Footballers deservedly still in with a chance of progressing
Despite the wonders of modern technology allowing my lady partner and me to watch the classic Wimbledon men’s singles final live in mid-air en route to supporting the ‘girls in green’ in World Cup action in Australia last July, my mind was partially focused on Croke Park and wondering were Derry putting it up to Kerry in the All-Ireland senior football final.
A quick check on my mobile phone – the latest versions of which are quite a feat of modern technology also – during the stop-off in Dubai revealed that the Oak Leaf men had not only put it up to Jack O’Connor’s troops, but could – and should – have beaten them.
Fast forward eight months to Jones Road where I watched Derry, astonishingly now managed by out-and-out Tyrone man (with a brief liking for Louth!) Mickey Harte, edge out Dublin in a penalty shootout (there must be a better way?) to claim the National League Division 1 title. Even the most persuasive clairvoyant would have struggle to convince me that day that ‘little ol’ Westmeath’ would be in a position to eliminate Harte’s charges from the race for Sam by drawing with them in mid-June at a neutral venue.
The exact location of said neutral venue will probably be known to my readers (reader?) when they open this newspaper, but at the time of writing Cavan seems to be a favoured location [Páirc Esler, Newry has been selected as the venue].
This could easily host a double-header with Meath v Monaghan (Colm O’Rourke’s troops seem extremely fortunate to be in still in contention after a brace of horror shows v Louth and Kerry respectively) or Dublin v Mayo (very much a glamour tie at any stage of the championship, even with both sides already guaranteed qualification to the knockout stages).
However, regardless of venue or single/double-header status, Westmeath deserve support as they attempt to prolong their stay at the top table with a positive result against the third seeds whom every county wished to avoid prior to the draw being made, yours truly vehemently saying and writing same just a few short weeks ago. More about the Derry game next week, please God, but maybe just a few paragraphs to reflect on a highly creditable performance two days ago in an almost-packed TEG Cusack Park. Of course, the visitors did most of the packing!
The great irony is that the defeat effectively made no difference whatsoever to the chances of Dessie Dolan’s men progressing to the preliminary quarter-finals because of Derry’s shock – and comprehensive – loss to Armagh. Our defeat to the latter was a rare game for me to miss due to my grandson’s First Communion (some occasions, albeit very few, take precedence over following the Lake County!), but all reports talk of a flatness in the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds which didn’t augur well for the visit of Padraic Joyce’s troops eight days later.
Indeed, I will put my head on the block by confessing that I arrived in Westmeath GAA headquarters with very low expectations, but left with a very rare degree of satisfaction after another ‘moral victory’. Of course, the satisfaction grew with every Armagh score in Derry, which rendered the defeat to the other maroon and white-clad county more or less meaningless, as already stated, while naturally adding that the taking of a major championship scalp would have been a huge lift to all football boats in the county.
Particularly so, as the very strong suspicion remains that it may well have been the last time we will see a number of very loyal Lake County servants in inter-county action on their home pitch. They owe us nothing. Indeed, we owe them enormously for their immense dedication and the countless hours of entertainment they have given us.
At the outset, Dolan (where could we even start to thank him for all he has done for the county?) and his management team deserve great credit for a very structured and disciplined set-up which frustrated the Tribesmen virtually from start to finish. A tally of zero wides in the first half, and only three overall, is outstanding and shows that work had been done on the apparent wayward shot selection which galled loyal fans who had made the long trip to Armagh.
I have to further confess that a party piece of mine was taking off one of Dolan’s predecessors in the bainisteoir’s bib, whose post-match mantra invariably included, ‘when you are playing at this level, you get punished for your mistakes’. Of course, monotonous as it was to hear it, he was spot on! A costly error by Ray Connellan, in my opinion our most consistent player throughout a patchy, but ultimately successful, NFL campaign, was ruthlessly punished by the man on the pitch you least wanted to see intercept the Athlone man’s attempted pass to a static Charlie Drumm (who had a fine game). We were already raising the green flag in the press box from the moment that the controversially-signed Kilmacud Crokes maestro started his long and unopposed gallop towards the Dunnes Stores goalmouth. Even a brilliant shot-stopper like Jason Daly had no chance of keeping out Shane Walsh’s piledriver from close range.
I had accurately predicted a score of 0-11 for the home team prior to the game. It is seldom enough to win at this level, or indeed any level of football. With neither of the gifted St Loman’s Mullingar duo of John Heslin or Ronan O’Toole firing on all cylinders in attack, and subs of various durations such as Luke Loughlin, Stephen Smith and Kieran Martin also failing to score from play, a win was virtually unachievable. Galway needed Connor Gleeson to show his Gary Connaughton-like prowess with splendid late catches/fisted clearances from O’Toole and Sam McCartan respectively, but Westmeath can hold their heads up high.
It needed 18 points – which was so, so close to being 19 – to draw with Tyrone in last year’s third round robin game in Cavan.
We don’t seem to have the ammunition to get to that target this year, but it still feels great (despite three consecutive championship losses in 2024) to be very much in contention to progress next Saturday/Sunday week.
Accordingly, well done to all concerned.