Conor Grimes loving Louth’s spoonful of summer football

By way of gentle introductory waiver, Conor Grimes is making no connection whatsoever between Louth’s loving spoonful of summer football and the product he helped formulate and now sell, Spoonful Botanical.

However the 29-year-old, in his tenth season playing for Louth, is certainly enjoying his best summer of football; for that he does credit Spoonful at least in some part.

First formulated back in 2019, along with his now wife Jayne, as a natural anti-inflammatory product for the ageing population, it’s now their full-time business, any reduced inflammation thanks to the blend of 16 fermented fruits, herbs and spices increasingly popular it seems within the sporting arena too.

“Absolutely, the product has been going really, really well for us,” says Grimes. “A lot of the Louth team are on it now, and a lot of teams throughout the country are taking the product too.

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“It’s kind of a new avenue, because it was designed more for joint pain, people who needed joint support. But thankfully it’s helped keep me on the pitch this summer too.”

Indeed Louth manager Mickey Harte is said to enjoy some Spoonful himself, another ringing endorsement of sort; as indeed do some of the opposition, including Dublin.

“Yeah, the likes of Niall Scully, Brian Fenton, some of the Irish rugby team as well, we’ve seen them posting about it, just organically, nothing to do with us.

“The likes of Cian Healy, just using it for recovery in between heavy training sessions. There’s been really, really positive feedback from the sports side of things, so it’s an avenue we’re only really started to explore this year.”

Whatever about the exact level of benefits, Louth’s summer of football will end on Sunday unless they beat All-Ireland champions Kerry, that final round-robin game set for Portlaoise.

There is some ancient history here, Kerry beating Louth in the 1953 All-Ireland semi-final, only for Grimes it presents another opportunity to “win or we learn”, which he says has been Louth’s motto all season.

“It’s a massive challenge,” he concedes, “the All-Ireland champions coming to play. Obviously we’re bottom of the group, it’s not the position we hoped to be in. But we’re confident in our preparations, confident in our process all year.

“There’s been nothing in games all year, even in this ‘group of death’, that everyone was kind of calling it, with Mayo, Cork and Kerry. We’re under no illusions either, a must-win game for us, but we’re very excited, the level we want to be at.

“The only real blip along the road has been the Leinster final, and hopefully we won’t have a repeat of that. We’ll take great confidence from the Mayo game, that we can compete. We know what’s at stake for Kerry, but we’re confident if we bring the best version of ourselves, there’s no reason why it can’t be a competitive game.”

Indeed after that heavy defeat to Dublin, 5-21 to 0-15, Louth fought back to finish within two points of Cork, then one point of Mayo, thanks to 1-1 at the death.

For Grimes, an ambassador for football championship sponsors Allianz, that’s all part of the learning experience.

“We were extremely hurt, after the Leinster final. We didn’t expect it to go like that, at all, it wasn’t in our plans. We kind of threw in the towel, the last 15 minutes, Dublin were banging in goals for fun. And could have had a lot more.

“We took massive learnings, from a management point of view as well. ‘We win, or we learn’, that was really our motto. And we didn’t want that to happen again. Not that we gave up, as such, it was just disappointment, hard to get the energy levels up. We’d spoke about it, all season, about wanting to get to the Leinster final. And when it’s not going you way, it’s hard to stick to your process, and that’s disappointing from our point of view.”

The improvement in his own game this season has come in part to the new position: “Usually, I was an inside forward, I’ve come out more now around the middle third. I’ve put in a lot of work too with our strength and conditioning coach, our nutritionist, to come out and play around there, to last the 70 minutes.”

Win or lose on Sunday, Grimes has no hesitation endorsing the product that is the round-robin format.

“Personally I love it as it is. As a Louth player, trying to get up to the top standard, we need these games. I’ve played more championship games this season, than probably the last five or six years combined.

“I understand all the games might not mean as much, but as a player you want to be playing matches. Even from the provincial point of view, there’s still great benefit there, obviously I want to win a Leinster title before my time is come.

“And for the Louth fans, going down to see Kerry playing in the flesh, that’s so, so important for the development of our game.”