Mullingar derby an exciting opener in Flanagan Cup race

Many counties vary in their ‘will they/won’t they’ application of the controversial inter-county free month of April so as they can start their club championships. For 2020, Westmeath are in the ‘will’ category and last week’s draws in that regard have whetted the appetite of Lake County Gaels.

Elsewhere in this paper details are listed of the draws for the newly-created senior ‘B’ hurling, and the intermediate and junior championships in both codes. However, the principal focus will be on the races for the Flanagan Cup in football and the Westmeath Examiner Cup in hurling, the blue riband trophies for our clubs.

Unquestionably, the meeting of the two neighbouring clubs in the capital town is the plum tie in the first round of the senior football championship on April 18/19. Mullingar Shamrocks and St Loman's, Mullingar are perennial challengers for all the major silverware, and who will ever forget the huge occasion in 2018 when former Shamrocks playing colleagues, Ned Moore and Luke Dempsey, met as rival bainisteoirs in the TEG Cusack Park showdown.

Moore’s men famously took the spoils that day, thereby depriving the men in blue and white of a prestigious four in-a-row. The former teak tough corner back remains at the helm for the Springfield-based outfit and he will be mustard keen to regain the Flanagan Cup after a disappointing semi-final exit at the hands of champions-elect Garrycastle last summer.

The much-travelled Dempsey, whose gigantic contribution to the advancement of football in his adopted county can never be over-estimated, has moved ‘home’ to take the reins at Johnstownbridge, and he has been replaced on the Delvin Road by Declan Kelly. The latter will not be long finding out that even round robin games between the Mullingar ‘big two’ are far from exercises in shadow boxing. After two final defeats in 2018 and 2019, the pressure will be on the new manager to start this year’s campaign with a ‘local bragging rights’ victory.

Two very progressive and ambitious clubs on the outskirts of Mullingar are likely to have different targets for 2020. Last year, Shandonagh comfortably consolidated their place at the top table of Westmeath club football in their inaugural season as a senior club. Loyal club servant, Kevin Hickey, has stepped down as manager and another former player in sky blue and navy, David Scahill, has taken charge. Assumedly, further consolidation, and perhaps a place in the knockout stages, will be deemed satisfactory for a club which faces a team with an identical strip, Tyrrellspass, in round one. The ‘Tidy Town’ outfit have recruited the very experienced Emmet McDonnell and will be hoping for an injury-free run all the way to the business end of the championship.

For former kingpins, The Downs, targets are likely to be loftier. The most successful inter-county manager ever to grace the Lake County club scene, John O’Mahony, is back in charge of the men in black and amber. A first title in 15 years will be the ambition of the Mayo native, now free from his political duties, whose successes with Leitrim, Galway and his native county entitle him to be talked of in the same breath as the very best bainisteoirs in the history of the game. A local derby against Coralstown/Kinnegad will make for a lively start to the championship for The Downs.

‘Bragging rights’ in the famous Dolan family will be at stake when holders Garrycastle open their campaign against Rosemount, with cousins Gary and Frankie (a former Roscommon sharpshooter) at the respective helms. Gary’s incomparable brother Dessie has hung up his boots, but the green and red-clad outfit are still sure to be a force to be reckoned with.

The draws in the two groups are completed by first round fixtures between once-mighty Athlone (whose hiring of Mayo legend Liam McHale shows they are keen to return to former glories) and another south Westmeath side, Castledaly, while Killucan face last year’s intermediate champions, Caulry.

With the possible exception of Athlone, buoyed enormously by the return of Ray Connellan, most pundits feel that potential champions are unlikely to emerge from this quartet.

The opening SFC fixtures worked out as follows:

The eagerly-awaited new format in senior hurling, including the introduction of a senior ‘B’ championship, is likely to make for less meaningless and one-sided games. While in no way demeaning their success, many observers were unhappy with the 2019 scenario whereby eventual champions Clonkill lost their opening three games en route to retaining their crown.

The race for the Westmeath Examiner Cup in 2020 is now confined to six teams, and it is a predictable sextet. Clonkill are seeking a hat-trick this year and they open their campaign against perennially tricky opponents in Lough Lene Gaels. Raharney face Castlepollard, and last year’s disappointing runners-up, Castletown-Geoghegan will play Delvin. All three games are scheduled for 4/5 April.

In recent years, the trend has been that only Clonkill, Raharney and Castletown have been genuine contenders for the prestigious silverware, with the Gaels firmly in fourth spot.

However, Castlepollard and Delvin will both be keen to return to the top of the pile as they both were over the years, albeit the dim and distant past in the case of the Valley men.

The first-named team will be favourites in each of the opening round games, as follows: