By Shaun Casey

LOUTH are a different animal than the side Monaghan faced in the championship last year, or the league this year, and Gabriel Bannigan is expecting the Wee County to have “an inch in their step” following their historic Leinster success.

Ger Brennan’s side ended a 68-year wait for a provincial title, defeating Meath in the decider, and will carry that momentum into the All-Ireland series. Monaghan on the other hand, have had to sit out for five weeks.

The Farney men drew with Louth last season in the championship, at Clones, while gained the upper hand during their Division Two campaign back in early March, with Monaghan winning 1-27 to 1-21 on their way to claiming promotion and the league title.

“We played Louth in the championship last year and I think we were five down at half time and we needed a goal to put us back in the game. It could have gone either way and it ended up in a draw,” recalled Bannigan.

“Certainly, for an hour of that game, Louth were the better team, and we nearly sneaked a win in the end, but the draw was probably a fair result. We’re under no illusions, that was Louth last year and now they’re Leinster champions.

“They were missing some key players during the league, Craig Lennon was out for most of the league, Ciaran Keenan missed the whole league I think, Sam Mulroy missed a couple of games and they’re all big players for them.

“They’re all back now and look fresh. The three of them that I mentioned all had huge impacts in the Leinster final and Louth are a team that have been on the up for the last three years probably.

“They’ve produced consistently good championship performances during that period. I was at the last two Leinster finals; I was there two years ago when they ran Dublin close and again this year when Meath looked the better team in the first half.

“Louth hung in and were definitely the better team in the second half and deservingly won it. They’ll have an inch in their step, and they’ll be looking forward to the All-Ireland series and rightly so.”

It’s been a long five weeks since Monaghan’s Ulster Championship journey ended in a two-point loss to eventual winners Donegal and Bannigan isn’t sure how his side will react to the long layoff.

Challenge games quite often fail to reach the level of intensity that championship contents provide and Monaghan will be aiming to hit the ground running in a group that also contains Down and Clare.

“We gave them a week off after we lost to Donegal and we’ve played a couple of challenge games and they’ve been flat enough in all honesty. That was a bit of a lull and a bit of a hangover from the Donegal game,” added the Aughnamullen clubman.

“It’s very hard to tell when you have a gap like this, it’s a five-week gap. During the whole league, we never had a gap of more than two weeks. We have put in plenty of work so we’re hoping the lads will be ready for Louth, but we’ll not know until we get to Newbridge.

“Challenge matches just aren’t the same, but you have to have them because it’s about getting game-load into fellas and maybe giving lads a chance that had missed out on the team or the 26 for the Donegal match.

“They were good exercises, and we got plenty of learnings out of them. It’s very hard to gauge just where the lads are at with the five-week gap, but we’ve put the work in, so I’d be very hopeful that we’ll produce a performance against Louth.”

On the location of the fixture, Monaghan certainly weren’t expecting a trip to Newbridge this weekend, but Bannigan has no complaints surrounding the venue and says his side can only “control the controllables.”

“I was expecting Newry or Armagh or Breffni Park or Navan, one of those or anything outside of that, maybe Croke Park in a double header with the Dublin and Galway hurlers who are fixed to play that same weekend,” he continued.

“There was some talk about that, and my understanding is that the fixture committee were open to that as well, but Louth changed their mind on that. I think Louth’s preference was Newry, but I don’t think Down agreed but really it doesn’t matter.

“We’ve ended up with Newbridge and we had no say in it. So, as they say in sport, all you can do is control the controllables and we had no say in it and in fairness, I have no complaints about it. It’s their choice, it’s their home game so we’ll go to Newbridge.”