by Shane Corrigan

Louth manager Pete McGrath has continued his stringent criticism of the GAA's Super 8s format, branding it both "elitist" and "flawed".

Speaking at the recent Leinster senior football championship launch, McGrath again expressed his opposition to the new format which will replace the quarter-finals in this summer's All-Ireland championship and for the 2019 and 2020 campaigns.

The Down native feels that it will serve to ensure that the best teams in the country progress through to the business end of the competition.

"As a concept, I think it's flawed. I think it's elitist. People can argue and the GAA argues that this will get the best eight teams in the country at the sharp end. That's fine if you want to sanitize everything," said McGrath.

"If you want to sanitize everything and construct a kind of situation and a process whereby you're going to ensure that the best teams get there, and if they fail at this hurdle then they have another chance and then another chance. To me that isn't what sport is about.

"The best teams should be there ultimately but, in order to do that, you are prepared to take away - or at least reduce significantly - the element of surprise and the element of romance, the day of underdog, overturning the big wig. If you want to try and negate all those things then go ahead and do what they're doing. To me it's wrong."

He added: "You'll even possibly get the situation in the Super 8 where maybe a game in the last series could be a dead rubber and that will really set the pulses racing."

McGrath's Louth side will take on Carlow in eights days' time for a place in the Leinster SFC quarter- finals against Kildare on May 27th.

The clash in Portlaoise will see the Wee County looking for their first competitive win of 2018 after defeat in each of their National League outings saw them return to Division 3 in the most disappointing fashion.

Reflecting on a league campaign to forget, McGrath admitted that while "relegation is never pleasant" he also feels that some hard lessons were learned by the group.

"Probably what came back to haunt us in a number of games maybe was a lack of depth. When other teams were introducing maybe two or three players in the last 15-20 minutes of a certain calibre we just didn't maybe have players of that calibre to take into the game," said the Louth boss.

"A number of players retired and number of players got injured from last year's squad and we picked up injuries this year. That was biting us but we have learned a lot and the team's age profile is quite low and playing in Division 2 against teams like Cork, Tipperary and Roscommon has been a very steep learning curve for a number of our players. As a result of that, we'll be better for it.

"Morale in the group is high, enthusiasm is high. They're a talented group that are youngish and while the league was disappointing, it has in no way damaged us going forward. No way has it damaged us."

Turlough O'Brien's Carlow side are now just around the corner for McGrath and Co and the former All-Ireland winning manager knows they'll have a real battle on their hands against the promotion winners at O'Moore Park.

"They've got promotion from Division 4 and they're a group that's playing with a lot of unity. (They've) a lot of ambition, enthusiasm and they're well organised," he said.

"They will be stubborn, as all good teams are, and I would like to think whatever qualities they bring that we would be able to match them and we will bring our own qualities and our own dynamic to the game.

"Your first championship match is all about confidence, being ready and bringing your courage and resilience because that's what championship is largely about. If people show those qualities then whatever abilities they have as players - or as a team collectively - should manifest itself in the performance.

"You have to be able to scrap and deal with the pressure, deal with the tension and deal with the occasion and go on and play your game. That's what we hope to do."

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