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Westmeath Football thread - 7 Like(s)
Replying To Temple56: "Before I start this rant I want to say I don't think Dessie should take the job again I think it would be great for a fresh face but I can't let people bad mouth him on here without the facts.
If John Heslin, Kevin Maguire, Ronan O'Toole, Sam Duncan, David Lynch, Andy McCormack, Charlie Drumm, and Senan Baker had all been available this past year, every one of them would have started. Dessie Dolan always picked the strongest fifteen he had at his disposal, and so did McCabe. The key difference is that McCabe's hand was forced by injuries and retirements within the squad. That's 8 players of this years team not getting game time if the established players were around.
The young players you're referring to never stepped up during Dessie's era to take a jersey from any of these established names. They haven't achieved anything yet neither keeping us in Division 3 nor driving us to a Tailteann Cup semi-final or final. In my opinion, if the players I mentioned above had been available, we would have stayed in Division 3." Dessie inherited a high calibre team from Jack Cooney. His task? Build on the progress of winning the Tailteann Cup. Westmeath had beaten an Ulster Championship winning side. They had earned the right to play in the All-Ireland Series. Dessie had a strong base to start from. In his first year, Westmeath were unlucky not to win a match in what was probably the toughest group. I'm not forgetting the Louth match in Navan. The result? 0 Championship wins from 4 matches. In Dessie's second year, we won Division 3 with our strongest team to scrape into the All Ireland Series. Things went belly up after that, losing to Wicklow was the lowest point in a number of years. The performance levels in the All Ireland Series were so poor. We went all out for the League and the Championship turned into a grind. The result? 0 Championship wins from 4 matches. Dessie never learned to rotate and build depth. Perhaps we would have won a Championship match under him if he used his squad? This has had a detrimental effect on the future of the team. Trusting the same players too much backfired. The younger players never stepped up? There were plenty of younger players brought in this year that showed they were more than good enough. And people want Dessie back!!
iarmhiabu (National) - 02/09/2025 12:55:47
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Westmeath Football thread - 5 Like(s)
Replying To lakecounty90: "Are you for real ?
Best young forward we have produced since Dessie
Mark my words, he will be back with a bang" A Harlem Globetrotter style gaelic football documentary film coming soon on Netflix. Temple of the Kings Hogan Stand resident Lake County90 tells the story of the extraordinary and iconic Caulry team. We follow Caulry's rise from absolute obscurity to become the most swashbuckling club team in gaelic football. The documentary details how a group of supremely talented young footballers from a small rural area in County Westmeath captured the dreams and aspirations of fans of all ages with their mind blowing skills. The most wanted manager in the game, Pat Flanagan shuns several offers to stay at the club and leads a new generation to ultimate glory.
iarmhiabu (National) - 24/03/2025 16:55:46
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Westmeath Football thread - 4 Like(s)
Replying To iarmhi_an_mhaith: "I thought McHugh had joined Corduff in Monaghan as a coach. If he's to come in as Westmeath manager you would want him to be attending games and casting the net as wide as possible for potential new players. Hard to see this happening if he is coaching another team.
Hard to see where the new manager will come from. I would hold judgement on Paddy Dowdall until later in this championship, now that he no longer has the strongest squad in the county (in my opinion). Ditto for Gary Dolan.
Recent U20 managers have not pulled up any trees either." One of our main rivals in Division Three for 2026 have beefed up their management team by bringing in a Senior Inter County manager for the last five years as coach. They are about to get two of the best S&C coaches in the country, right from under Meath's nose. They will have almost 5 full months preparation behind them. Meanwhile top of the agenda in Westmeath is tackling the issue of photographers attending matches and clubs sharing videos.
iarmhiabu (National) - 28/08/2025 22:10:46
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Westmeath Football thread - 3 Like(s)
Replying To jobber: "Are you for real.Name me 1 hurling club that doesn't have footballers.How many football clubs don't have hurlers?
Delvin is a dual club as are Raharney-Killucan ,Castletown-Malachys,Brownstown-St Pauls in all but name.
Is all of Westmeath north of Mullingar a small pocket." Thanks for clarifying that there is, in fact, only one dual club in the entire county, in Delvin. Raharney, Killucan, Castletown Geoghegan, St Malachy's, Brownstown and St Paul's are, in fact, single code clubs. I recognise that these clubs you listed in the small pockets have players who play another code with another club. There is a small amount of players playing both in comparison to players solely playing football I can tell you that much. Temple already mentioned that Castledaly, Moate, Tubberclair and Caulry all have no hurlers. Athlone and Garrycastle, you could count on one hand the number of hurlers within their squads combined. Temple listed off nearly as many football clubs as there is altogether in hurling that have hardly any hurlers. I doubt St Loman's and Kinnegad have many hurlers either. But yet the county board are suggesting to change the football structures to 'protect the dual players'. There wouldn't be anyone from these clubs Jobber has falsely listed as dual clubs on the committee?
iarmhiabu (National) - 27/06/2025 18:45:37
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Westmeath Football thread - 3 Like(s)
Replying To Bluelake: "If being against domestic violence makes me a snowflake then I'll wear the badge with honour" We're all against domestic violence but the man was never charged. Remember that.
iarmhiabu (National) - 23/09/2024 17:05:48
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Westmeath Football thread - 3 Like(s)
Replying To Chops: "Here we go again..... Mouthing about support. Not everyone has €100 to spend on 1 chance to win 1 prize. You need to realize that €100 can be a big pill for some to swallow. Look at Oosch, RKings or McKinney competitions pages, they can sell 50,000-60,000 €20 tickets in 3-4 days when they have a house draw and have chances of other prizes aswell. Roscommon sell a power of tickets to the diaspora in UK and States. Roscommons last draw had 61% of sales outside the county.
Why is my Facebook page not being bombarded with Bressie or Niall Horan or other local celebrities selling the hell out of it?? There was a marketing team hired to do this yet not seeing much drive for it. I'm getting at least triple the amount of ads for Tipperarys draw on my timeline." The marketing campaign has been a total disaster as far as I can see. The Tipperary draw last week was for a 4 bed house in Cashel or €300,000 cash alternative, more appealing for the average Joe than an apartment in Spain. It will be the fault of all the clubs of course, the clubs are being blamed already.
iarmhiabu (National) - 18/04/2025 14:18:50
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Westmeath Football thread - 3 Like(s)
Replying To Maroon Heaven: "Just on the supporters thing - I've not missed a home game this year and I travel down from Belfast. I remember we played Louth in Drogheda under Tom Cribben and we were flying. That day you'd be hard pushed to notice Louth fans at that match while Westmeath had packed the Grandstand. Boidu was in his prime.
Swings and roundabouts with support in all counties. Let's not throw the Baby out with the Bath water.
Good luck to both teams this year. It isn't easy having a county operating at both codes to a high level." Swings and roundabouts, I agree. But what are the county board doing to promote Football and Hurling? What are they doing in trying to engage supporters? Not near half enough. Meath allow supporters to kick a ball on the field at half time, they do photo shoots with young supporters and put them on the front page of their own match programme for home games. Meath post player and manager interviews after a game, most counties do this actually. You need a prolific social media presence for starters, connect with clubs, schools etc. The importance of fan engagement is undeniable.
iarmhiabu (National) - 06/03/2025 08:21:53
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
The lad that goes around collecting bottles and cans during and after games in Cusack must have the 10% deposit down on the mortgage at this rate.
iarmhiabu (National) - 17/10/2025 14:45:35
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Lockerroomboy: "Tubberclair to win by 20 points minimum, trust me on this one, st martins b team, barry o connor is the AFL player and Daihi waters ex wexford player, 100per cent not playing, they are 99per cent hurling and 1 per cent football club" Please, don't consume strawberries in large amounts.
