Offaly will be litmus test for Lake County footballers
I suspect that I am not the only Westmeath fan who was very nervous about our senior footballers’ trip to face perennially-tricky opponents Longford last Sunday, following on from a poor display – the first half was truly awful – a week earlier when losing at home to Cavan.
They sing that it’s a long way from Clare to here, and it’s certainly a long, long way home after witnessing a desperately disappointing performance by our hurlers in their league opener in Ennis. The Banner County men were not at all flattered by their 25-point winning margin, and we can all just hope that better days lie ahead for Joe Fortune's charges against the country’s small ball elite in the weeks and months ahead.
A sad measure of how comfortable Brian Lohan’s men were from the second quarter onwards was witnessing all the other scribes (from a hurling-mad county) in the press box focused on their big ball heroes’ fortunes against Meath in Navan. From my own perspective, some of my pals were texting me from Glennon Bros Pearse Park and the first half was very much the close shave I had expected.
So much so that I actually feared the “Westmeath are running away with it” messages in the second moiety were a well-intentioned conspiracy from friends who were (accurately) envisaging the torture I was enduring in 'the other' Cusack Park as the visitors all but threw in the towel on the change of ends there.
Thankfully, however, Westmeath footballers were 'running away with it', in the process garnering a brace of Division 3 points without which promotion could almost have been written off after a mere two games. Indeed, this dog-eat-dog group could easily come down to scoring difference at the top and bottom, so ‘running away with it’ by a whopping 19 points was both timely and important.
Maybe it’s just a negative Westmeath trait, but several people I have spoken to in recent days ‘credit’ this very noteworthy win by Dessie Dolan’s troops to “Longford being very poor”. However, let us reflect that the same Longford had won the O’Byrne Cup just a few weeks earlier – albeit this once-prestigious tournament was undoubtedly devalued this year by a range of counties – and that this is an age-old rivalry (the neighbours had played each other 40 times already in the league prior to nine days ago – easily Westmeath’s most frequent opponents).
In truth, blue and gold-clad supporters are anything but happy when their south-eastern neighbours defeat them, even by the narrowest of margins. Accordingly, the manner and margin of the victory by the men in maroon and white is highly commendable, and a huge fillip ahead of a visit to TEG Cusack Park by our southern neighbours next Sunday.
Offaly and Westmeath have met on 22 occasions in the National Football League. Remarkably, despite the Faithful County – to its great credit – generally having operated at a higher level than us over the years, the roll of honour is very close in the rivalry, with Westmeath winning ten of the matches (including three out of the last four clashes) and our opponents the other dozen. It has to be added that five of our other seven wins came in the opening quintet of games between the counties played between 1928 and 1934.
There is also the not-insignificant matter of arguably our all-time low back on December 2, 1990 in Moate. And if I felt tortured nine days ago in Ennis, there are no words about the torture I felt as Offaly blitzed us 2-25 to 0-1 that horrible afternoon. Well there are actually – there are the exasperated words I wrote in a published ‘letter to the editor’ in this very newspaper by this ‘ordinary fan’ at the time, long before I commenced my second career.
The details of the Westmeath v. Offaly NFL games this millennium are as follows:
13/2/2000, Cusack Park, Offaly 1-7 Westmeath 0-8
31/3/2002, Tullamore, Offaly 1-11 Westmeath 0-12
23/3/2003, Tullamore, Offaly 1-13 Westmeath 1-10
6/2/2005, Tullamore, Offaly 2-11 Westmeath 0-14
10/4/2011, Cusack Park, Westmeath 0-19 Offaly 2-11
27/3/2016, TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-9 Offaly 0-9
25/3/2018, TEG Cusack Park, Offaly 1-20 Westmeath 1-14
27/1/2019, Tullamore, Westmeath 0-13 Offaly 0-12
The aforementioned 30-point annihilation still hurts those of us present at the 'Moate massacre', and while Westmeath will almost certainly never beat Offaly by 30 points, the latter’s flattering nine-point defeat when managed by John Maughan in last year’s inaugural Tailteann Cup semi-final in Croke Park will have deeply hurt proud wearers of the tricoloured jerseys – past, present, and future.
And the Mayo native magnanimously acknowledged the superiority of Jack Cooney’s men on the day, ignoring all form of prompted excuses re injuries, illness etc.
Another experienced inter-county bainisteoir Liam Kearns has replaced the former Carmelite College Moate star in parading the line in the green, white and gold bib, and his start in the job has been impressive with two wins to his name, away v Antrim and at home v Fermanagh.
There are definite signs that Offaly teams in both codes (especially in underage hurling) are making progress, and while dreams of regaining Sam and/or Liam may be very far-fetched at this juncture, an away win on Sunday would be joyously celebrated.
Kevin Maguire and co know that only too well! An intriguing game is in store, throw-in 2pm
The score, teams and scorers from June 19 last year follow:
Westmeath 3-22 Offaly 2-16
Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, Jamie Gonoud; James Dolan (0-1), Ronan Wallace (1-0), Sam Duncan; Jonathan Lynam, Ray Connellan (0-1); Sam McCartan (0-3), Ronan O'Toole (0-4), David Lynch; Luke Loughlin (0-2), John Heslin (0-8, 5f), Lorcan Dolan (2-1). Subs used: Robbie Forde (0-1) for Duncan (45), Ger Egan for Lynam (54), Alex Gardiner (0-1) for L Dolan (62), Nigel Harte for James Dolan (68), Kieran Martin for Loughlin (68).
Offaly: Paddy Dunican; Lee Pearson, Declan Hogan, Kieran Dolan; Rory Egan, Johnny Moloney, Cian Donoghue; Conor McNamee, Jordan Hayes; Bill Carroll, Ruarí McNamee, Anton Sullivan (0-2); Jack Bryant (0-1), Niall McNamee (0-6, 6f), Keith O'Neill (1-2). Subs used: Dylan Hyland (0-3) for Carroll (21), James Lalor for C McNamee (h-t), Mark Abbott (0-1) for Pearson (51), Cathal Flynn (1-0) for Bryant (51), Jack McEvoy (0-1) for R McNamee (64).