Six months into this inter-county managerial lark and he’s moving like he’s seen it all before.
A near half-century of Meath oppression in championship football had been washed away in 70 dominant minutes. Louth were so in control that, for the last half hour, supporters could enjoy the demise of their great rivals, safe in the knowledge there would be no Houdini act this time.
How often, if ever, have they been able to do that?
And as the crowd filtered out in Inniskeen, Brennan was hitting all the right notes in his post-match debrief.
Praising his players but warning another challenge looms, enjoying the result while setting the next target.
“It was great to get those three goals and if we’re being greedy there was probably four other goals out there,” he said after watching his side build a nine-point interval lead.
“Defensively there were times when we allowed Meath to play through those half spaces when we were in that low block defence. So that’s something we have to improve on [going] into the game against Monaghan, a Division 1 team albeit relegated. But they have been playing at a higher standard.”
Louth had blown a four-point lead when the sides met in the league and failed to score for 33 minutes. But even with Bevan Duffy picking up a black card early in the second half, Louth retained control.
“They are an honest bunch and they know themselves the minimum requirement to represent your county is to give it everything.
“Winning is the added bonus – sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t – but at the very least you have to leave it all out there.
“But it is nice to see they are really starting to play for each other the whole time, no man is left alone. If anyone needs a dig-out or a fella misses a pass or a tackle, there is encouragement from his team-mates and support from his team-mates that’s very important.”
Meath beaten but as a parting note, Brennan insisted he wanted more.
“One swallow doesn’t make a summer and that’s what we referenced to the lads during the week. The Dublin game and the Dublin performance would count for very little if we couldn’t back it up today. Thankfully, the lads backed it up and we’ve another job to do next week.
“Monaghan on Sunday, they’ll know they need a result. Monaghan are a great example to Louth in that we’ve regularly referenced Monaghan as a county with half the population of Louth getting to an All-Ireland semi final last year. They get the absolute most out of themselves and that is something Louth should aspire to. [We’re] looking forward to playing Monaghan, I have a lot of respect to them.”