iarmhiabu (National) - 13/11/2025 19:21:39
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Wmeath2: "How do you suggest they monetise it?" Strike a deal with Streamsport, the platform which Donegal are using to stream 50 games in a three year contract worth €250,000. Every club in Donegal will get a season pass and a copy of each of their games. The price you pay for one match will never be less than what gets you in the gate and there will be weekend packages. Everyone's a winner. Clubber is an excellent service also. If the Podcast brings much needed publicity to the Club Championships then it's worth keeping but why not make it better viewing than having a low profile panel giving their match predictions. Anyone could predict a St Loman's and The Downs to win this weekend. Get well known players / former players on to make informed opinions. Buddha didn't even know about Conor Dillon's injury and Conor one or Westmeath's best players. He informed listeners of a Kinnegad player that was gone travelling but yet he was playing that weekend. Why not have a Team of the Week to get people talking? I'm sure that would stir debate every week. What about doing up a weekend highlights package, fun challenges between Clubs with the winner getting a bag of balls? You could charge people the price of a coffee every month. The interviews with managers and players before and after games and at launches are good. This could compliment the streaming service. The whole Iarmhi TV brand could be so much better.
iarmhiabu (National) - 09/08/2025 18:52:34
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Disappointing defeat for St Loman's in a game they should have been winning at home. They missed a massive opportunity to win a Leinster title. Sam McCartan and TJ Cox were very good. Overall though, Ardee probably deserved it.
iarmhiabu (National) - 23/11/2024 20:37:55
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Augustine: "No surprises in the senior semi today. I was impressed how well shamrocks played in the first half. It was a great game of football. Downs hit a fair few wides in the first half that their forwards should have easily finished. Second half, shamrocks couldn't win any kick outs and the whole game just fell apart.
If Kinnegad played how they did yesterday, it could be a decent final." It wasn't great quality, Shamrocks made so many stupid mistakes. They played like a junior team in the second half. The Downs were playing in 2nd gear. It's scary how easy The Downs are blowing away teams. Kinnegad by 12, Tyrrellspass by 17, St Loman's by 12, Athlone by 15, Shamrocks by 6 in a game they didn't necessarily have to win and again Shamrocks by 11. The Downs are winning games by an average margin of 12, if they don't win the title this year it would be an absolute travesty. They will go well in Leinster which I believe they are looking at already.
iarmhiabu (National) - 12/10/2025 19:30:40
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To LoughLeneKing: "Leinster run? To do well at that grade in Leinster you need to be a middle of the road Senior team. And Garrycastle just aren't there... it was one of the poorest intermediate final(s) in a while.
I understand the enthusiasm through rose tinted glasses!
Garrycastle look to be a team that will yoyo up and down from senior to intermediate for a while.
Even the Longford Intermediate Champs are streets ahead. Manning Gaels beating Connollys who have 2 x Reynolds brothers who are decent inter County players..." Streets ahead? Go back to sleep. Longford's intermediate champions would get it difficult to beat our junior champions. The state of the Longford club championship, the Longford intermediate champions get hidings every year in Leinster. Rubbish standard.
iarmhiabu (National) - 29/10/2024 13:17:24
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Matthew: "Cooney would be a very backwards move. If he didn't win the Tailteann his previous reign it wasn't a success. I don't think he got them out of D3 either. Has he achieved anything at club level since…" If Paidi didn't win a Leinster, would his reign be seen as a success? If we are judging managerial reigns solely on silverware like you are doing, the answer is no. Cooney's reign should not be judged on the Tailteann Cup alone but on the development of the team since he took over. He built a competitive team, brought through players like Wallace and Sam McCartan and made Luke the player he is today. Dessie came in and undone all that good work, he didn't win a single Championship game with a decent enough side.
iarmhiabu (National) - 09/08/2025 23:38:32
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
There's a clear lack of leadership on the field. No Westmeath player stood up when it was counted. Someone to lead by example, to drive the others on, someone like the Wicklow 8 Healy. In the 41st minute of the second half, we led 2-12 to 1-7. By the 57th minute, Wicklow were awarded the penalty to make it 2-13 to 2-13. We completely switched off. Wicklow's build up play looked slow and laborious, yet they were able to punch holes in our defence with considerable ease. They threw the ball from side to side and waited for Healy to make the opening. He was our main tormentor, creating a large amount of Wicklow's scores with his powerful running. I think McCabe has done a good job in Year 1 considering the players that were available to him. It was always going to be difficult with so many new players becoming starters straight away. The previous manager left Westmeath football in the lurch. He persisted with the older players, many of whom were obviously past it when he should have been integrating younger players into the team. You can count on one hand how many players he brought through in 2 years.
