Mickey Harte's impact in Louth has been likened by John Doyle to that of Mick O'Dwyer in Kildare over three decades ago.
Having completed 18 seasons with Tyrone, Harte moved straight to Louth last year and has guided them to successive promotions, meaning that they will share Division Two with Kildare next year.
But the counties get a chance to pit their wits against each other before that in Sunday’s Leinster quarter-final, with Louth coming into the game on the back of a seven-game winning streak.
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Doyle, who is now part of Glenn Ryan’s Kildare management team, was handed his debut by O’Dwyer back in 2000, when the county won their last Leinster title, a decade after the Kerry legend first landed in the county
He recalled: “I remember when Micko came to Kildare first, I remember being at the county final back in 1990 and he was introduced to the crowd at half-time and the place was absolutely jammed to the rafters because Mick O’Dwyer was coming to Kildare. It was like the messiah.
“Kildare had been in the doldrums for so long and I think it was the fact that someone like Mick O’Dwyer saw something in Kildare and it did lift the whole county. Came very close there in the early 90s, he left, came back again and then we saw what happened, won two Leinsters and he just lifted the whole county.
“I’m sure in Louth it’s something similar. Louth are a traditionally huge footballing county. You can see with the crowds that are travelling now.
“They’ve gone from Division Four to Division Three to Division Two, it has to lift everyone involved with Louth football.
