Louth v Cork LIVE stream, score updates and more from All-Ireland SFC prelim

He explained: “Gerry would have a similar philosophy to me in football. We played together a long time under Micke Whelan, Pat Gilroy, all these guys, so he’d have a similar philosophy to what I would have in playing football, not that he can set up against a Dublin that way though.

“What we seen from Ger was a little bit of smarts in that Leinster final, I thought, where he conceded Dublin’s kickout and said, ‘Right, where are our strengths?’ So he looked inside his squad and said, ‘Where are our strengths?’ and it’s not competing with Dublin on a kickout and going out in a Leinster final and getting beaten by 20 points.

“Because if that happens to your squad, it’s very hard to pick yourself back up from that but if you lose two, three, four, five maybe, you’re in it in the last 10 minutes, at least that’s something you can build on.

“I think that was very clever from Ger because he could have went out and said, ‘Throw the shackles off lads, let’s have a real go at this Dublin team and see where we’re at’ and I don’t think that would have been the right thing to do and I think Ger’s managed it really well.

“They’re coming up against Cork this weekend and look, you know, I’d fancy them to be honest with you.

“Cork play a very similar style of football, real strong running game, [Sam] Mulroy up front for them [Louth], their transition speed is very, very good, they try to get [Conor] Grimes on the ball in the half-forward line and inside to Mulroy as quick as they can and if he’s on fire he’s going to give any defensive opposition a bit of trouble.

“I’m hearing Brian Hurley isn’t right for this game for Cork this weekend so I think Louth might have a chance.”