Important year beckons for Westmeath’s underage teams
Gerry Buckley takes a look at what’s in store for Westmeath’s minor and U20 football and hurling teams in the coming months.
With the tragic news from Tullamore occupying all our thoughts and prayers in recent days, never mind the not-insignificant matter of Covid-19 always hovering in the background, many Westmeath Gaels are likely to have missed the draws for the Leinster minor and U20 competitions which emanated from Portlaoise this week.
While senior is the be-all and end-all for the elite counties in both hurling and football, underage success remains the breeding ground for flagship teams across the board, and especially so in counties like Westmeath with small populations.
Yes, trophies are important and how Westmeath fans long again to see an open-top bus parading down the Dublin Road into Mullingar, but a drip-feed of players of the requisite ability – and particularly the necessary willpower to put most of their social life in their 20s on hold – ultimately remains the purpose of underage competitions.
Lest we forget it, the Lake County won an astonishing minor/U21 provincial double to ring in the millennium 22 years ago, while small ball championship victories against Wexford (away in 2015) and Kilkenny (at home in 2016) are matches those of us present will simply never forget, albeit it does create an Oliver-like hunger for more!
A lot of eyes will be focused on the progress of Westmeath's young football teams. Every dog in the street knows that Jack Cooney’s senior squad has a hard core of very talented
players who date back to unlucky Leinster U-21 final (v Dublin) and semi-final (v Longford) appearances in 2010 and 2011, respectively managed by Brendan Hackett and Pat Flanagan (whose recent exploits with Padraig Pearses in the senior club championship deserve great praise).
It does not need Rachel Riley to calculate that those lads are now all 30/31/32 years old, nowadays considered in the ‘veteran’ class at senior level, given the enormous demands made on modern inter-county players. Maroon and white-clad fans long for a good run at minor and/or U20 level, having been spoilt somewhat a generation ago by the near-annual garnering of provincial (at least) silverware.
Joe Fortune seems to have made a solid start as senior hurling bainisteoir and word from the camp suggests that his outwardly-pleasant demeanour hides a steely and no-wishy-washy-excuses-allowed determination to make his mark in the Lake County. If Westmeath hurling is to remain in Liam MacCarthy Cup action on a long-term basis, it is essential that a conveyor belt of talented and physically-conditioned players are fed through to the senior team.
Let’s examine the draws in a little detail (naturally, all the following are subject to change):
Minor football
Vinny Cox (Rosemount) will again wear the maroon bainisteoir bib as Westmeath participate in a four-team group (there is another group of similar size and also a three-team section).
The winners in Westmeath's group go in to the semi-finals (on Wednesday, May 11), the runners-up into a quarter-final (on Wednesday, May 4), and the third team into a preliminary quarter-final (on Wednesday, April 27). The scheduled round robin fixtures are:
Laois (away), Saturday, March 12. Record to date: played 24, won 9, drew 5, lost 10.
Louth (home), Saturday, March 12. Record to date: played 20, won 7, drew 1, lost 12.
Dublin (home), Saturday, March 12. Record to date: played 22, won 3, drew 0, lost 19.
Minor hurling
Westmeath, under the tutelage of Noel Conaty and Tommy Gallagher, will compete in a six-team Tier 3, obviously guaranteeing a minimum of five games. The top two sides will qualify for the preliminary quarter-finals of the competition ‘proper’, scheduled for Wednesday April 23. Westmeath's round robin opponents are as follows below.
Meath (away), Saturday, March 5. Record to date: played 38, won 22, drew 2, lost 14.
Antrim (in Darver), Saturday, March 12. Record to date: played 2, won 0, drew 0, lost 2.
Down (in Abbotstown), Saturday, March 26. Record to date: played 6, won 4, drew 0, lost 2.
Derry (in Darver), Saturday, April 9. Record to date: never played.
Carlow (away), Saturday, April 16. Record to date: played 22, won 11, drew 0, lost 11.
U20 football
Damien Gavin has not experienced a lot of luck in his previous three years in the job, and it is not inconceivable that a full hand against All-Ireland champions-elect Offaly in TEG Cusack Park in 2021 might have propelled the Lake County to similar lofty heights.
The Garden County have proven to be consistently useful at U21/U20 level and this year will be no different when the 1995 Tom Markham Cup recipient takes his troops down to Aughrim (most likely). Dublin in Parnell Park await the round one winners on April 14.
Westmeath’s definite fixture is: Wicklow (away), Thursday, April 7. Record to date: played 6, won 4, drew 1, lost 1.
U20 hurling
Andrew Dermody looks set to be ratified at a Westmeath County Board meeting this Thursday night and the Castlepollard man will face into a difficult away fixture in Netwatch Cullen Park, with a mammoth task facing the winners in the second round with a trip to a Wexford venue to take on the Slaneysiders seven days later.
The round one match is as follows: Carlow (away), Saturday, April 2. Record to date: played 18, won 11, drew 0, lost 7.
Overall, there is a lot to look forward to and we all hope that there will be no unforeseen hiccups.