Very disappointing display as Westmeath lose heavily to Dublin

Dublin 1-31, Westmeath 1-14

A highly-rated Westmeath U20 hurling team trailed from start to finish against Dublin in a bitterly disappointing Leinster U20 hurling preliminary quarter-final played in pleasant conditions in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday, writes Gerry Buckley.

An unheralded metropolitan team were not at all flattered by their 17-point winning margin.

With the aid of a slight wind, Dublin got off to a blistering start with six unanswered points in the opening five minutes and, while Westmeath improved somewhat in the third quarter, they never looked like staging a Lazarus-like recovery against a sky blue and navy-clad outfit managed by former Westmeath senior manager Shane O’Brien. In truth, this was a real hammer blow to the small ball game in the Lake County following on from a senior/minor double-defeat at the hands of Offaly the previous day.

As stated, the Dubs powered into a significant early advantage with scores from Brendan Kenny (two – the first after 25 seconds), Jamie Conroy (after 55 seconds), David Purcell, Conn Rock and Conal O’Riain. However, Darragh McCormack had spurned a good goal chance at the other end in the third minute at the expense of a ‘65’ which David Williams struck wide.

The latter player opened the losers’ account in the seventh minute from a free, but Conor Groarke and Purcell quickly tagged on further Dublin points. They now led by 0-8 to 0-1, but Westmeath’s best player on the day, David O’Reilly scored a great goal under pressure in the 11th minute to give home fans real hope.

However, Dublin continued to pick off some fine scores with Purcell and Liam Garrigan adding points before O’Reilly showed his class with a great catch and point at the Dunnes Stores end. Conroy and Williams (a free) traded points but the winners were finding scores much easier to come by, and O’Riain, Eoin Keys and Purcell rattled over a hat-trick of quickfire points.

Kevin O’Brien’s charges finished the first moiety reasonably well by outscoring their opponents by three points (McCormack – with a goal as his target, O’Reilly and a Williams free) to one (O’Riain). Overall, however, a slick Dublin side had amassed a whopping 15 points from open play from 18 efforts in the first half, to lead by 0-15 to 1-6 at the interval.

A converted free from the halfway line by Williams just 45 seconds after play resumed was a boost, but Garrigan quickly doubled his tally at the other end. Very good points from Brian McCabe and O’Reilly had the deficit down to four points (0-16 to 1-9) by the 36th minute before Williams wasted a great chance of making it a one-score game when he surprisingly under-hit a wind-assisted ‘65’.

Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing and the energetic Peter Clarke soon swapped points. Four more white flags were shared by the 42nd minute via sub Neil Hogan (Dublin’s tenth scorer) and Conroy, and Williams (a free) and O’Reilly (a classy score) for the young men in maroon and white. However, Hogan doubled his tally, Purcell brought his total to five, before Ó Dúlaing was successful from his side’s first scoreable free of the afternoon, to leave Dublin ahead by 0-22 to 1-12 at the end of the third quarter.

There was no realistic way back for a previously undefeated side at this juncture. Despite Purcell surprisingly missing a great goal opportunity in the 49th minute, his team mates continued to find the range in impressive style and a further unanswered six points ensued, courtesy of Conroy (two, either side of a weak goal attempt by Shane Ormsby), Ollie Gaffney and sub Dylan Bannan (the Dubs’ 11th and 12th scorers respectively), Ó Dúlaing (a free) and Hogan.

Williams scored an injury-time free, to end a 20-minute scoring drought by his side, but Ó Dúlaing soon embellished Dublin’s huge points total with a well-taken goal. A point from a low-trajectory Williams free followed before Dublin (who had lost both their round robin games in a higher section) wrapped up a comprehensive victory with points from O’Riain (after a quickly-taken free), Bannan and Ó Dúlaing (another free).

Scorers – Dublin: D Ó Dúlaing 1-4 (0-3f), D Purcell, J Conroy 0-5 each, C O’Riain 0-4, N Hogan 0-3, D Bannan, B Kenny, L Garrigan 0-2 each, O Gaffney, C Rock, C Groarke, E Keys 0-1 each.

Westmeath: D O’Reilly 1-4, D Williams 0-7 (6f), B McCabe, D McCormack, P Clarke 0-1 each.

Dublin: Kevin Hogan; Conor Groarke, David Lucey, Cathal Kennedy; Brendan Kenny, Conor Dolan, Eoin Keys; Conal O’Riain, Jack Behan; Ollie Gaffney, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing, David Purcell; Liam Garrigan, Conn Rock, Jamie Conroy. Subs used: Conor Newton for Rock (h-t), Neil Hogan for Kenny (h-t), Dylan Bannan for Behan (52), Fionn Murphy for Garrigan (52), Ciarán Donovan for Newton (inj., 52).

Westmeath: Sean Jackson; David Maloney, Jack Murtagh, Conor Gaffney; Darragh Smith, Brian McCabe, Calum McKeogh; Rian Holding, Ivan Smyth; David Williams, Darragh McCormack, David O’Reilly; Conor Heffernan, Peter Murphy, Peter Clarke. Subs used: Shane Ormsby for Heffernan (25), Josh Murtagh for Smyth (h-t), Tom Flynn for Maloney (58), Cian Geary for Smith (inj., 60), Matt Shaw for Jack Murtagh (60+4), John Fry for Josh Murtagh (blood, 60+9).

Ref: Brian Kearney (Kildare).