Fortune ‘happy with the exercise’ against Galway
“These Walsh Cup games are organised games and they are about getting game-time into young lads, and seeing are they up to it, and pushing on then for a few weeks before we go to Ennis. It would be great if we can add two/three players to the players we had last year.”
These initial post-match sentences in Ballinasloe last Sunday from Westmeath senior hurling manager Joe Fortune are likely to paraphrase similar thoughts from his counterparts in other Leinster counties, following a heavy defeat for the visitors which flattered the winners.
The Wexford native continued: “Let’s be honest, the step-up is huge to Division 1. A lot of the results mightn’t be good at this time of year, but we will be taking the positives out of the performances. I don’t think the scoreline does us justice for how hard we worked, but I’m really happy with the exercise overall.
“I’m not making excuses as Galway were the better team, but we don’t have the facilities yet to play enough hurling in daylight. We are begging for pitches and are grateful to Collinstown of late. We lost a week through the frost in December. The facilities will happen in time.
“Anybody who was here from Westmeath today would have to be happy with the endeavour and effort that was there. We tried some lads who weren’t part of the senior panel last year, a lot of them coming out of minor, some of them still U20,” he added.
The Malahide-based teacher honed in on the fine margins which exist at the elite level of hurling: “I thought we had chances in the first half to push on. Niall (Mitchell) went through and could maybe have goaled himself, but he passed it and the ball was dropped. These are small little margins.
“At this level, you don’t get an extra second. We spoke about that in the dressing room. You might have got an extra second last year in Division 2. They got a goal just before half-time and that just took the gloss off the work we had done, but I was really happy with the effort in the first half.
“We stood off a little bit more in the second half. Maybe the legs were gone a little as we’re going through a hard block of training at the moment. Darragh Egerton was outstanding today and just made one simple mistake and then, bang, they cut inside and get the goal out of it.”
As ever, Killian Doyle led the way in the scoring stakes and the bainisteoir lauded his joint-captain: “Killian is a real leader in the dressing room and it comes from the family in Raharney. It’s been a tough week for the people of Raharney.”
Fortune finished on a positive note when asked about his two most high-profile absentees on the day. “Davy Glennon will be back. He’s a bit of work to do but will be back, absolutely. Tommy Doyle was just in America enjoying the Christmas and he’ll be back. We’ll see him against Antrim or Dublin,” he clarified.