Five out of six ain't bad...

Ahead of Sunday's Allianz NFL Division 2 clash with Laois, Westmeath Examiner columnist GERRY BUCKLEY reflects on Westmeath's progress in the league so far this year

In fact, Meatloaf would probably melodically add that “it is real darn good” – when, of course, referring to Westmeath proudly topping Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League after a very gutsy second half display in Tuam last Sunday afternoon.

Even the most optimistic Westmeath fan – and it was heart-warming to see an increased travelling contingent make the journey westward at the weekend – hardly expected a five-point haul at this juncture, especially with two of the games away from home, from where the maroon and whites earned the dreaded ‘nul points’ last season.

The inimitable Con Houlihan, whose priceless musings are rightly being reprinted more and more since his death, often talked of what a Martian might make of certain situations if his spaceship happened to crash-land in Ireland. Well, I imagine the little green man would take a fleeting glance at the tier two table today and reckon the Lake County men are absolutely flying in 2013, while pitying Longford as they prop up the division.

Of course, our Martian friend would be unlikely to understand a lot about scoring difference, but therein lies a truer synopsis of the past five weeks. The Westmeath lads – and they deserve enormous credit for their unbeaten start – have a +3 tally, while our pointless neighbours have a -5 difference. In truth, this has been (not unexpectedly) a very tight division, with Derry’s (ominous) nine-point win last weekend against Wexford only the third of the dozen games so far where a team has won by more than three points (Laois beat Armagh by seven, while Louth beat Galway by six).

The upshot of all this is that Westmeath will need more points on the board to retain Division 2 status (the minimum target for this spring), despite Meath (who already look unlikely to achieve promotion from what for them are the doldrums of Division 3) surviving miraculously in tier two with just three points as recently as 2011.

Remarkably in this campaign, with the exception of Glenn Ryan’s aforementioned unlucky outfit, the remaining seven teams all have three or more points in the bag after just three games. The race for the top two slots is hotting up, with Derry (particularly as they have us at home) entitled to the favourites’ tag, while it looks like a kick or a bounce of a ball here and there to separate the others, including Westmeath.

Next Sunday’s eagerly-awaited game against old rivals Laois in Cusack Park takes on added significance given the tightness of the group. Unfortunately, the home team will have to plan without the preferred central defensive spine of team captain Kieran Gavin (unluckily, it would appear, injured last Sunday) and the ever-improving Paul Sharry, whose ongoing groin injury deprives the side of those marvellous surging runs out of defence and a classy long-range place-kicker from the ground.

Overall, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that Pat Flanagan’s charges have only played to their undoubted potential for approximately 60 of the 320-odd minutes of league football in 2013. Accordingly, table-topping has to be deemed a somewhat fortunate slot and Lady Luck has smiled our way quite a bit in the three games.

However, the old mantra that ‘the more I practice, the luckier I get’ was never more apt as a huge effort is being put in behind the scenes by all involved, and the spirit in the camp that this has engendered is obvious for all to see.

It is not inconceivable that it could be us, rather than Longford, who would be propping up the table without our share of good fortune, allied to gritty determination. The general consensus last Sunday at half-time was that the 36 minutes which preceded was what knowledgeable GAA fans would expect to see in the lower regions of Division 3. Yes, it was that poor and, with the visitors having only 0-2 on the scoreboard, followers of the Tribesmen were perfectly entitled to wonder aloud how the men in the unfamiliar green and white strip (to get the support of our naive Martian friend!) had managed to win their first two games against Louth and Longford.

However, a return of 0-1 from three gilt-edged goal chances was largely to blame for the wind-assisted visitors’ paucity of scores and Galwegians were quick to concede that had any of our three half forwards of Ger Egan, Callum McCormack or Kieran Martin (what an exciting threesome they are in a line where we have struggled for years) managed to beat impressive home ‘keeper John Egan when the opportunities arose, Westmeath would have been much closer than the actual six-point deficit.

Whatever was said at half-time worked a treat and Westmeath produced a stirring performance in the second moiety to earn a deserved share of the spoils. The otherwise-off colour Denis Corroon’s superbly-taken goal (ably teed up by club mate Ciaran Curley) turned the game our way, but given the fact that Galway could and should have pointed in injury-time, a draw was a fair result overall.

Ciaran Curley brought many skills from his vast repertoire displayed in recent years with Mullingar Shamrocks to the inter-county table and he will be hard to dislodge at full forward. At the other end, the hitherto-undervalued Mark McCallon had his best game at this level, and they were two real plusses for Pat Flanagan, Philip Kiernan and Tom Darcy last Sunday.

Midfield is not (yet) firing on all cylinders, but it is important to recall that without John Heslin’s excellence this time last year, Westmeath would not have stayed up. Indeed, the multi-talented 20-year-old became only the 24th Lake County man to play in a ‘Railway Cup’ final (both codes) last Sunday week.
With the Sigerson Cup finished for 2013 and the Interprovincial Cup likewise finished (and perhaps forever?), the St Loman’s Mullingar man will have an opportunity to freshen up, albeit he will yet again be expected to dictate proceedings in his home pitch tonight in the Leinster U21 championship against Wexford.

And to those who said “five out of six ain’t bad” as we exited Tuam Stadium last Sunday at 4pm, I immediately responded: “You took the words right out my mouth”!