Trip to Tipp triggers some bad memories for Conway

THE very mention of an All-Ireland qualifier between Westmeath and Tipperary is enough to send a shudder down Paul Conway"s spine. The Tang native was a valuable member of the Westmeath side which famously won the Leinster Senior Football Championship in 2004, but a year later Conway was forced to retire from inter-county football following a horrific leg break during Westmeath"s narrow All-Ireland qualifier win over Tipperary. A disappointing 2005 campaign was rounded off when Westmeath were eliminated from the All-Ireland qualifiers against Clare in the following round, but it"s the Tipperary game which Paul Conway has bad memories of. The 33 year-old - who is now one of Tomás Ó Flatharta"s selectors and still turns out for local club Tang in the Westmeath Intermediate Football Championship - this week recalled that unfortunate leg break in the build-up to Saturday"s meeting of Westmeath and Tipperary in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers. 'It"s a very bad memory for me,' Conway admitted. 'That most frustrating aspect of it was that I"d just spent six months recovering from a double shoulder injury, six months off work to get myself right and proper to play for Westmeath again. I had played ten minutes or so in the previous match which we lost to Kildare in the Leinster quarter-final and was picked to start against Tipperary. 'I was actually having one of my better games for Westmeath and then I got injured. It was a fairly bad leg break. But as I said, the most frustrating thing was it came on the back of a major effort to get myself fit again. It was very disappointing and hard to get over, to be honest,' added Conway. Such was the nature of Conway"s leg break and, given his past injury woes too, the Tang man felt he had no option at the time but to retire from inter-county football. 'I"m delighted to be involved with Tomás Ó Flatharta and the Westmeath backroom team, but I have to admit it"s not the same as playing and representing your county out on the field. There is a big difference, to be honest. When you"re playing you rarely notice the effort and work put in by the management. I"ve noticed it very much over the past few years. It"s great to still be involved but it was difficult in the beginning. You still yearn for the buzz of playing especially when the lads run out in Croke Park, but that"s the way sport goes and I"m delighted to still have an involvement with Westmeath and, of course, to be playing with Tang,' said Conway. Conway refused to get drawn on Westmeath"s overall hopes for the rest of the 2008 campaign and said the Lake County will show Tipperary every respect ahead of Saturday"s game in Ardfinnan (3pm). 'Tipperary gave us a major scare in 2005. They are always very fit and strong. I expect them to give us an even more difficult game this time around after they cleverly switched the game to the much smaller venue in Ardfinnan. You can"t blame them for taking it away from Thurles which is a much bigger venue and pitch. They have to give themselves every chance of beating Westmeath and these are the things you have to deal with in championship football,' said Conway. 'We can"t afford to take Tipperary lightly. Our lads are a good group, though, and their application and hard work is immense. You can see their spirit on the pitch, they will give every ounce of energy until they have nothing left to give. There are plenty of big teams left in the qualifiers but Tipperary are as good as any of them. We want to take this season on as far as possible and we"ll give it everything against Tipperary,' he concluded.