Dessie ‘absolutely delighted’ with new Westmeath players

Gerry Buckley reports

Despite the slight disappointment of losing his first game in charge of the county he served with such distinction as a player, new Westmeath senior football manager Dessie Dolan was in upbeat form in Darver last Wednesday evening after the first round of the O’Byrne Cup.

When he spoke to the media after the game, the 2004 All Star stated: “The main focus tonight was to get a look at some of the lads who were on the subs bench last year, and some of the new lads that want to play for Westmeath. We left the Coralstown/Kinnegad lads off tonight as a mark of respect to Colm Murray and that meant a few additional changes.”

He continued: “The display of Danny Scahill was excellent for a young lad. For me, I’d see a lot of John Keane in him. I still have nightmares about John when he marked me for ten years in training! Senan Baker did well too. There’s loads of talent there. We have some players around the 30 mark and we need to look at some younger lads. It’s just to get a look at them.

“They’ve committed to training for the past six/seven weeks and they deserve their chance in the Westmeath jersey. It’s a great learning environment when you come up to Louth where it’s tough and it’s physical. They are very defensive, but very well organised.”

Unsurprisingly, the Garrycastle maestro announced that more new players would be looked at in The Downs in the second round against Wexford: “There will be nearly a fully-changed outfit for the Wexford game. We will be looking at the likes of Matthew Whittaker and Sean Leech. We will be giving these lads the opportunity to develop into senior footballers.”

An interesting addition on Wednesday was Skerries Harps forward Steve Smith. Laughter ensued when the bainisteoir stated: “We went into the transfer market, fair play to Frank Mescall! Steve’s brother Jack has been outstanding since he came to Westmeath and his confidence has grown.

“They are both sons of Peter who played for Mullingar Shamrocks and the county. We are certainly happy to have Steve on board. He kicked two lovely points in the first half.”

The jovial atmosphere was maintained when it was put to Dolan that ‘the referee had given a lot of soft frees’, and he responded with a wide grin by saying: “I don’t want to start going down the road of giving about referees, but it was frustrating by times. Some referees learn their trade in the O’Byrne Cup.”

Mickey Harte fielded a few more regulars than his counterpart, with Conor Grimes proving to be a match-winner. In this regard, Dolan concluded: “Grimes is an experienced player that we have all seen over the years, and I think maybe in the first half that he used his experience to good effect. He won a few good frees and then got the goal.

“It looked initially like he had been blocked and then, all of a sudden, the ball ends up in the back of our net. That’s the sign of a bit of experience, but it was a lucky goal.

“For our part, we found it hard to break down the Louth defence. Young players take a bit of time to figure all that out. A little bit of experience will help lads to create a free or set up a better opportunity.”