Meath result not a ‘benchmark’, says Fortune after first victory
At the outset of his post-match media duties in Dunganny last Sunday afternoon, Westmeath senior hurling manager Joe Fortune succinctly summed up the mood of the nation in relation to the tragic death of Ashling Murphy in Tullamore just a few days earlier.
“Driving up the road this morning, I was conscious it was my first match managing Westmeath. And you don’t forget that. I am very proud to manage the team, but it was just a game of hurling,” he said.
“I have three little girls at home myself and when you see the two number 23 jerseys hanging there, it puts sport in perspective.
“We met in Raharney this morning on the basis that there are an awful lot more significant things happening outside of hurling at the moment that we felt we needed to look at as a group.
“We said a prayer for Ashling and also the two people who died recently in the Castlepollard area (Saoirse Corrigan and Shane Gilchrist).”
Turning to hurling matters, the Wexford native stated: “We’ve done an awful lot of tough training over Christmas and I’m happy that we got a lot of game time into lads today, and that a lot of young guys showed up well. I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I was picking the team that was picked last year.
“Going forward, we need to look at the development of young lads who played well in the championship. Young (Jack) Gillen stood up well there today. He got a good 40 minutes into his legs at this level.
“Young (Johnny) Bermingham was really solid at the back. Conor Kane did well. We had two debutants today and young (Eamon) Cunneen will never forget his debut. But our hurling has to get sharper. We don’t benchmark ourselves on today.”
When asked about changes to the panel from 2021, Fortune clarified the situation as follows: “Shane Clavin has decided that he is not committing this year. Also, Josh Coll and Jordy Smyth, two lads that I would have loved to work with. And I will, please God, if they want me here long enough.
“All the senior lads who were missing today are all on board and were all up in Abbotstown training the other night.”
He was asked if he was frustrated by having to go to Abbotstown to train and he replied in a pragmatic manner.
“Yes, you come out here today and you see the facilities that Meath GAA have available, but in time we will have that in Westmeath as well,” he stated. “For now, it is what it is, but I would like to put on record my appreciation of the goodness of the Westmeath clubs so far to try and provide a proper pitch for these players.
“I can’t thank them enough, nor Keith Quinn and Billy Boyle – I’d say their phones never stop ringing in that regard.”
The bainisteoir confirmed that “Aonghus Clarke and Killian Doyle are joint-captains for the year with Aaron Craig as vice-captain.”
The latter led the team last Sunday, and Fortune added in this regard: “Aaron was very down on himself as a person as he felt he had let the lads down against Laois (in last year’s relegation play-off), but he led there today like a captain.”
“We know what we want to do in the league and where we want to go. Will that happen in year one? I hope so, and I’ll do everything I can to make it happen.
“We play Kildare next Sunday and we’ll try out other lads who were not even here today. Dave Herity is in year four or five of his project there and he has some really good people around him.
“It’ll be another battle next week, but it’s January hurling. The focus for us has to be February 6 and Kerry in Cusack Park,” Fortune concluded.