When Ger Brennan was appointed Louth manager in October 2023, positivity was hard to come by among supporters.
That was more down to the departure of Mickey Harte, who after guiding the Wee County from Division 4 to Division 2 and a Leinster final spot, took leave for Derry.
The suggestion was, that the only way was down, with Harte going on to bigger and brighter things.
Thankfully from a Louth perspective things have panned out differently. Harte, despite winning a Division 1 title with Derry, departed after one disappointing championship campaign, though has repeated the winning trick with Offaly, while the Wee County have continued their upward trajectory.
Another Leinster final appearance, where they ran the Dubs much closer, was followed by a place in the last eight of the championship. Consolidation of Division 2 was a feat in itself given the lengthy injury list, but now they find themselves in a third successive Leinster decider courtesy of wins over Laois and Kildare.
Without the Dublin juggernaut as opposition, they enter Sunday's game with serious ambitions of a first provincial title since 1957.
"It’s the third year in a row this group are in a Leinster final, so there is more maturity amongst the group," Brennan told RTÉ Sport.
"Even after the semi-final victory over Kildare, it was a bit subdued in the dressing room.
"We won, we hadn’t played great, but we’re into a final. We have been bridesmaids for the past two years, now it’s time to be the bride and hopefully put one over Meath."
The former Dublin footballer has been particularly pleased with the character of his group. Decimated by injuries earlier in the season, Louth retained their Division 2 status with a last-day win over Meath despite being down 10 players from the side which started last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal. In that game they also lost the experienced Andy McDonnell to injury.
Many of those have returned, including talisman and captain Sam Mulroy. Fourteen players that didn’t feature last year have been used in 2025 and eight of those are brand new. Throw in an Under-20 side that conquered Leinster and Brennan sees positivity everywhere.
"There is a lot going well and a lot of players putting their hand up for selection," he said.
"While during the league, we were wondering how many players we would have for training, now the challenge we have is who we are going to pick for the Leinster final, which is a great headache to have."
Watch the Leinster Football Championship final, Meath v Louth, on Sunday from 3.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
