I said I'm the best forward in game.. I can live with it, I back myself to hilt

SAM MULROY CANNOT WAIT TO GET TO GRIPS WITH DUBS

- PAT NOLAN

BY PAT NOLAN BACKING yourself isn't a very Irish trait, even less so for someone from a Louth football background, but Sam Mulroy is different.

In March of last year, he took part in the BBC's GAA Social podcast and spoke openly about his long-held ambition to become the "best in Ireland". He referenced how his S&C coach, Graham Byrne, had told him that "you can whinge about being from Louth or you can go and be the best in Louth".

"I went home and wrote that on my whiteboard in my room and it was 'I am the best forward in Louth'. It's there ever since. It hasn't moved.

"Every day when I wake up it's there and I have a look at it and even now when I wake up and people say, 'You're the best forward in Louth' or 'You're top scorer in Ireland', I know that and I know I am and I've know that the last five years, whether I was or I wasn't.

Of course, it was construed by some as Mulroy lacking humility but, despite the stick, he's not walking away from it. “

I’ve probably taken a lot of criticism for over the last year, those comments start to get thrown around about you,” he says now.

“I don’t think I’ve ever shied away from it – I still back myself to the hilt. It’s a funny one, people call it arrogance.