Westmeath celebrate fifth O'Byrne Cup success
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Westmeath GAA chairman, Paddy Wallace (left) congratulating Ronan Wallace, his Multyfarnham club man, following the O’Byrne Cup victory, together with Ronan’s dad, Frank Wallace.Image 2 of 9
Sisters Aoife, Zoe and Abbie Leavy, with Westmeath captain Ronan Wallace following the O’Byrne Cup success over Kildare. The three sisters are grandchildren of Frank Leavy, a Multyfarnham stalwart who was on the club’s 1956 winning team.Image 3 of 9
Sean Sheridan and Cara Corcoran with Westmeath captain Ronan Wallace.Image 4 of 9
Caulry's Ger Carroll (left) and Aidan Dunning celebrating Westmeath’s O’Byrne Cup victory with Ronan Wallace.Image 5 of 9
John McCauley, Westmeath Examiner photographer, with Ronan Wallace.Image 6 of 9
A proud and emotional night for the grandchildren of the late Liam Gavin, Harry and Charlie O’Shea, who are pictured with Westmeath captain Ronan Wallace.Image 7 of 9
Jack Connaughton, Tadhg Baker and Charlie Drumm, back in the winners; dressing room with the O’Byrne Cup.Image 8 of 9
Westmeath GAA chairman Paddy Wallace, with Frank Wallace, father of team captain Ronan, and Tom Farrell (a former Westmeath GAA chairman).Image 9 of 9
Tubberclair's Matthew Whittaker with grandparents Anne and Billy Connaughton, and Leah Duffy, following Westmeath’s O’Byrne Cup success.There were memorable scenes after Friday's O'Byrne Cup success in Cedral St Conleth's Park, Newbridge, where the Westmeath senior footballers produced a sensational fightback to defeat Kildare, 1-18 to 1-16.
It was a particularly proud evening for the Multyfarnham GAA Club, whose footballing star Ronan Wallace captained Westmeath to victory, and what a captain’s role he played. Driving his team on from wing-back, Wallace continued the kind of form which he showed for his club last year in the intermediate football championship as he scored 1-7 for his county.
He scored 0-17 for Multyfarnham last year against Milltown at TEG Cusack Park and his performance for Westmeath on Friday was nothing short of inspirational. New Westmeath GAA chairman, Paddy Wallace, a fellow club man of Ronan, was among those to congratulate the winning captain afterwards.
New manager Mark McHugh has instilled an indefatigable spirit in his troops, that much is already evident. They will need to improve, certainly and cannot afford the kind of lacklustre first half that we saw on Friday evening, but their second half performance was outstanding, scoring a total of 1-14 as Kildare managed just 1-8.
Central to Westmeath’s victory were some wonderful two-pointers from Luke Loughlin and Wallace. In the first half it looked like two-pointers could undermine Westmeath’s bid, but they simply refused to capitulate and will now aim to carry that form into the league next weekend when they meet Sligo in the first round at TEG Cusack Park.
It was the Lake County's fifth success in the preseason competition, their first since Jack Coney's side defeated Dublin in Parnell Park in 2019.