iarmhiabu (National) - 16/06/2025 16:08:39
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Westmeath Football thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To OverTheHill85: "People turn so quickly, despite relegation it's been a solid year considering the player turnover. However, exit in the TC preliminary QF would definitely be a big blow. I don't know if we are good enough to win it out, on our day probably yes, but have we enough in the tank to now win four knockout games in a row; I think we might just fall short. I think people are overly dismissive off opposition such as Limerick, Fermanagh etc., Wicklow bet us last year when we were much stronger. It's a young team and they probably are been carried by 2/3 off the more experienced players which just shows the value of that bit of age. We are probably a Ronan O Toole or Kevin Maguire away from been in a Leinster SF or probably winning the Tailteann.
On another note are there any players showing well in the ACFL that may be worth a call up in the winter; unfortunately I think the age group from 23-27 was overlooked and the boat has probably sailed for a lot of those players who were good enough had they been blooded in time. We are probably looking at 19-22 year olds now who need to be brought in and developed for 2-3 years before they are really ready to compete." We won't be winning the Tailteann Cup, performance levels have dropped off. The lack of depth in the squad is showing game on game. Laois is probably 50 50, whoever wants it most on the day. Management have done well, building a squad with a bunch of new players takes time. A lot of the players never played at this level before this year. Dessie Dolan was a super footballer for Westmeath but I'd question his time as manager. There was no long term planning. Look at the age profile of the squad he inherited, blooding new players should have been a priority. Dessie was very loyal to the old guard and we're paying the price.
iarmhiabu (National) - 05/06/2025 23:20:18
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Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Lakers.for.Sam: "Have we missed a trick in missing out on the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund? Sporting centre of excellence in Cavan getting €19m funding, granted it's not exclusively GAA. Fitzgerald Stadium getting in the region of €6m. Clare GAA getting €3.2 for their centre of excellence, to name but a few. Almost conspicuous by our absence in the list of counties getting some allocation, seems like a missed opportunity, but I'm unsure of the criteria to be eligible. Hopefully our county administrators are all over this for the future" Big time, county board have been asleep at the wheel for years. Lagging way behind the rest of the counties.
iarmhiabu (National) - 05/11/2024 11:31:45
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Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Bluelake: "That's the end of Kinnegad. Really poor especially in the second half. I'd be fairly confident Athlone will beat them and shamrocks will probably beat them too." In fairness to Kinnegad, they were the better team in the first half. They easily could have been at least 10 up at half time. How many goal chances can one team butcher in 60 minutes? My 76 year old mother would have finished better!! The points Heslin and Dempsey kicked in the second half were unbelievable. They won the game for St Loman's. Geoghegan, Plunkett and Regan were good. The Kinnegad team is lacking in quality scoring forwards to win big games. This has proven to be the case on so many occasions. Kinnegad had a very effective game plan built around a strong defensive structure which St Loman's struggled to break down but the new rules has wiped Kinnegad out. St Loman's didn't have to work desperately hard yet they won by 9 points. The Downs already beat Kinnegad by 12? The one team you would fancy to put it up to The Downs and St Loman's before a ball was kicked. It's a two team championship after two rounds of matches!!
iarmhiabu (National) - 10/08/2025 21:31:32
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Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Lockerroomboy: "Doubt very much they will play" As if St Martin's are going to make 10 changes, who are you trying to fool? Tubberclair are really up against it, I am hearing this is a well conditioned Wexford team. A ex AFL player and a former Wexford captain in midfield.
iarmhiabu (National) - 13/11/2025 11:12:08
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Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
We had 50 something new referees chomping at the whistle in the Annebrook at the beginning of the year. A countywide hunt for the next Paddy Collins. A new wave of referees that will benefit Westmeath G.A.A. for years to come. How many just signed up for the free gear? Nice bit of gear to be fair.
iarmhiabu (National) - 27/09/2024 11:47:06
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