Down and out: Westmeath draw very little comfort
Westmeath senior hurlers are facing a battle to survive in the Joe McDonagh Cup after failing to beat Down at Ballycran on Saturday. The draw gives them one point after three games, ending their hopes of progression and leaving them facing a crunch home game against Meath on Saturday week.
Westmeath led by 1-9 to 0-3 at the end of the first quarter, but conceded two goals before half-time and when Down’s Tom McGrattan completed his hat-trick in the second half, the home side looked the more likely winners.
Manager Joe Fortune said he expected Westmeath to fare much better in the McDonagh Cup given some positive displays in Division 1B.
“We are very hard on ourselves at times, and understandably so. We have not had a good Joe McDonagh Cup campaign: I’m the leader of the ship, I have to take responsibility for that. But the players realise that the result on day one (against Kerry) was on everybody. Our attitude wasn’t good enough. The results last week and today could have been different after that. But day one set us back some amount,” he remarked.
“That’s sport; it’s not because we don’t care. I said from day one, I will do everything I can for the team, but the last couple of weeks have not been good enough. I know that.”
Westmeath showed character to rescue a draw on Saturday as Tommy Doyle grabbed an equalising point at the death. Fortune praised the resolve shown in the end and felt Westmeath have endured a pretty torrid campaign to date.
“We are not getting much luck: losing Noel Conaty was a blow; we have lost Robbie Greville, and Killian Doyle is carrying an injury. We have lost Aonghus (Clarke) and Cormac Boyle. I could keep going on with the list,” he remarked.
Fortune feels the team have struggled since their poor performance against Kerry on the opening day.
“We know we weren’t good enough against Kerry – we got put to the sword and that’s what really hurt this group. It has kind of resonated itself over the last couple of weeks: you can have all the talk and all the chat, whatever. Last week we put in an okay performance against Offaly for 65-67 minutes and today was about character. This is a really tough place to come,” he observed.
The Wexford man was satisfied that new players coming through are having a positive influence.
“The strength in depth that’s there – I’m really happy with the players who have come in. I thought Darragh Clinton showed great character and got two important scores. The narrative will be about whether it’s good enough or not to come up here (and draw), but you see the passion that’s in Down,” he said.
“Do I think the result is good enough for where I expected this year to go? No. We now have two games left against Meath and Laois: the chance of winning the Joe McDonagh Cup is gone, whereas Down move on to their next game with a different attitude after getting a point here. There’s still a possibility for them.”