Gerry Buckley: Blue fortnight for clubs in Leinster
How ironic that after a culling of Westmeath clubs in men’s Leinster competitions in recent weeks – including the blue-clad senior duo of Raharney and St Loman’s, Mullingar in their respective senior championships on successive Sundays – that the Lake County’s only remaining side is junior football standard-bearers Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall.
The irony, of course, being that those of us who had an enormous fondness for the late Ned Flynn (pretty much every one who knew him really) were always amused that Ned’s parting words in person or over the phone, even when the sun was splitting the rocks outside, were: “Happy Christmas”.
His beloved charges in green and gold, all of whom would immediately attribute their football upbringing to Ned’s ‘loaves and fishes’ ability to cram huge numbers into his car and transport them to games as kids, following up by feeding them post-match with ‘goodies’ far less wholesome than loaves and fishes!
We all fervently hope that Ned is in a happy place in his first Christmas away from us, as with all departed Gaels in 2021, the latest being a key member of the 1995 Tom Markham Cup-winning management team, Johnny Moran from Maryland.
Last Sunday afternoon in Portlaoise was a great occasion - a big and mask-less crowd enjoying a tremendous game of football, with only the wrong result spoiling the day for those making the hour-long journey home northwards. Conversely, the short trek to ‘Port’, as Laois people call Portarlington, would have been a giddy spin for maroon and green-clad fans with the prospect of a trip to Croke Park on the Saturday before Christmas an exciting one for all concerned.
Of course, Paul Mannion (the possible inter-county return of this star footballer with a Westmeath father could be key to Sam Maguire’s next destination in 2022) and his Kilmacud Crokes colleagues will present a huge challenge to the O’Moore County two-in-a-row champions. This challenge looked it might be facing Declan Kelly’s troops midway through the third quarter when they had staged a remarkable comeback to overturn Portarlington’s early blitzkrieg and lead by a point courtesy of John Heslin’s fourth successful free.
However, the former UCD man was most untypically but a pale shadow of his brilliant best in open play and it was left to others to carry the fight to the ‘home’ team. And carry it they did, with Fola Ayorinde having one of his most influential games for the club in quite some time, while the ever-improving young duo of Sam McCartan and TJ Cox were also to the fore, with Ronan O’Toole as threatening as ever at centre half forward.
It’s easy being a ‘selector’ in the stand, but perhaps replacing Shane Dempsey with Ken Casey (who offered little in his time on the pitch – and he ended up off it) was hasty, the former showing in the replayed county final that he can still dissect the posts when points are urgently needed.
At just 29 years of age, it would be extremely premature to write off the majestic Heslin, and a break from football is sure to refresh the Westmeath star. Certainly, the O’Byrne Cup ‘adventure’ can be negotiated without him. It is galling to reflect that Division 3 beckons in the spring of 2022, and it is not intended to be patronising when opining that Westmeath folk will not be excited by the possibility of participating in the inaugural Tailteann Cup (assuming that Mr Covid ‘plans’ to let matches carry on in 2022).
On the club front, the Delvin Road outfit would most certainly not have won anything close to six Flanagan Cups in a nine-year period without Heslin’s brilliance. Indeed, there are those who (harshly?) argue that they might have won none of the six. However, it does seem that Moorefield’s smash-and-grab raid in the 2017 final may come back to haunt St Loman’s more and more as the years go by.
Negotiating the Westmeath championship is precarious in its own right, and there are umpteen clubs of Portarlington’s calibre waiting in the provincial wings thereafter. Kelly was non-committal about his future after the game in MW Hire O’Moore Park but, regardless, it will still take a fine team to stop Heslin and co from completing a Lake County hat-trick next autumn.
While St Loman’s were very competitive in Leinster – as they have been consistently since 2013 – there was huge disappointment, not just on Deelside but throughout Westmeath, at how easily Raharney were brushed aside by the hurling charges of the aforementioned Kilmacud Crokes a week earlier. Very few people expected Brendan McKeogh’s men to actually defeat the Metropolitans, but a proper contest was envisaged. And this simply failed to materialise.
With Ronan Hayes and Alex Considine causing havoc in the full forward line, the visitors to TEG Cusack Park looked likely winners from an early stage. As with all Dublin club and inter-county teams, Crokes’ physicality was there for all to see – and for their opponents to feel! McKeogh has done a remarkable job in garnering the Westmeath Examiner Cup just a year after the ignominy of a proud club having to win a relegation play-off to retain top flight status. His passion is infectious, and he is certain to want another crack at respectability in Leinster – albeit the ‘precarious’ line applies to the small ball game in Westmeath as much as to its big counterpart.
Of course, the numbers available to Kilmacud managements are enormous when compared with their ‘culchie’ equivalents. And maybe that line is appropriate when recalling perhaps my favourite Ned Flynn story, when he was once in a rare position of having enough footballers for an ‘A’ v ‘B’ trial game.
Angry mother: “Ned Flynn, why is my Johnny on the ‘B’ team?”
Ned, in a flash: “Because we don’t have a ‘C’ team, missus!”
– Gerry Buckley