Sam Mulroy: 'Families, lives, work and holidays need to count. We're not paid for this thing'
Sam Mulroy got a message from his clubmate JP Rooney earlier this week. It was a picture of the former Louth player's son playing football in the backyard. Before Louth's victory in last month's Leinster final, which sealed their first senior provincial title in 68 years, it seemed the apple had fallen far from the tree.
'His young lad John was never in love with football until he came and watched Louth playing in a Leinster final a few weeks back,' explained Mulroy at the All-Ireland knockout stages launch. 'It was very nice to see that you're inspiring the next generation of players.
'Louth is a small county with two massive towns and two massive soccer clubs in Dundalk and Drogheda. It's been a battle over the last while, especially with Dundalk's success in recent years in Europe. There's definitely more Louth jerseys floating around on kids these days.'
Three years ago, Mulroy appeared on the BBC's The GAA Social podcast and said winning a Leinster title in the next five or six years was a realistic ambition for Louth. He took flak for his comments. To some, it seemed fanciful. Dublin's All-Ireland juggernaut might have been halted the previous year, but they still looked unstoppable in the province. After losing the Leinster finals of 2023 and 2024 to Dublin, Mulroy's prophecy came through. He had stopped just short of saying 'why not?' when asked on that podcast if Louth could win the All-Ireland. Now he's edging closer towards it.
'Last week Meath beat Kerry, and they've beaten Dublin, and there's games, there's results that you wouldn't be calling, maybe last year, that are happening this year,' said Mulroy, top scorer in the championship with 4-34. He believes Gaelic football's new rules have made the game more open. That's not to say he loves every one of them. He doesn't like that the kickout has to go beyond the 40m arc or having to hand the ball to an opposition player after a foul is committed, but what annoys him most is the altering of the rules during the season.
'It's 11 v 11 instead of 15 v 15, there's space to get shots off; players are expressing themselves a little bit more because the game's so fast, and there seems to be a lot more plays happening,' he said. 'Each play doesn't seem to be as important, whereas last year, if you turned the ball over, you could go without the ball for three, four, five minutes.'
Louth face Donegal in a preliminary quarter-final on Sunday in Ballybofey. Mulroy knows Donegal manager Jim McGuinness well. McGuinness was involved with Mulroy's club when they won the Louth SFC in 2020 and 2021, the former being the first time Naomh Mairtín claimed the senior title.
'Jim was immense when he was with us, and a gentleman, and always very good with his time,' said Mulroy. 'I've got an awful lot of respect for Jim and what he's done for the game, for Donegal and our club. That was our first ever senior title in the club, so it was very special. I'll never forget that and the help he gave us.
'I was captain in 2021. He was very big on leadership and driving the group on. He would have spoken to me individually. I learned an awful lot. Just on the training pitch, how he spoke to players and got us to bring up our levels - you can see why he's been so successful.'
GAA president Jarlath Burns said earlier this month that moving the All-Ireland finals to August from 2027 on would have his support. It would not have the support of Mulroy, who enjoys the split season as it stands.
'It gives a bit more time for those county players to get a little bit of a rest before they go back to the club,' he said.
'Taking into consideration the players' downtime is massively important. If you bring the All-Ireland final back to August and then they're still playing their club finals in November, December, when are they going to stop? That has to be a key consideration for everyone that's making that decision: when do the players get time off? Families and lives and work and holidays need to count. We're not paid for this thing, so I think that definitely has to be the big consideration.
'Even if you got a few more weeks between games… It's not as if you get to go and live your life for a few weeks. You're still training like a professional athlete, you're still in the camp, you're still going away on training weekends. If you push the weeks out, you don't get the time off. It's not as if we're going to be let go and go sun ourselves for a few weeks.
'Prolonging the thing adds more volume of training for players. I know it's tight between games right now, but like, Jesus, I love it. I played last weekend, I get to play again this weekend, I'd rather that than having to go train.'
The possibilities for Louth in Monday's draw were all tough. It was Kerry in Killarney, Dublin in Croke Park or Donegal in Ballybofey. They would have been underdogs in the first two, and also will be on Sunday, but it's not outlandish to think they could pull off an upset.
'That's my belief, and I'll definitely be putting that message to the players when we go to training, that we're not going up to Ballybofey for the craic, or to fulfil a fixture, we're in a preliminary quarter-final of the All-Ireland Series,' said Mulroy. 'We played in a quarter-final here (in Croke Park against Donegal) last year, so it's a case of, 'let's try to go better again this year, and try to progress as a team.''
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