National Forum

Westmeath Hurling thread

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To Claretandblue:  "Jack Duncan, Shane Ormsby and Shane Corcoran have barely 150 minutes of inter county football between them at championship level and they're quality inter county players in your eyes? Jack Duncan played 5 minutes vs Kildare and made one handpass."
Without Shane C Goals v Meath and Shane O performance at midfield v Kildare there would be no Leinster Final. You need to move with the times. It is no longer a 1 player game and requires a panel of quality intercounty players to have any chance. So do you believe that these players are not up to the standard. I think its a good job Mark is the Football manager.

Loughlenegale (Westmeath) - Posts: 41 - 12/05/2026 10:21:32    2672521

Link

I don't think it is fair to say it is delusional to note with optimism the amount of high quality young hurlers that we have coming through in the county.

Our young U20s performance was too lightly dismissed this year, with 13 of the players that played in a properly competitive knock-out game with Kildare all underage again next year.

Colaiste Mhuire seniors had a comfortable win over the full Offaly schools combination on the way to reaching the last four in Leinster before losing a cracking game to Kilkenny CBC. The junior team got to a Leinster quarter final, with both the first and second years making it into the Leinster A semi-finals. When did we ever have this before?

And then our minors backed all that up when they more than mixed it with the best in Leinster (still waiting for the outcry).

And yes of course it will take until players are in their early 20's before they reach full potential but plenty raw 20 year olds have been properly competitive at Joe McDonagh level and I think it is a very fair comparison to highlight how well a number of our young footballers are doing at an even higher level.

As I've said too many times before, why we didn't do more to keep as many of our experienced players as we could is beyond me but even that isn't enough to explain our inept performance at the weekend. We need to stop using inexperience as an excuse and actually look at how we are playing, both as individuals but particularly as a team.

In my opinion we have a current squad full of fine hurlers and, after the weekend, I am not sure how anyone could claim that we are currently getting the most out of our resources. Regardless, deluded or not, I am happy that the future is still looking very bright to me.

Maroooned (Westmeath) - Posts: 17 - 12/05/2026 10:32:04    2672526

Link

Replying To Claretandblue:  "Jack Duncan, Shane Ormsby and Shane Corcoran have barely 150 minutes of inter county football between them at championship level and they're quality inter county players in your eyes? Jack Duncan played 5 minutes vs Kildare and made one handpass."
Presume u mean senior.
I want call out something didnt corcoran it start the last 3 4 games and multiple games subs this year inexperienced but it's barely 150 minutes.

Williams is top class hurler

Gaaforlife2023 (Longford) - Posts: 1304 - 12/05/2026 11:11:20    2672538

Link

This is a largely pointless argument between two extreme views one who sees everything as a bed of roses and the other who would be unhappy with John Kiely. What we need now is unity Kevin O Brien has been selected by board and clubs with a mandate of three years as far as I can see.

Nobody is universally popular and sure mistakes have been made but the reality is like it or not those experienced players are gone and not getting younger.If one or two are willing to recommit and are willing to conform to the ethos of the group welcome they are for their experience.

What we need now is to survive in Mcdonagh and search for some strong physical defenders in the championship who are willing to commit. Yes management need to implement a serious ongoing S&C programme all through the year and develop different tactical plans that dont involve sweepers when playing with a strong wind but people need to understand nobody is going anywhere at least in 2027 and Westmeath hurling needs unity.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1946 - 12/05/2026 11:26:13    2672548

Link

Well there's something seriously awry when only four from ctg on the panel against Laois, a club capable of mixing it with the best in Leinster. Naas in kildare have ten on the county panel, kildare are making the best of everything they got and giving a good account of themselves.
Why can't westmeath do that. I said this during the league last year in this forum if a change wasn't made in the league it would set back the county twenty years.

preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 833 - 12/05/2026 12:57:48    2672576

Link

Replying To preddan:  "Well there's something seriously awry when only four from ctg on the panel against Laois, a club capable of mixing it with the best in Leinster. Naas in kildare have ten on the county panel, kildare are making the best of everything they got and giving a good account of themselves.
Why can't westmeath do that. I said this during the league last year in this forum if a change wasn't made in the league it would set back the county twenty years."
What's management meant to do? Niall, Aonghus, Jogger, Liam V, Joey B, Robbie G, Cormac B, Noel C, all retired from inter county, none of those lads dropped, all gave great service, Ciaran O' Brien, Conor Murphy and David Hickey emigrated. Who else should be on panel who's not there and hasn't retired?

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2637 - 12/05/2026 14:00:04    2672595

Link

Replying To preddan:  "Well there's something seriously awry when only four from ctg on the panel against Laois, a club capable of mixing it with the best in Leinster. Naas in kildare have ten on the county panel, kildare are making the best of everything they got and giving a good account of themselves.
Why can't westmeath do that. I said this during the league last year in this forum if a change wasn't made in the league it would set back the county twenty years."
It goes like that sometimes where the expectation on teams to be good and or competitive does not match the quality of the players or strength of squad that is available at any particular time. The lack of a centre of excellence has and will continue to hamper the development of young players making the huge jump up to senior in both codes. Build that and you can start implementing coaching clinics and bring in u10 and u12 players to set them on the road of what's trying to be achieved for the county at senior level. Good coaching from who is running the centre will bring on club underage coaches by saying and showing these are the four or five basic templates we want ye working on in yer own clubs with yer younger players. So by the time the u14 development squads start the standard is a lot higher and you've a bigger pool of young lads to choose from. The county board needs to appoint a director of hurling with the mandate of this is what we want going forward. The more hurling and coaching at a young age the better. We can't change what we have now but we can get up the gears fairly sharp with a 10 year plan if all clubs and coaches buy into it.

2maroonjerseys (Galway) - Posts: 143 - 12/05/2026 14:09:49    2672597

Link

Replying To jobber:  "This is a largely pointless argument between two extreme views one who sees everything as a bed of roses and the other who would be unhappy with John Kiely. What we need now is unity Kevin O Brien has been selected by board and clubs with a mandate of three years as far as I can see.

Nobody is universally popular and sure mistakes have been made but the reality is like it or not those experienced players are gone and not getting younger.If one or two are willing to recommit and are willing to conform to the ethos of the group welcome they are for their experience.

What we need now is to survive in Mcdonagh and search for some strong physical defenders in the championship who are willing to commit. Yes management need to implement a serious ongoing S&C programme all through the year and develop different tactical plans that dont involve sweepers when playing with a strong wind but people need to understand nobody is going anywhere at least in 2027 and Westmeath hurling needs unity."
Agree its a pointless argument.
I have not complained on here about any management team prior to the current one so your John Kiely remark is unfounded. The record of the current management in most of its previous posts raised concerns for me. We have lots of problems but performances is the stand out issue. There are more than enough quality hurlers in Westmeath to easily compete at Jmc and get promotion from D2. Cant see how anyone can argue that point.

Loughlenegale (Westmeath) - Posts: 41 - 12/05/2026 15:50:41    2672628

Link

Replying To Claretandblue:  "What's management meant to do? Niall, Aonghus, Jogger, Liam V, Joey B, Robbie G, Cormac B, Noel C, all retired from inter county, none of those lads dropped, all gave great service, Ciaran O' Brien, Conor Murphy and David Hickey emigrated. Who else should be on panel who's not there and hasn't retired?"
How many of the Players above asked into the Panel. 4 of the above longer retired some going back to 2020. So just more pointless garbage.

Loughlenegale (Westmeath) - Posts: 41 - 12/05/2026 16:04:32    2672631

Link

Replying To Loughlenegale:  "How many of the Players above asked into the Panel. 4 of the above longer retired some going back to 2020. So just more pointless garbage."
Name the players missing from panel who should be on it.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2637 - 12/05/2026 17:50:50    2672669

Link

Replying To Claretandblue:  "Name the players missing from panel who should be on it."
Not going over all this again with you. Like all good students this time of year just go back over the notes. Its all about 20pages back.

Loughlenegale (Westmeath) - Posts: 41 - 13/05/2026 08:59:40    2672714

Link

Replying To Loughlenegale:  "Not going over all this again with you. Like all good students this time of year just go back over the notes. Its all about 20pages back."
Hurling for the County isn't compulsory and the demands on players are tough. There's no reservoir of unused talent out there. A pointless debate when we all know that the hurling management have to get on with the job with the group they have.

midfield9 (Westmeath) - Posts: 109 - 13/05/2026 16:25:57    2672822

Link

Replying To midfield9:  "Hurling for the County isn't compulsory and the demands on players are tough. There's no reservoir of unused talent out there. A pointless debate when we all know that the hurling management have to get on with the job with the group they have."
I agree. We have a pool of talent but it's not deep by any means... Some nice young hurlers coming up the ranks but it will be a while yet before they're ready.

To echo some of the points on S&C. Any hurler at county level has the ability. However in the current era, the athletic demands are higher than ever. I do not want to accuse anyone of being lazy. We do lack a depth of players to choose from for a start but also we are arguably lagging in S&C resources. Centre of excellence for a start is years away and we don't have an infinite budget or wealthy benefactor.

However, on the other side of the S&C argument. We have no problem producing footballers who are able to meet the physical demands at top level. They have more players to choose from though. Nonetheless is it partly cultural difference in training or a smaller pool of athletes to choose from? Some from column a and some from column b I guess.

gedupoutofit (Westmeath) - Posts: 208 - 13/05/2026 16:50:43    2672827

Link