'We are very much focused now' - McDonnell on senior footballers

After last Sunday’s facile Allianz NFL Division 4 win against Leitrim, Westmeath senior football manager, Tom Cribbin, delegated one of his selectors, Emmett McDonnell, to talk to the assembled media in TEG Cusack Park.

Unsurprisingly, McDonnell was pleased with the victory, stating: “We are delighted with the win today. We were very happy to score 1-8 in the first half against a very difficult breeze and it gave us a great platform for the second half. We got 1-18 down in Limerick, and now 2-18 there today.”

The Lake County’s marquee forward, John Heslin, chipped in with a whopping 1-11 and while McDonnell acknowledged that the St Loman’s, Mullingar man is “a class act”, he was keen to spread the praise to all sectors of the team: “There was great movement right throughout the field. The panel is much stronger this year than last, and when we can bring on players like Denis (Glennon), Callum McCormack and Tommy (McDaniel) with 20 minutes to go, it gives us a great push on for the last quarter of the game.”

With a six-point lead and the wind in their backs for the second moiety, there was an expectation in the small crowd that Westmeath might win by a very large margin. However, it needed the jolt of a Leitrim goal to gee up their hosts again.

McDonnell opined: “We were a bit disappointed with coughing up possession a few times in the second half when we had the wind with us. There are times when fellows think you can kick the ball 60/70 metres with the wind, but it doesn’t always work out like that. 

“Sometimes when you run the ball through the hand like we did in the first half, you can protect it a little bit more.”

Westmeath now have five points on the board and are in a strong position to make an immediate return to Division 3. However, the former Offaly manager wasn’t looking that far ahead, but he still reflected on the shock opening draw against Carlow: “Maybe we were guilty of taking our eye off the ball the first day. 

“I’m not sure what happened as we had trained very well up to that. But we are very much focused now.

“We still have to take it one game at a time,” the Coralstown/Kinnegad club man concluded, “and it’s a long journey down to Waterford next weekend. We will prepare well this week. 

“We know it won’t be easy, but hopefully we’ll do a good job down there.”