Cooney: ‘It was important to finish with a win’
When speaking to the media after Westmeath’s Allianz NFL Division 3 clash with Antrim at Corrigan Park, Belfast on Sunday, manager Jack Cooney had just witnessed something of a Jekyll and Hyde performance from his charges, but he was all-too-aware that Limerick’s win against Fermanagh meant that the Lake County would be operating out of the third tier again in 2023.
“We were talking about it all week, even though some of today’s events were out of our control. We carried some disappointment from last week [a home draw with Fermanagh which could easily have been a crucial win] into the first half of this week,” the affable Coralstown/Kinnegad man stated.
“We won our first two games but were disappointed coming out of Louth in the third game losing by two points, although we had played well. Louth scored from 11 frees that day, and you wouldn’t be happy about that.”
Referring back to Sunday’s four-point win against the Glensmen, the bainisteoir continued: “In fairness, Antrim opened us in the first half and created goal chances, as did we at the other end.
“We were calm at half-time and had patience. We sorted our kick-outs and in the third quarter we started controlling the game, we got a grip on it.
“Going into the championship, we showed grit and quality in last 25 minutes of this game which was important. It was important to finish the league with a win.
“The backs in particular were good in the first half, and when the forwards got going they worked well.”
When it was put to him that the introduction of Luke Loughlin on the change of ends had livened up the attack, he responded: “Yeah, Luke is a great fella. He has such talent and plays with a smile on his face. He gave us loads of energy and always looks threatening on the ball.”
Returning to the league as a whole, Cooney stated: “We used 29/30 players overall. That is very encouraging, and plenty of young players want to play for the county. We’ve had five weeks on the bounce which is tiring mentally.
“It was a lovely day today and it was nice to play on firm ground, but we had some bad days, even playing in a storm. We are looking at Division 3 next year, and that might be good for new lads to get experience at that level. Division 2 can be an unforgiving place.”
Westmeath’s next competitive outing is a Delaney Cup quarter-final against Longford in TEG Cusack Park on May 1, an opportunity to avenge a very costly loss in the league at the same venue to Billy O’Loughlin’s charges.
Cooney concluded by saying: “We will take a few days off and re-set in the run-in to the Longford game. Hopefully, we’ll have injured players back, including Sam Duncan. His shoulder needs to be checked. That’s our focus now – win the first game.”