Leinster SFC Louth v Meath: Ian O'Riordan on the revamped structures behind the scenes that are producing the desired effect on Louth football

You know what they say about being nice to the right people on the way up. Sooner or later you're going to meet them coming down. For those who didn't realise it (myself included, by the way), Meath and Louth were once the fiercest of football rivals, frequently inseparable, until one team went on the way up (Meath) and the other on the way down (Louth).

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when they went in opposite directions, but consider this: they each won three Leinster titles and one All-Ireland in the 1950s. Since then Meath have won another 12 Leinster titles and five All-Irelands, while Louth have won none. On top that, Louth haven't beaten Meath at any stage of the championship since 1975, when they surprised the then league champions in the Leinster quarter-final.

So for over 30 years Meath have simply looked down on the neighbours, watching their fortunes dwindle more and more while their own football wealth became the envy of the country. Soon they could even joke about Louth, using their standard of football as the benchmark for potential failure.

Louth, meanwhile, could only reminisce about the good old days of 1957, their last great season, and which were frequently recalled whenever their famed captain, Dermot O'Brien, picked up his accordion. As the years rolled by every fresh effort to halt the decline ended in disappointment.

Now, it seems, Meath are on the way down and meeting Louth on the way up. It's already happened in the league when Meath were relegated from Division One and Louth were promoted from Division Two, but it's tomorrow's meeting in Croke Park that will ultimately determine if their fortunes have truly changed.

Just a year ago Louth looked as low as they'd ever been. A forgettable defeat to Offaly in the first round of the Leinster championship was followed in the qualifiers by a narrow win over Waterford, a surprise victory over Roscommon, and finally defeat to Monaghan. Manager Val Andrews took the exit door and the county board found themselves starting all over again.

The first crucial move that helped turn the tide was their appointment of former football great Frank Lynch to help seek out a new manager. Part of their 1957 All-Ireland winning team aged 18, Lynch was later manager from 1987 until 1991 and the feeling was he knew exactly what Louth needed to regain their old football status. And for a change, the county board stayed out of the process. So along with county chairman, Paddy Oliver, and former All-Ireland junior winner Michael McKeown, Lynch came back with one definite name for ratification - Eamonn McEneaney.

The county board also called in several of the leading football brains in the county to give their ideas, including former manager, Paddy Clarke. With over 30 years of coaching experience behind him, Clarke was in charge of Louth from 1997 to 2001, leading them to their first major piece of silverware since 1957 when they first captured the Division Two league title in 2000.

"I just told them straight up what needed to be done, and how they needed to do it," says Clarke, whose enthusiasm for Louth football has never dimmed, even in the bad days. "Actually I couldn't really repeat everything I said. I think I was still a bit drunk because we'd won the county championship with Mattock Rangers a few nights before. But the fact that I wasn't going for the job meant I didn't need to watch what I said, so I just told them what I honestly thought.

"And one of the things that was said by everyone was that this craic of appointing managers on a yearly basis wasn't working, that it wasn't building on anything, and that was part of the problem. I think the county was always looking for short-term solutions rather than having any long-term plan.

"For years, Louth would appoint schoolteachers, and hope they would also set up the structures in the schools. That was actually trying to copy the Meath model, because they always had great development squads. But when the manager takes up a job in any county, there's only one thing that will keep him in that job. He could set up fabulous structures but have a desperate county team, and that means he's for the high jump.

"He's going to want to make sure the county team is doing well so he'll keep his job, and if he can do something for the underage structures then all the better."

So while Lynch felt he had his new manager for Louth, he also recommended the county board appoint a separate coaching administrator. Clarke was the obvious candidate and only too glad to accept the position.

Meanwhile, McEneaney's management record spoke for itself. Now residing in Blackrock in Louth, he had won a league title with his native Monaghan in 1985, and since then produced a list of successes on the sideline ranging from two senior football titles with Castleblayney Faughs to a Division Two league title with Kilmainhamwood in Meath.

The only problem was that McEneaney still needed some convincing before he'd take up the job. Eventually they settled on an unprecedented deal for Louth football: he had the job for no less than five years, with no yearly review and full control over his selectors.

With Clarke looking after the development squads, and John Pepper appointed as the manager's liaison officer with the county, McEneaney could concentrate solely on getting the best out of his players. His selectors, Pat Mulligan, Stephen Melia and Séamus O'Hanlon, play a major part in that, and why not: Melia and O'Hanlon are the two greatest servants to Louth football, with 179 and 138 county appearances respectively up until their recent retirements. "To give someone like Eamonn a long-term appointment obviously means he could have a sounder plan," adds Clarke.

"And all he really wanted to do was get his teeth into the county team, and not have to deal with the other stuff.

"But he's just concentrated on the simple things really, like organisation. He has that typical northern thoroughness in everything he does. And there's nothing left undone in the preparation. And Eamonn is also a great reader of the game. He's forever updating himself on modern training methods and tactics and things like that. So everything is coming together now.

"I don't think it was ever about commitment or things like that. Other teams like Leitrim give just as much as everyone else. But Louth has always had talent, and maybe that wasn't reaching its full potential.

"I've said it a few times now that the previous manager did bring in a lot of young talent, but had to suffer their inexperience, and the mistakes they made over the past two or three years. So I often said to Val (Andrews) that the man who follows you will reap all the rewards. He gave lots of these players their apprenticeship, and the next manager got a set of players that were nicely experienced, and ripe for the taking. I mean most of these players have been on the Louth team for a good few years, some of them even going back to my time."

The first six months of McEneaney's term have been dreamlike, proven by the confidence shown in their league Division Two win over Donegal. Tomorrow, though, is easily the biggest test of that progress.

"Most of these players have a good few years ahead of them," adds Clarke, "and the next thing for Louth now is to get into a Leinster final. I certainly don't think that's outside the bounds of possibility, even this year. I always believed that a Louth team with any sort of confidence is hard to beat."

That line, by the way, about being nice to the right people on the way up, is from the Bob Dylan song Foot of Pride. When it comes down to it, the great rivalry between Louth and Meath is probably still fresh enough to ensure that pride, most of all, is what's at stake tomorrow.