Gaelic Games

Louth’s Tommy Durnin on facing the Dubs: ‘It’s only impossible until it’s done’

Midfielder feels his game has kicked on since a unlikely club move to Inniskeen Grattans in Monaghan

Dublin’s Brian Fenton and Tommy Durnin of Louth in the Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Final in 2023. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Paul Keane
Thu May 9 2024 - 06:00

It’s only a 15-minute drive from the Westerns GAA club in Louth to Inniskeen Grattans in south Monaghan but, in football terms, they’re worlds apart.

Tommy Durnin, Louth’s experienced midfielder, made the switch from the small junior club pressed up against the Monaghan border to the ambitious senior side in 2021 and is reaping the benefits.

Chances are the man who made his 100th appearance for Louth in last summer’s championship game against Kerry – we’ll come back to that Portlaoise encounter later – will start a Leinster final for the second year running this Sunday.

He has lined out in every league and championship game for Louth this season under Ger Brennan and, selected for media duties in advance of the provincial showpiece, is clearly a trusted lieutenant.

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How he fares in the clinches with Brian Fenton will be intriguing, though as a fellow senior club man now, he has at least given himself a fighting chance on that front.

“My club that I left is the Westerns, a small rural club,” explained Durnin who featured for Inniskeen in last year’s Monaghan senior county final. “I had been playing with a junior club for many years and we never really got past the early stages.

“Has it [moving] helped me? Definitely. In previous years when we were getting knocked out in the Leinster championship and you were into the qualifiers, your season could have been over in May or June.

Tommy Durnin of Inniskeen is tackled by Scotstown's Conor McCarthy in the Senior Football Championship Final. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho

“Then you’re going back to the club scene where basically my club maybe lasted until August. And then your season is over and you get comfortable. You’re not pushing yourself, you’re not going to the gym three nights a week, you’re having a few beers at the weekend, you’re living a comfortable life.

“Now, the way the split season has gone, I’m playing with Inniskeen who are challenging for senior titles. We won a league title last year for the first time in a long time.

“I’m a very competitive, putting my shoulder to the wheel kind of guy. So it was kind of a period where I just wanted to give my all to football and I want to be the best I can.”

It’s not just the distance between a junior club and a successful senior one that Durnin is now acutely aware of. He and Louth were reminded by Dublin in last year’s Leinster final of just how big a gap there is between the game’s elite and those in the chasing pack.

Louth actually led approaching the quarter-hour mark of the 2023 Leinster final. It turned out that Dublin were just gauging the temperature of the game in those early minutes before raising it up to boiling point with an unanswered 1-10, their first purple patch.

“Dublin can kill you in 10 minutes,” admitted Durnin, wincing at the memory.

Louth, to their credit, kicked six of the game’s next seven points, either side of half-time, and were beginning to think they might stick a spanner in the works of Dublin’s 13-in-a-row bid when things suddenly turned purple again. An unanswered 1-4 this time. A few more Dublin goals flew in for a finish up as they put 5-21 on the board.

Kerry’s Tony Brosnan in action against Louth’s Tommy Durnin in Round 3 of the All-Ireland Senior Championship. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho

“In fairness, I admire Dublin in how they play,” said Durnin, magnanimously. “They constantly keep going, going, going. There’s no stopping from them and they’ve done that against us. It’s kind of how you set up and it’s about creating leaders around the pitch as well.

“When you go down a goal, okay, what’s the next step? We need men on the ball, we need the ball up the field. Dublin press and press and press. They squeeze the life out of you, so it’s being able to deal with that pressure, get on the ball, make things happen and put your best foot forward.

“On some big occasions, some of the younger lads, or maybe older lads, might drop their heads and, as I said, you’re punished in 10 minutes. It’s an uphill struggle then.”

There’s no point in just being competitive and patting each other on the back. We go out to win and we go out to achieve

—  Tommy Durnin

Durnin experienced a similar sinking feeling when Louth played Kerry afterwards, in the All-Ireland series. That was his 100th appearance for the county but he spent most of the afternoon watching David Clifford and Seán O’Shea kick scores in Portlaoise. Kerry won by 28 points.

“Those were two big beatings, from Kerry and Dublin,” he acknowledged. “But we’ve also seen what can happen with the Mayo game we played. But as good as we performed against Mayo, we still lost so they’re only moral victories. And we want to be causing upsets, we want to be winning those games.

“There’s no point in just being competitive and patting each other on the back. We go out to win and we go out to achieve. They’re the goals you set and it’ll be no different against Dublin this time. Yes, people looking in from the outside will say it’s an impossible task. But it’s only impossible until it’s done so we’re going to give it our best shot.”

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