Westmeath fancied to maintain unbeaten record against Treaty men
By Gerry Buckley
The old mantra, ‘a win is a win is a win’, was trotted around by many of the admirably-large contingent of Westmeath fans in Aughrim last Sunday afternoon circa 2.30pm.
An early throw-in time of 1pm for the Allianz Football League Division 3 game meant an earlier-than-usual rise for Lake County diehards, and in some cases a boost to the Wicklow economy for those who had overnighted in the picturesque Garden County. Some of the visitors to Aughrim would have also been in attendance for losses there. Hence the gratitude for a win, regardless of the beauty or lack thereof of the game itself.
For example, yours truly vividly recalls a 3-11 to 0-5 thrashing in Westmeath's last competitive match of the 20th century when Brendan Lowry was the visiting manager in December 1999 (before the leagues changed to a calendar year basis), and the long and silent journey home for myself and my passengers on what were almost entirely bad roads at the time.
It has been heart-warming to see decent Westmeath crowds at the three league games played in 2024, and with a 100 per cent record accumulated – albeit without coming close to the quality exuded in the three Sam Maguire Cup games last year – there is no reason to doubt that we will witness the welcome rarity of the home crowd outnumbering their away counterparts in TEG Cusack Park next Sunday for the visit of Limerick (back to a throw-in time of 2pm on this occasion).
Unlike their mega-successful hurling team, the Treaty County exponents in the big ball game tend to be poorly supported. Only a few handfuls of the throngs who travelled recently to Mullingar to support John Kiely’s troops are likely to make a similar journey to roar on Jimmy Lee’s charges. Despite being in Division 2 in 2023, they are joint bottom of Division 3 alongside Wicklow and Offaly, the latter somehow contriving to blow a nine-point lead in Tullamore last Sunday against Clare.
Dessie Dolan is too shrewd and experienced to allow any complacency creep into the Westmeath camp. As stated, his team has not been even close to its best to date in 2024, but a hat-trick of victories without the presence of generational talents in John Heslin and Kevin Maguire (whose second half introduction against Wicklow was a welcome sight, and duly preceded a trademark block by the Caulry maestro), is still a noteworthy achievement.
The pre-league favourites to emerge from what can often be a dog-eat-dog third tier were Down and Westmeath, and the evidence to date suggest the bookies (as usual!) may well be correct. However, there are four rounds remaining and shocks here and there will surely occur. Hopefully, one of these will not be in Mullingar on Sunday when Lee’s team visit the Lake County for the first time in 21 years.
Their side in the early noughties was top-class, backboned by several U21 players who had shocked reigning All-Ireland champions Westmeath in the semi-final in 2000 (a day when Niall ‘Bressie’ Breslin came on as a sub for the losers).
Westmeath have a proud unbeaten record against Limerick in the National Football League, with 12 wins and a draw garnered from the 13 previous clashes. The seven games played this millennium are listed below.
Ironically, one of them came to my mind last Sunday night watching Allianz League Sunday on RTÉ2 when the analysts honed in on a fabulous catch over his own crossbar by Tyrone ‘keeper Niall Morgan. This scribe was Pat Flanagan’s stats man in 2011 (unpaid, let me hasten to clarify, as backroom teams now seem to come at a huge cost) and a late piece of similar fielding (more spectacular, in fact) by the incomparable Gary Connaughton in Newcastlewest, in what was a very tight game, is something I will never forget. Indeed, to keep that theme going, it needed a Darragh Ó Sé airborne masterpiece on his own goal line to deny Limerick the Munster senior crown in 2004.
Westmeath v Limerick, recent NFL encounters
29/10/2000, Cusack Park, Westmeath 3-17 Limerick 0-8
2/3/2003, Cusack Park, Westmeath 0-12 Limerick 0-9
4/5/2003, Croke Park, Westmeath 2-12 Limerick 1-14
3/4/2011, Newcastlewest, Westmeath 0-14 Limerick 0-12
2/3/2016, Limerick, Westmeath 3-14 Limerick 0-7
12/2/2017, Limerick, Westmeath 1-18 Limerick 0-12
12/2/2022, Limerick, Westmeath 1-12 Limerick 1-6.