The football ‘tennies’ revisited

GAA REVIEW by Gerry Buckley.

The ‘noughties’ decade, containing as it did the unprecedented Delaney Cup win of 2004, was always going to be a difficult act to follow for Westmeath football, given that some virtually irreplaceable players were either gone off the scene or acquiring the dreaded ‘veteran’ status, and that an unstoppable footballing steamroller in sky blue and navy was gathering momentum on the east coast.

However, those of us who grew up dreaming that we might live to see our beloved maroon and white colours in a pre-match parade on Leinster football final day – and just once would have sufficed – should never lose sight of the fact that we did so twice in succession (2015 and 2016) under Tom Cribbin, one of six men to have worn the Lake County senior bainisteoir’s bib in the ‘tennies’.

(See ‘steamroller’ above re the outcomes of both deciders, not to mention the steamrolling of all steamrolling handed down in the penultimate round clash of un-equals in 2017, despite a very impressive NFL campaign by Cribbin’s troops - albeit in Division 4 - and a rare steamrolling handed out by us to Offaly in a Leinster quarter-final replay).

Of course, 2015 also marked the achievement of an ambition that some of us craved every bit as much (more in this columnist’s case) as winning the Delaney Cup i.e. getting the Meath senior championship monkey off our backs on THAT day (June 28) when decades of heartbreak ended with a Lazarus-like comeback from ten points down to a four-point victory in Croke Park.

A big regret from the decade must surely be that Kerry were there for the taking in a Qualifier in 2012. The Kingdom have never lost a ‘back door’ game, but were six points down early in the second half in Cusack Park and should really have been put to the sword. That still hurts.

The following is a list of Westmeath’s SFC games in the ‘tennies’:

6/6/2010, Tullamore, Westmeath 0-15, Wicklow 1-11 (L)

27/6/2010, Croke Park, Louth 1-15, Westmeath 2-10 (L)

10/7/2010, Cusack Park, Derry 0-13, Westmeath 1-7 (Q)

11/6/2011, Wexford, Wexford 1-24, Westmeath 0-15 (L)

25/6/2011, Belfast, Antrim 0-16, Westmeath 1-7 (Q)

20/5/2012, Navan, Louth 2-9, Westmeath 0-14 (L)

30/6/2012, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-15, Louth 0-12 (Q)

15/7/2012, Cusack Park, Kerry 2-10, Westmeath 1-12 (Q)

19/5/2013, Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-15, Carlow 1-10 (L)

1/6/2013, Croke Park, Dublin 1-22, Westmeath 0-9 (L)

29/6/2013, Cusack Park, Fermanagh 3-10, Westmeath 1-15 (Q)

17/5/2014, Cusack Park, Louth 1-14, Westmeath 1-9 (L)

28/6/2014, Cavan, Cavan 1-15, Westmeath 1-14 (Q)

17/5/2015, Drogheda, Westmeath 3-14, Louth 0-16 (L)

14/6/2015, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-21, Wexford 0-15 (L)

28/6/2015, Croke Park, Westmeath 3-19, Meath 2-18 (L)

12/7/2015, Croke Park, Dublin 2-13, Westmeath 0-6 (L)

25/7/2015, Cavan, Fermanagh 1-13, Westmeath 0-7 (Q)

12/6/2016, TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath 0-13, Offaly 0-12 (L)

26/6/2016, Croke Park, Westmeath 1-12, Kildare 1-11 (L)

17/7/2016, Croke Park, Dublin 2-19, Westmeath 0-10 (L)

30/7/2016, Croke Park, Mayo 3-15, Westmeath 1-14 (Q)

11/6/2017, Tullamore, Westmeath 0-10, Offaly 0-10 (draw) (L)

17/6/2017, TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-17, Offaly 0-15 (replay) (L)

25/6/2017, Croke Park, Dublin 4-29, Westmeath 0-10 (L)

8/7/2017, TEG Cusack Park, Armagh 1-12, Westmeath 1-7 (Q)

26/5/2018, Tullamore, Laois 4-13, Westmeath 1-12 (L)

9/6/2018, TEG Cusack Park, Armagh 3-16, Westmeath 1-11 (Q)

26/5/2019, Tullamore, Laois 0-12, Westmeath 0-10 (L)

9/6/2019, TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-22, Waterford 0-7 (Q)

22/6/2019, TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath 2-13, Limerick 1-10 (Q)

29/6/2019, TEG Cusack Park, Clare 1-13, Westmeath 0-15 (Q)

(L) – Leinster SFC; (Q) – All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers

Our National League ‘noughties’ record has a ‘Cobblers’ feel to it, and I don’t just mean that as the nickname of Northampton Town FC, the club famous for yo-yoing up and down the divisions in England in the 1960s. It became difficult every January to remember what division Westmeath were actually in but, unfortunately, the top flight was never a comfortable location.

Underage success eluded us, with just two Leinster final appearances. Brendan Hackett (surely worth a longer try, particularly as two of the other five men to manage us at senior level had no track record whatsoever of noteworthy success - and were both given a full year) came much closer to defeating a star-studded Dublin U21 team in Parnell Park than the six-point losing margin would suggest, while Tom Carr’s minors did well to get to Croke Park three years later (albeit well beaten by Kildare in the decider – Paul Mescal looked a ‘normal person’ at centre half back that day for the Lilywhites). Sandwiched between these, a minimum of a provincial U21 win was undoubtedly spurned in 2011.

A first provincial success in the senior club championship fittingly fell to Dessie Dolan and his Garrycastle colleagues in 2011 when the Westmeath champions defeated Dublin’s St Brigid’s in Tullamore. A namesake club of the latter representing Roscommon fell by the wayside in the All-Ireland semi-final in Longford, and it needed a replay in Cavan for a very powerful Crossmaglen Rangers side to prevent Anthony Cunningham’s charges from lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup in March 2012.

I already listed my stab at a ‘tennies’ team late last year in a slightly different context, so I can’t very well change it now – not that I would want to! Here it is again:

1. Gary Connaughton (Tubberclair)

2. Frank Boyle (Killucan)

3. Kieran Gavin (Mullingar Shamrocks)

4. Kevin Maguire (Caulry)

5. Michael Ennis (Ballinagore)

6. Kieran Martin (Maryland)

7. James Dolan (Garrycastle)

8. John Heslin (St Loman’s, Mullimgar)

9. Denis Corroon (Mullingar Shamrocks)

10. Paul Sharry (St Loman’s, Mullingar)

11. Martin Flanagan (Tyrrellspass)

12. Ger Egan (Tyrrellspass)

13. John Connellan (Athlone)

14. Denis Glennon (Tyrrellspass)

15. Dessie Dolan (Garrycastle)