Fanning set for big day with the Wee County

JOE caught up with Louth centre-half back Michael Fanning for a few words ahead of the county’s first Leinster Final in 50 years.

By Conor Heneghan

The excitement is nearing fever pitch in Louth as they prepare to venture into unchartered territory this Sunday, facing into their first Leinster Final in 50 years. The football talk has been flowing, flags are being proudly flown and even songs have been composed (see below) as thousands of fans from the Wee County get set to make the short trip south to Croke Park to cheer on Peter Fitzpatrick’s army against the might of Meath.

It is a journey many followers will make more in hope than expectation and certainly the bookies, who have the men in red at the generous price of 4/1 to triumph on Sunday, seem to be giving Louth a snowball’s chance in hell of coming out on top. The displays of their county footballers this season, however, have given them reason to believe that the Delaney Cup might be on its way back to Louth for the first time since 1957, incidentally the year in which Louth won the last of their three All-Ireland titles.

Such excitement over the fortunes of the county footballers is an alien feeling to centre-half back Michael Fanning, who has welcomed the fuss, but has been careful not to get too caught up in the hype ahead of the big game.

“It’s been great, there are flags up everywhere and that’s something that hasn’t been seen in Louth ever, to be honest. As a player, you kind of have to sit back and try and stay away from it as much as you can even though it is hard because everyone wants to have a chat about the game, have their little word about it. But it’s great for the fans to have something to cheer about at long last.”

The fans have had plenty to cheer about so far this year with Louth producing some of the best football seen in the championship. Midfielders Paddy Keenan and Brian White and full forward Shane Lennon have probably been the stand out performers, but the team have been functioning extremely well as a unit.

Fanning can’t identify just what has gone right, but it’s something he didn’t necessarily see coming after some indifferent displays in the spring.

Something has clicked for the championship. We can’t quite put our finger on it, but we’ve put three back to back performances together and we seem to be on a bit of a roll at the minute

“In the league, we were kind of hit and miss; we had a few Jekyll and Hyde performances. For 10 or 15 minutes, we could put a performance together and score six or seven points on the trot but for the rest of the game, we weren’t doing much.

“We knew there was something there, but we just couldn’t get the consistency together. Something has clicked for the championship. We can’t quite put our finger on it, but we’ve put three back to back performances together and we seem to be on a bit of a roll at the minute.”

Despite avoiding traditional heavyweights Dublin and Meath on the way, Louth’s place in the Leinster Final has been fully merited. After a fairly routine victory over Longford, they went to town against Kildare and Westmeath, scoring 1-22 against the Lilywhites and 1-15 against Westmeath in a game they should have won far more comfortably than the two point margin in the end.

Fanning acknowledges that being so close to the promised land may have created a bit of anxiety amongst the players.

“We were six points ahead with 12 minutes to go and maybe some of us started seeing the finish line and dropped the work rate and started to panic a bit, which is understandable with the weight of expectation on us trying to reach the final.

“It will definitely stand to us the next day because we’ve been in that position, we’ve had a run out in Croke Park and we’ve got the monkey off our backs. We’ve made the final now and we’ve nothing to lose. All the pressure will be on Meath and everyone’s expecting them to win so we’ll see what happens.”

You can’t be afraid going in to mark any forward. You’re the best player in your position in your county and that’s why you’re there. You don’t mark anybody easy at inter-county level anymore, everyone that’s there is a good player

With all due respect to Longford, Kildare and Westmeath, however, Meath are a totally different kettle of fish altogether and will pose a far sterner challenge than what the Wee County have faced so far. Louth’s attacking exploits have been impressive but Meath’s have been even more so and their scoring stats make pretty daunting reading for Louth followers.

The Royals have scored a whopping 10-56 in four championship games so far, the majority of which has been spread out between a potent forward line containing in-form marksmen such as Joe Sheridan, Stephen Bray, Shane O’Rourke, Graham Reilly and Cian Ward.

Given that the Meath forward line tends to rotate positions regularly throughout a game, it is hard to predict who will be in direct opposition with Fanning on Sunday, but whoever it is; the task won’t have him quaking in his boots.

“You can’t be afraid going in to mark any forward. You’re the best player in your position in your county and that’s why you’re there. You don’t mark anybody easy at inter-county level anymore, everyone that’s there is a good player.

“You can’t influence what form they’ll be in or how they’re going to play. It’s all on the day, you pay them a bit of respect but you just go out and try and play your own game and concentrate on that.”

There are a lot of players that have gone before us that haven’t had the chance that we have so we know how privileged we are to be in the position we are

With only days now to go until the big game, Fanning is in the zone and understandably reluctant to dwell too much on what lies ahead, but he is eagerly anticipating the encounter and admits that it will be a significant achievement for the county if they can pull off a shock in Croke Park.

“It’s a brilliant feeling to be there and we’re really looking forward to the final on Sunday. There are a lot of players that have gone before us that haven’t had the chance that we have so we know how privileged we are to be in the position we are.

“I know it sounds clichéd, but we’re trying not to think about winning or about celebrating, we’re just trying to concentrate on the performance and the attitude for Sunday, but if the result does go right, it would be massive for the county; it’s long overdue.”