Mickey Harte to remain in Louth hot seat until 2025

Mickey Harte has extended his term as Louth senior football manager by another two years.

Harte took the Louth job in the winter of 2020 and if his side manages at least a point away to Wicklow on Sunday will have secured a second Allianz Football League promotion in successive seasons.

Harte and coach Gavin Devlin initially signed up for a three-year term, but they recently sat down with the Louth board and extended that by another two seasons.

It means that both men will stay at the helm of the Wee County until 2025.

"Mickey came in on a three-year term, but we (the county board) met him lately and told him we were fully behind him and that we were not looking for a short-term fix," Louth chairman Peter Fitzpatrick told RTE Sport.

"The result of that chat was that Mickey and Gavin agreed to stay an extra two years with us. So, it will be a five-year term with Louth in total.

"We want to have a steady train of improvement; we do not want to be up and down the divisions or tiers. We wanted to show Mickey that we were giving a full commitment ourselves and we have done. He has been exceptional for us too. Gavin's coaching is top-class. I have been involved 40 years with Louth GAA and I never seen the buzz that is there now.

"The players are delighted that we had the balls to go and get someone like Mickey Harte in the first place. In turn, he has assembled a very young side and worked really hard with them. Things are motoring well, and we are thinking long term here.

"We didn’t win a game in the O’Byrne Cup game at the start of the year, but I remember coming away from that series not one bit worried. Instead, I was thinking that 17 young fellas had been blooded. That’s more important than winning the O’Byrne Cup. There is