Football and hurlers facing difficult league assignments

National Football League: Westmeath Footballers will make the long trip north to Derry next weekend for the second round of this year"s National Football League.Defending champions, Derry will be hard to beat especially at home and with players like Brian McGuigan, Paddy Bradley and newcomer James Kielty who came away with 1-2 against Mayo in the first round they will prove stern opposition.Westmeath will need to be able to repeat the good hardworking performance they produced against Galway, but will need to be able to make better use of the ball up front if they are to come away with anything from this fixture. A win for Westmeath will throw this division wide open. Westmeath will be slightly weakened by the loss of Paul Bannon (injured) but if they can lift their performance there is no reason why Westmeath cannot win.Leinster Under 21 Football ChampionshipWestmeath started off their campaign in this competition with a convincing win over near neighbours, Offaly last Saturday in Tullamore. Westmeath fielded a strong team which had quite a few senior faces in its midst and even though we played against a strong breeze in the first half we had an 0-8 to 0-2 point lead at the break.The start of the second half saw an Offaly resurgence but Westmeath picked up the pace again and came away with an eleven point win, helped in no small terms by the fact that John Connellan came away with a personal tally of eight points and contributed heavily to numerous others. The final score was 0-19 to 0-8 in favour of Westmeath.National Hurling LeagueWestmeath hurlers have their first fixture in the Allianz National League next weekend against Offaly in Mullingar, by virtue of the fact that last Sunday"s first round clash with Antrim was called off at the last minute. This will be a tough encounter as Offalym who were relegated last year, will feel they have a point to prove and with some of the experienced players like Brian Carroll, Ger Oakley and Rory Hanniffy still in the side they will feel confident. Westmeath on the other hand will come to this game with a win in the Kehoe Cup Final behind them and will be looking to Andrew Mitchell, Brendan Murtagh, and Darren McCormack for leadership with the hope of claiming a victory and their first two points in the newly formed Division 2.Westmeath andOffaly looking backWhile these two sides haven"t met competitively very much over the last number of years, hurling in both counties has continued to flourish. Westmeath hurling took somewhat of a tumble in the late 80s after a few very successful years during which we lifted the All Ireland "B" Title in 1984 losing out narrowly to Galway in the All-Ireland Quarter final, but the most disappointing blow for Westmeath hurling was the disallowing of Michael Cosgrove"s goal (square ball) in the 1986 National League Quarter Final against Kilkenny. This was arguably the best all round team that Westmeath ever produced, with players like Sean Greville, Ger Jackson, Michael Cosgrove, and David Kilcoyne.It"s ironic that the current team which has been extremely successful over the last decade, winning two Christy Ring Cup titles and gaining promotion to the newly formed Division 2 of the National Hurling League has major resemblances to the great team of the 80s, the Greville brothers (sons of Sean), the Kilcoyne brothers (sons of Davids), Killian Cosgrove (Michael"s son), and Robbie Jackson (Ger"s son) all mixed in with some of the most talented bunch of lads to appear on the hurling scene for a while.The hard work being done at underage level within the county is now beginning to show progress, with the success of our Under 14s in the Tony Forrestal Cup in 2007. This team will now be playing in the Arrowbaun tournament in Tipperary this year with the likes of Kilkenny, Cork, Galway etc. This is a wonderful achievement for Westmeath and hopefully we will be in a position to challenge for All-Ireland minor honours in the near future.The current decade may not have brought much in the way of success for Offaly hurlers, but indications are that The Faithful County are improving again.After emerging from the doldrums in the 1980s, Offaly enhanced their reputation as one of the most stylish hurling counties in the country in the 1990s, and now they face the challenge of joining the elite once more. Current manager, Joe Dooley was one of the stars on Offaly"s most recent All-Ireland winning team in 1998, when they famously progressed through the "back door" to regain the Liam McCarthy Cup. Of course, Joe"s brothers Billy and Johnny - who managed the Westmeath hurlers last year - also shared in that triumph.They were also among the team"s star players in 1994 when Offaly won the All-Ireland final with a sensational comeback against Limerick.Those teams were inspired by the heroes from the 1980s, who under coach Diarmuid Healy and manager Andy Gallagher won the county"s first ever Leinster SHC title in 1980 and followed up with All-Ireland victories over Galway in 1981 and 1985.Leinster Club Hurling League 2009The fixture dates for the Leinster Club Hurling League 2009 are as follows:Senior/Intermediate/JuniorRound 1- 8th April, Round 2- 13th April, Round 3- 22nd AprilQuarter Finals- 6th May, Semi-Finals - 13th May, Finals - June 1st Bank Holiday MondayLester Ryan, Leinster Projects Officer is responsible for managing this project. Planning for the league is already underway since early January. Lester, will have further details later. Last year we had 112 clubs participate. We would hope to build on this number in 2009. In this regard we"d appreciate if all counties would give Lester their full cooperation and support throughout the rollout of the competition.Club WebsitesIf any GAA club is interested in a GAA.ie Hosted Site under the official GAA banner e.g. clubname@countyname.gaa.ie please note the following procedure:1. Send a email to site-request@gaa.ie, SUBJECT 'Site Request'2. Enclose the following -  name of adult officer, club crest in JPEG, club contact details, club colours.3. The email should be sent by the secretary or another authorised club official. Websites will only be provided through the control of an adult club officer and not directly to an unauthorised club member without county level authorisation.The IT Contact is Declan Fanning at Croke Park. For more information - dfanning@admingaa.ie There have been no charges to date for website hosting over the past five years. The GAA sites are being upgraded and all info on the current ones will be migrated across.Lá na gClubannaAs this is the 125th anniversary of the GAA, there has been a day set aside for all clubs in the country to organise something in their area to mark this occasion, as was the case in the centenary year1984. The day set aside by the GAA is Sunday, May 10 so start planning now and let"s all have a most enjoyable day to remember.Referees" MeetingA meeting of all referees will take place in Cusack Park on Tuesday, February 10 at 8pm. All referees are asked to attend.Westmeath GAADevelopment LottoThe numbers drawn last week were 6, 8, 25 and 30. The jackpot was not won and there were two Match 3 winners, Gavin Dooley C/O St. Oliver Plunketts GAA, Holiday Fund C/O Loughnavalley GAAResultsUnder 21 HC "08 Final (13 aside): Castlepollard 4-13, Crookedwood 1-11.Intermediate Cup Football Quarter-Finals: Rosemount 0-14, Milltownpass 0-6; Maryland 1-13, Tubberclair 0-13.WebsitesSenior: http://www.westmeathgaa.ie/Minor: http://coistenanog.westmeath.gaa.ieContactI can be contacted by phone on 044 9666476, 087 2777987 or by email on paddreilly@eircom.net