Westmeath hurlers take centre stage after bleak spell for football teams

By Gerry Buckley

Let’s call a spade exactly what it is, in GAA parlance the championship is what really counts. What really, really counts as the Spice Girls might have sung.

In that regard, Lake County football teams have in recent weeks lost six out of six in the three grades – senior (one), U20 (two), and minor (three) – those ‘six of the worst’ containing some mediocre and downright poor displays. It is a worrying stat, given that Father Time has caught up with a handful of generational senior talents, and that even adequate replacements look extremely thin on the ground.

The good news is that, despite a long and worrying stretch keeping an eye on events on Sunday in Portlaoise where Louth eventually shook off Wexford, the seniors still have a reasonably good chance of making the Sam Maguire Cup. A win for Sligo (very unlikely next Saturday v Galway), or Down (less unlikely a week later v Armagh), or Kildare (very possible v Louth on Sunday week), or Offaly (virtually impossible v Dublin on the same bill) would doom Dessie Dolan’s men to the Tailteann Cup.

The other two Westmeath teams go into subsidiary competitions – not where they want to be. However, Damien Gavin and Eoghan Kevlihan still need to end their year in a positive manner. It makes Westmeath's 2000 double in those two grades (U21 and U18 back then) all the more remarkable. Westmeath fans were spoiled back then, and the long wait for underage progress has been hard to stomach, frankly.

As for the other alleged senior football championship out of which unfancied Wicklow dumped Westmeath last Sunday week, I witnessed Dublin strolling past once-mighty Meath in Croke Park on Sunday after the Westmeath camogie girls’ great win. Despite great sadness over the Wicklow defeat, I was again somewhat grateful that the carrot of playing in a Delaney Cup final had been appropriately chewed off by the men representing the Garden County (who came within one galling and loose kick at the death of adding Kildare to their list of surprise victims).

Just over 21,000 people attended on Jones Road in showery but reasonable weather, and assuming that a couple of thousand of those went through the turnstiles for the two camogie games, it makes sagas such as the four-game Meath v Dublin epic in 1991 seem like centuries ago.

I don’t have a handy solution, but the Dublin-dominated Leinster SFC has become a sorry mess. There is always more atmosphere at any Cumann na mBunscol game than at such one-sided affairs, and people simply vote with their feet. You wouldn’t envy Jarlath Burns in his role!

Meanwhile, following impressive championship openings by both the Westmeath U20 and minors, the county's senior hurlers are deservedly back in the limelight next Sunday in TEG Cusack Park when they face the perennially-difficult challenge of Kerry (throw-in 2pm) in the first round of the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Joe Fortune’s men experienced a topsy-turvy Division 1B campaign but, given the absentees and the quality of the opposition, it would be surely reasonable to opine that it was a satisfactory spring overall for Westmeath's flagship team in the small ball code.

As in football, the championship is king and, unfortunately, the marvellous win in Wexford Park last summer was not enough to retain Westmeath's spot in the Bob O’Keeffe Cup, Antrim scuppering that dream in emphatic fashion just a week later in Mullingar. However, Westmeath are now in a competition of equals, and it will be a tough challenge to make the top two of the six-team group to secure a spot in the final.

For now, it’s very much a case of ‘a game at a time’, with the men in the famous green and gold jerseys sure to make life difficult next Sunday afternoon for the home team (thankfully, the draw has dictated three games in TEG Cusack Park).

While no right-minded person would wish an injury on any sportsman, it has to be said that it is a boost for Westmeath that the multi-talented Shane Conway will miss the entire Joe McDonagh Cup campaign, manager Stephen Molumphy confirming same at his pre-championship press conference last week.

Of course, the Lixnaw maestro is far from the only classy hurler in the Kingdom’s ranks. There’s better news elsewhere on the injury front for Molumphy, with players such as Brandon Barrett and Colin Walsh back in the fold having missed much of the league.

There is seldom much between the sides and there is no reason to think that next Sunday will be any different. Any hint of complacency in the ranks of the maroon and white-clad outfit would be fatal. In a nutshell, anything but a win on Sunday would be a disastrous start, with fellow-midlands teams Offaly and Laois both coming into the competition in fine fettle, while Down (especially in Ballycran) and Meath are rarely easy opponents.

The previous championship meetings between the teams, in various guises, have resulted as follows below.

Westmeath v Kerry – past meetings

25/5/1975, Limerick, Westmeath 2-13 Kerry 1-12 (B)

24/6/1984, Thurles, Westmeath 4-13 Kerry 3-13 (B)

31/5/2003, Nenagh, Kerry 3-15 Westmeath 0-13 (Q)

14/7/2007, Cusack Park, Westmeath 1-14 Kerry 1-11 (CR)

15/5/2010, Tralee, Kerry 3-14 Westmeath 2-11 (CR)

3/7/2010, Croke Park, Westmeath 2-16 Kerry 1-18 (CR)

7/5/2016, Tralee, Westmeath 1-18 Kerry 1-13 (L)

30/4/2017, TEG Cusack Park, Kerry 0-20 Westmeath 2-12 (L)

20/5/2018, Tralee, Westmeath 2-12 Kerry 0-15 (JMcD)

25/5/2019, TEG Cusack Park, Kerry 1-21 Westmeath 2-16 (JMcD)

31/10/2020, TEG Cusack Park, Kerry 2-19 Westmeath 0-14 (JMcD)

17/7/2021, Croke Park, Westmeath 2-28 Kerry 1-24 (JMcD).

NOTE - B: All-Ireland SH ‘B’ Championship. Q: All-Ireland SHC qualifier. CR: Christy Ring Cup. L: Leinster SHC. JMcD: Joe McDonagh Cup.