Two major tests for county’s flagship teams next Sunday
Westmeath’s two senior managers, Jack Cooney and Shane O’Brien, are likely to have contrasting feelings as they prepare for their first and second National League outings in Navan and Waterford respectively.
The football bainisteoir will need very little motivating ahead of a whopping 31st encounter with Meath in Páirc Tailteann, a lifetime spent living on the Royal County border ensuring that he will be mustard keen to avoid ribbing from his eastern neighbours if the home team record their 24th win in this age-old fixture.
Looking ahead to the Meath match, Cooney said: “Any team that’s coming down from Division 1 is going to be a tough start. Obviously, they’ve been playing at a perceived higher level the previous season and they would have learned a lot up there. There’s no doubt they’ll be overwhelming favourites. It’s a good game to start with and even though it’s an away game for us in Navan, it’s a pity that supporters won’t be able to go as it would have been a nice opener for the league.”
Cooney was encouraged by the “great energy” within the panel since the players returned to collective training, stating: “They definitely enjoyed the time out as they were able to get on top of any niggly injuries that they were carrying over from last year. Inter-county players don’t normally get that kind of time off. So, from a players’ perspective, it has been a very good thing for them to have that time off.”
Thankfully, the Meath championship hoodoo was demolished in no uncertain fashion almost six years ago in Croke Park. The two undoubted stars of that marvellous – and long overdue – victory are still key components of the maroon and white-clad side which will make the relatively short journey to Navan for next Sunday’s game (throw-in 3:45pm).
John Heslin (whom my spies tell me was “on fire” in an in-house game in Kinnegad last Saturday week) and Kieran Martin (a stalwart of the side for over a decade now) have still a lot of football left in them and they will again be expected to drive the visitors’ effort against Andy McEntee’s charges.
While Cooney has deliberately added young players to the panel to get them accustomed to what it takes at this very high level, it would seem unlikely that there will be dramatic changes from the side which fared very satisfactorily against the all-conquering Dubs last November in Portlaoise.
Indeed, while it is a very indefinite science, that 11-point Delaney Cup quarter-final loss compares very favourably with the 21-point hammering endured by the men in green and gold two rounds later in the decider. The events on Jones’ Road on June 28, 2015 ensured that any inferiority complex has vanished from Westmeath dressing rooms (remember them?) when Meath footsteps pass by. Accordingly, a positive result is very achievable.
Conversely, a positive result in Walsh Park seems extremely unlikely earlier in the afternoon when the hurlers face Waterford (throw-in 1.30pm). The small few handfuls of us in TEG Cusack Park last Saturday were honoured and privileged to have been let in when ‘ordinary’ fans weren’t, but the match was a deeply unpleasant spectacle for Lake County Gaels. Indeed, live television coverage meant that a 30-point mauling at the hands of Galway (who fielded around two thirds of their top XV) was beamed into the sitting rooms of startled viewers.
Of course, the home team was short some crucial players also and, without putting a tooth in it, Westmeath can ill afford to face any of the five hurling superpowers in Division 1A without all their best hurlers on duty. Last year’s defeated All-Ireland finalists will be of similar standard to the Tribesmen, so Shane O’Brien’s troops can expect no mercy from their hosts who lost their first game to Cork two days ago.
My already-low mood on Sunday wasn’t helped by a well-intentioned fellow-Mullingar man in a queue for takeaway lunches when he reminisced about Michael Cosgrove’s infamous disallowed ‘goal’ in Portlaoise in 1986 and the crowds which faithfully followed a splendid team around Ireland that time. Covid or not, Westmeath's hurling support base nowadays is miniscule.
A friend alerted me last week to some recently published thoughts from former GAA president, Nicky Brennan. In truth, Antrim’s sensational – and fully deserved – win against Clare in Corrigan Park disproves the Kilkenny man’s theory somewhat, but the gulf between Westmeath and the very top teams is enormous. That is not being negative. It is being honest.
Brennan opined: “The real challenge is how to get more teams to the top table in hurling – tier one, if you want to describe it that way – and many people have tried to do that. The investment has been very significant. That is one of the biggest tasks and I’m not sure it’s doable, to be honest, despite what people are saying. I’m saying that from a position where I wish it were different. But I’ve been through the mill on this, so I know where I’m coming from.”
Westmeath and Waterford have met on nine occasions in the National League between 1971 and 2020 with the Deise men winning on each occasion. In February last year, Liam Cahill’s troops won by nine points in TEG Cusack Park. Something similar would be highly acceptable in Walsh Park next Sunday to banish the memories of the hiding by Galway.
— Gerry Buckley