The 1990s – a memorable decade for Westmeath football followers

Gerry Buckley

The recent news that Luke Dempsey’s latest in a long line of well-drilled teams, the senior footballers from St Joseph’s, Rochfortbridge, will belatedly get their chance on July 17 to win the Bro Bosco Cup, further highlights the managerial longevity of the former Kildare player whose astonishing underage achievements with his county of domicile made the 1990s a truly memorable decade for Westmeath football.

‘Top’ counties for whom the only currency is the Sam Maguire Cup would most likely scoff at their ‘weaker’ counterparts wildly celebrating minor and U21 All-Ireland triumphs, but for success-starved Lake County fans the glorious wins in 1995 and 1999 respectively will forever be treasured, regardless of what happens in the centuries (assumedly) to come.

I suspect that I am not the only Westmeath Gael who has watched reruns of the wins against Derry and Kerry during this galling lockdown period, still nervously biting fingernails as the likes of Johnny McBride and Aodán Mac Gearailt threaten to ‘do an Ollie Murphy’ before we began to feel the pain of the Carnaross ‘spoilsport’ in the early years of the ensuing decade. In particular, the pre- and post-match scenes in Limerick on May 15, 1999 will joyfully linger with us till the Grim Reaper arrives in his all-black gear.

All that being said, progress was negligible in the all-important senior grade, the notable exception being a wonderful run all the way to the National League semi-final in 1994, while again conceding that the aforementioned ‘top’ counties are not overly concerned with spring silverware.

However, the wonderful 1993/94 NFL campaign under Mattie Kerrigan should never be underestimated, and witnessing the sensational defeat of reigning All-Ireland champions Derry on a wintry Easter Sunday in Enniskillen was worth all the aggro at those horrible border checkpoints which we hope will never return. Larry Giles stole the show in Brewster Park with 2-2 from play, but the all-round work ethic that afternoon was a joy to behold. Had Michael Broder not been harshly dismissed in the semi-final in Croke Park, the clash with Meath would surely have gone down to the wire.

Ironically, that journey to the penultimate round coincided with the Silver Jubilee of our only other National Football League semi-final appearance in 1969, but the GAA’s secondary competition had some truly awful lows in the 1990s as well. Horrendous hammerings at the hands of Galway (33 points) and Offaly (30 points) came in the first and last games of 1990. Sheepishly listening to mega-sneering at the hands of supporters from our southern neighbours in Moate that horrible December afternoon are very firmly rooted in my ‘all-time low’ memory bank. Overall, our record from 73 league games in the 1990s reads: 31 wins, four draws, 38 defeats.

The opening year of the decade will also be recalled with great discomfort by Mullingar Shamrocks’ fans. One of the leading daily newspapers used a Monday morning headline bearing the words ‘daylight robbery’ to describe the Westmeath champions one-point loss to Andy Merrigan Cup holders Baltinglass in the Leinster club semi-final in Newbridge. And what is this scribe’s opinion? How about ‘daylight robbery’?

As stated, and as can be seen from the chart hereunder, Leinster championship wins were rare for the first half of the decade. A Stefan White-inspired Louth burst the league glory bubble in 1994 in Athlone. A year later in glorious sunshine at the same venue, a paltry 0-3 against Wicklow was as unexpected as it was sickening to endure.

In 1999, the win against Carlow under Brendan Lowry will forever be associated with the Lakesiders and Barrowsiders being the ‘guinea pigs’ of the GAA’s new draconian attitude to the issuing of red cards – Cork referee Niall Barrett sensationally sent off four Carlow and two Westmeath players as we all looked on in horror. Indeed, it was the second time that year that the maroon and white-clad side had made the national news for the wrong reasons, coming as it did just ten weeks after ‘Tunnelgate’ in the league win over Wicklow.

Westmeath’s results in the Leinster SFC in the 1990s were as follows:

20/5/1990, Cusack Park, Longford 0-15, Westmeath 0-7

9/6/1991, Portlaoise, Laois 1-17, Westmeath 0-6

7/6/1992, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-9, Carlow 0-8

5/7/1992, Tullamore, Kildare 4-11, Westmeath 2-5

7/6/1993, Tullamore, Dublin 2-11, Westmeath 0-8

29/5/1994, Athlone, Louth 0-13, Westmeath 1-9

21/5/1995, Wexford, Wexford 0-13, Westmeath 1-3

11/6/1995, Athlone, Wicklow 0-9, Westmeath 0-3

9/6/1996, Navan, Dublin 1-18, Westmeath 0-11

11/5/1997, New Ross, Westmeath 0-11, Wexford 2-5 (draw)

17/5/1997, Cusack Park, Westmeath 2-17, Wexford 1-15 (replay)

25/5/1997, Tullamore, Offaly 0-8, Westmeath 0-8 (draw)

7/6/1997, Cusack Park, Offaly 1-14, Westmeath 0-7 (replay)

3/5/1998, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-18, Carlow 2-5

17/5/1998, Longford, Westmeath 3-14, Longford 1-13

7/6/1998, Croke Park, Laois 1-15, Westmeath 0-15

9/5/1999, Carlow, Westmeath 2-10, Carlow 1-8

30/5/1999, Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-17, Longford 2-9

13/6/1999, Croke Park, Laois 1-16, Westmeath 1-8

It is probably a sign that our fortunes were on the up in the 1990s as I had a glut of players to consider when ‘selecting’ the best 15 of the decade. At first glance, for example, the omission of Dessie Dolan and Rory O’Connell - absolutely automatic choices for the ‘noughties’ team - may seem strange, but the Athlone midfield maestro was often quite ordinary in the late 1990s, while the Garrycastle genius was still a teenager by the time Westmeath’s championship campaign ended in June 1999 at the hands of Laois in Croke Park (as had been the case a year earlier).

So here goes with my stab at a Westmeath football team of the 1990s:

1. Dermot Ryan (Mullingar Shamrocks)

2. Peter Smith (Mullingar Shamrocks)

3. John O’Brien (Tyrrellspass)

4. Dermot Brady (Delvin/St Loman’s, Mullingar)

5. Oliver Keating (Athlone)

6. Aidan Collins (Athlone)

7. Michael ‘Spike’ Fagan (Mullingar Shamrocks)

8. Jack Cooney (Coralstown/Kinnegad)

9. Tom Ormsby (Mullingar Shamrocks)

10. John Murray (Moate All Whites)

11. Martin Flanagan (Tyrrellspass)

12. John Fleming (Coralstown/Kinnegad)

13. Larry Giles (Coralstown/Kinnegad)

14. Kenny Lyons (St Loman’s, Mullingar)

15. Ger Heavin (Moate All Whites)