the game Sunday. Perhaps Louth could become contenders in many people's eyes if they get past Wexford and Laois.

Why have Meath suddenly become contenders btw? They're on the same level as Louth if you ask me.

cruiserweight

mise_me_fein wrote:

Why have Meath suddenly become contenders btw? They're on the same level as Louth if you ask me.

Because they ran strong favourites Dublin close, and I am sure it will be as close the next day, room for improvement from both teams.

Why are Louth contenders after taking 3 attempts to beat Wicklow? Suddenly Wexford are a formality for them :rolleyes:

Smarmore

mise_me_fein wrote:

Well I can see there's no point in aruging.

Yeah they're probably 4th in Leinster but nobody would have said Meath would have had any chance at Leinster before the game Sunday. Perhaps Louth could become contenders in many people's eyes if they get past Wexford and Laois.

Why have Meath suddenly become contenders btw? They're on the same level as Louth if you ask me.

I agree with that, I think Meath are being hyped up now because they got a draw with Dublin. Louth lost the plot in the second half against Meath last year mentally but if they get that right Louth are well capable of beating them. Meath won a division 2 title this year which is the same as what Louth did last year. They haven't become a better team overnight!! Louth will rightly be seen as outsiders because of their failure to beat Wicklow in the first 2 games but a team shouldn't be written off just because they got off to a slow start. At least they've got those bad performances out of their systems before they meet Dublin/Laois/Meath. They should take a lot of confidence from that second half performance and if they reproduce that form against Wexford they will approach the Laois game in the right frame of mind.

cruiserweight

Smarmore wrote:

They should take a lot of confidence from that second half performance and if they reproduce that form against Wexford they will approach the Laois game in the right frame of mind.

So you think there is a good chance that Laois and Louth will play each other in the qualifiers

Write off Wexford at your peril, my only concern is the Wexfords last competitive game was on Easter Sunday when they beat Meath

Smarmore

cruiserweight wrote:

So you think there is a good chance that Laois and Louth will play each other in the qualifiers

Write off Wexford at your peril, my only concern is the Wexfords last competitive game was on Easter Sunday when they beat Meath

I wasn't writing Wexford off at all but if Louth produce the kind of performance they gave in the second half they should beat them. Louth are lucky the game was put back an extra week though and the 3 matches should stand to Louth. Also Mattie Forde is struggling with an injury and is not match fit which should also go in Louths favour. At least the Leinster Championship is turning out to be more interesting this year and a team like Louth would be considered as having a chance. The last few years it was just take your pick of Dublin or Laois and forget about the rest!! Also teams like Longford and Wicklow can no longer be considered pushovers.

mise_me_fein

cruiserweight wrote:

Because they ran strong favourites Dublin close, and I am sure it will be as close the next day, room for improvement from both teams.

Why are Louth contenders after taking 3 attempts to beat Wicklow? Suddenly Wexford are a formality for them :rolleyes:

Maybe Wicklow are better than you think and if you're taking note of what happened last week did you notice the 2-11 Louth scored in the second half?

I'm glad Louth got 3 games out of Wicklow. It's a lot better to win like we did than to beat Wicklow by one point in the first or second game. We have the advantage against Wexford.

We won Div 2 last year beating Donegal after a replay. We had one bad half Vs Meath. We then took Tyrone the All Ireland champs at the time to a second game.

Meath won Div 2 and have now taken the Dubs to a replay.
Just coz you think there's room for improvement doesn't mean this will happen.

It's the same ol' rubbish talk. Anything can happen in Leinster, it's wide open. Who saw Westmeath winning it a few years? The Dubs should win but we all know they're a bit like England in soccer and they seem to crumble a lot under pressure.

Obviously I am biased but I am very hopeful of Louth getting to a Leinster final....sure if Micko thinks we can do it why can't we????

Mr Magnolia

If they play like they did against Wicklow in the first 2 games then no.

If they play to thier capabilities then yes, it is possible. Really enjoyed the Tyrone games last year should have beaten them twice IMO. The game on sunday showed what they can do, play like that and they'll be there-abouts.

Kojak

Louth wont win Leinster this year, IMO. They are on (which on paper) looks like the easier side of the draw - but I suppose the other teams on that side will be thinking that as well.

They may reach the final of Lenister, but AFAIK they would have to beat Laois on the way

This would be their biggest test before the final, Wexford would be a challenge but IMO they have gone back in the last few years.

It will end up as Laois versus the winners of The dublin/Meath replay.

mise_me_fein

So basically you're echoing what they say on TV but you don't know your head from your arse when it comes to how good/bad Louth are?

Smarmore

Kojak wrote:

Louth wont win Leinster this year, IMO. They are on (which on paper) looks like the easier side of the draw - but I suppose the other teams on that side will be thinking that as well.

They may reach the final of Lenister, but AFAIK they would have to beat Laois on the way

This would be their biggest test before the final, Wexford would be a challenge but IMO they have gone back in the last few years.

It will end up as Laois versus the winners of The dublin/Meath replay.

You're just stating the obvious there. I don't think Laois are as good a side as they were. Maughan seems to have given them a more physical edge but doesn't seem to have improved them. I think they will miss O'Dwyers influence and Louth may be a bit sharper when the game comes around having played more games. As a Louth fan though Dublin is the only team I really fear. We are on a par with Meath and Laois would be considered a better team because of past performane. I would consider them very beatable though. Louth should really be considered joint 3rd favourites along with Meath. A Louth v Meath Leinster final may be a shock to a lot of people but after Sundays performances it is a very strong possibility.