Jim McGuinness: Mickey Harte is the right man at the helm as Louth chase historic breakthrough

The 2010 Leinster senior football decider remains one of the most controversial in the history of the GAA. In the national consciousness, it outlives many more recent finals.

In Louth, they will never forget. It was their first appearance in 50 years and the Wee County have spent 13 winters plotting a way back, so there’s no doubt memories of 2010 have been in sharp focus this week.

JP Rooney’s 63rd minute goal shook Croke Park that afternoon. History was beckoning Louth forward.

But two quick-fire points by Cian Ward reduced the gap to the minimum and set up a nail-biting finale, though none of us could have imagined the drama that was about to unfold.

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With 73 minutes and 24 seconds on the clock, Graham Reilly launched a long hopeful ball in around the Louth square. It broke to Seamus Kenny, whose initial shot was blocked, but possession landed in the lap of Joe Sheridan and the rest, as they say, is history.

Seven days after that Leinster showdown, Mickey Harte managed Tyrone to a 1-14 to 0-7 Ulster final victory over Monaghan. Back-to-back Anglo Celts. Where he consumed the 2010 Leinster final, I do not know. What I do know is at that time he was the elite manager in the country – securing three All-Ireland titles between 2003-08. Back then, nobody could have guessed he’d be the man that would lead Louth to only their second provincial final appearance in 63 years.

As a young manager starting out, Harte was the barometer for me. In those first few years in charge of the Donegal seniors, there wasn’t a day I didn’t think of him or Tyrone. I knew in my heart that if we could beat Tyrone we had a great chance of winning Ulster, because they were the kings of the province at the time.

Harte was a pioneer and he moved the needle in terms of how we think about football. Tactically, he was a trailblazer, implementing everything from scoring full backs where tacklers like Joe McMahon played further up the field, to tactical substitutions – the Peter Canavan switch has become part of GAA folklore.

He developed a collective approach to defending, harnessed the power of the group and was fearless in taking the big guns on and, crucially, beating them. Above all, he was a thinker. And as an opposing manager, he made you think.

Winning an All-Ireland is incredibly difficult, but breaking through the psychological barrier of achieving it for the first time in your county’s history is an even steeper incline.

Harte made that challenge look relatively easy in 2003, winning the Ulster SFC and the All-Ireland in his first year.

My maiden season as Donegal senior manager was 2011, and in late January of that year I managed against him for the first time. It was a McKenna Cup game in Edendork, but, far more poignantly, it was Mickey’s first game back on the line after the tragic loss of his daughter, Michaela.

It was an incredibly difficult day for everybody involved, but on one level the game helped create a sense of the GAA community rallying around and standing together.

It is probably the only time in my life I didn’t really care if we won or not. That is not to say our fellas weren’t trying, far from it, because we had put a large block of work in at that stage, but it was clear that day there are more important things in life.

I have always had huge respect for him and the weeks leading up to matches against Tyrone were taxing and demanding because there was so much stuff to consider around game plans and getting your matchups right.

My plan was always to design a new take or a new twist on our own game plan. With that new twist, we reckoned we would probably get 20 minutes, 25 max, before Harte would work it out. Then we would move to a secondary plan.

In going to Louth, he has taken the road less travelled. It probably would have been easier for him to take on a more established county or indeed not to re-enter intercounty management at all.

There are echoes of Mick O’Dwyer in his endeavours. Here is a multiple All-Ireland winner going to Leinster and trying to lift an entire county, just as O’Dwyer managed in Kildare and Laois and even Wicklow to an extent.

Louth were in Division Four when Harte took charge in late 2020. In March of this year they got within touching distance of the top flight, finishing third in Division Two and only missing out after losing to Dublin in what was essentially a playoff for promotion. They beat Meath, Kildare and Cork in the league, and pushed high-flying Derry all the way. There is clearly great belief within the group.

Sunday presents their biggest challenge to date under Harte, the Dubs in Croke Park on Leinster final day, but it is something he will be relishing. He is a serial winner and knows better than most that there is no sentiment in sport.

Ruthless is as accurate a word as any to sum up championship football, so it can only be advantageous and a source of comfort for the Louth players to have Harte in their corner this weekend. You can be sure he took learnings from the league game against Dublin, using it as a dress rehearsal for Sunday. The Leinster final won’t faze Harte one bit.

The big question is how well can they perform? The stakes are really high, in many respects it’s the biggest game of their lives. Louth haven’t won a Leinster title since 1957.

Can he put them in that sweet spot where the players deliver the performance of their careers? If so, then regardless of the outcome you can be content because in reality when the Dubs are at their very best, it often doesn’t matter what you do. But you can’t get caught up worrying about them.

In these big games what’s important is that you leave your fingerprint on the contest, that you bring everything from within the group and leave it out there.

All of 13 years on, the drama from the closing stages of the 2010 Leinster final remains unforgotten, but the magnitude of Mickey Harte leading Louth to victory this Sunday would outlive us all.