Trip to Tipp less daunting for improving hurlers

This columnist has only one thing in common with Roy Keane – an aversion to celebrating ‘moral victories’! However, I’ll make a deserved exception by lauding loud and clear all associated with a wonderfully wholehearted Westmeath senior hurling team who were not far away from causing a massive shock against Cork last Sunday.

Indeed, the aforementioned Mr Keane was mentioned more than once in the press box in TEG Cusack Park before last Sunday’s encounter (some of us simply insist on ‘mentioning the war’ in Saipan when an opportunity arises!), as young boys from Mayfield had travelled to play Southern Gaels and were introduced to the crowd before the main event.

Yes, bad weather undoubtedly levels the playing field, so to speak, when an elite county faces a lesser-known outfit in a game of hurling, but the main reason that the game was so close was not the wintry conditions. It was the never-say-die spirit shown by the men in green and white. Nobody expected us to defeat Kieran Kingston’s troops, and the general feeling was that a single figures’ loss would be a great achievement. Accordingly, a four-point loss was unquestionably a praiseworthy ‘moral victory’.

However, one swallow doesn’t make a spring (with apologies for the mixed metaphor) and the National League ambition of most Lake County Gaels remains intact i.e. win a play-off against almost certainly Laois or Carlow, thereby retaining a place in hurling’s top tier. On last Sunday’s evidence, that is very achievable.

In the meantime, Shane O’Brien’s men face two extremely difficult away games, starting with a trip to Tipp next Sunday. Our last excursion to the Premier County almost resulted in what would have probably been labelled as ‘the shock of the 21st century’, and that with only 17.5 years of it having elapsed!

The battle of the two Michael Ryans in the championship ‘back door’ in Semple Stadium on July1, 2017 may have ended in a nine-point win for the home team. However, this scribe’s opening paragraph in my match report was accurate, rather than melodramatic.

It read: “While ‘Goliath’, aka Tipperary, may have won and advanced, as was universally expected, to the second round of the All-Ireland senior hurling qualifiers, it was ‘David’, aka Westmeath, who exited the championship with enormous pride and dignity last Saturday evening, after a wonderfully gutsy and skilful display had the Liam McCarthy Cup holders genuinely on the rack for three quarters of the game in Semple Stadium.”

Remarkably, ‘David’ defeated ‘Goliath’ on both of the last two occasions that the Lake County and the Premier County met in the league, in 1983 and 1985. And by seven points on each occasion. And Tipp were flattered by the margins. And I know, because I was there!

Nobody expects a similar result in Nenagh next Sunday, but a repeat of the gutsy and skilful effort against Cork will certainly maintain Westmeath’s upward graph. Football commitments will mean that I won’t be travelling, but I am optimistic that my spies will report very favourably on events in McDonagh Park.

6/2/1938, Cusack Park, Tipperary 9-4 Westmeath 2-2

4/12/1938, Thurles, Tipperary 5-6 Westmeath 1-4

17/11/1940, Roscrea, Tipperary 7-5 Westmeath 1-4

10/2/1952, Cusack Park, Tipperary 5-6 Westmeath 1-4

15/2/1953, Thurles, Tipperary 12-7 Westmeath 2-9

12/2/1956, Thurles, Tipperary 7-5 Westmeath 1-5

24/2/1957, Cusack Park, Tipperary 3-9 Westmeath 3-0

2/10/1983, Cusack Park, Westmeath 5-12 Tipperary 3-11

3/11/1985, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-18 Tipperary 1-11

By my reckoning, the first letter I ever wrote into this newspaper was in late 1976, as a hirsute teenager, and it concerned my frustration with our footballers’ inept showing against Armagh in a National League game in Cusack Park. A 15-point hammering at the hands of the Orchard County men had gutted me. I recall commenting on the visitors’ impeccable attire, even including then-unusual tracksuits for the subs, and expressed an opinion that Armagh was a county on the up. They contested the following year’s All-Ireland final and only Tony Hanahoe’s Dublin juggernaut prevented them from winning Sam!

That was one of my better predictions. Another fairly safe one is that Armagh will not defeat Jack Cooney’s men by 15 points, and that Westmeath will tog out impeccably unlike the mixum-gatherum assortment of shorts and socks I witnessed with annoyance over 43 years ago! As regards the likely outcome, it is close enough to a top of the table clash in the ‘dog-eat-dog’ group that is Division 2, and a win would propel one or other county into a strong position with three games remaining.

Most Westmeath fans would be content with retaining tier two status (yours truly included) but two recent Qualifier defeats at the hands of Kieran McGeeney’s men still rankle, and the maroon and white-clad outfit will be mustard keen to maintain their 100 per cent home record in the 2020 league. Kieran Martin is unlikely to return for this eagerly-awaited clash, but there was a tremendous spirit shown when holding out for a brace of precious points in the face of adversity against Fermanagh. A repeat of same would be most welcome next Sunday.

27/10/1935, Armagh, Armagh 3-1 Westmeath 0-9

5/11/1967, Lurgan, Westmeath 1-8 Armagh 0-8

10/11/1968, Athlone, Westmeath 2-8 Armagh 2-5

19/10/1969, Lurgan, Westmeath 2-11 Armagh 2-9

14/2/1971, Cusack Park, Armagh 1-7 Westmeath 0-6

12/12/1971, Lurgan, Westmeath 4-6 Armagh 2-5

3/11/1974, Lurgan, Armagh 4-6 Westmeath 1-2

9/11/1975, Athlone, Armagh 3-10 Westmeath 0-11

21/11/1976, Cusack Park, Armagh 3-11 Westmeath 0-5

20/11/1977, Lurgan, Armagh 3-9 Westmeath 1-4

29/10/1978, Armagh, Armagh 8-13 Westmeath 1-5

3/12/1978, Castletown-Geoghegan, Armagh 4-6 Westmeath 0-8

11/2/1996, Castletown-Geoghegan, Armagh 1-9 Westmeath 2-5

30/11/1997, Cusack Park, Armagh 1-11 Westmeath 2-6

11/2/2001, Crossmaglen, Armagh 3-13 Westmeath 1-7

8/4/2007, Crossmaglen, Armagh 2-10 Westmeath 0-12

17/2/2008, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-11 Armagh 1-6

14/2/2010, Crossmaglen, Armagh 2-19 Westmeath 0-8

24/3/2013, Cusack Park, Westmeath 0-17 Armagh 0-16

4/2/2018, TEG Cusack Park, Armagh 2-17 Westmeath 1-11.