Westmeath Football thread

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Any thoughts on Junior 1 final? Will St Josephs finally get over the line or are The Downs just too strong? Hard one to call. Greengrass1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 107 - 19/10/2026 15:58:35 2697915 Link
Replying To Greengrass1: "Any thoughts on Junior 1 final? Will St Josephs finally get over the line or are The Downs just too strong? Hard one to call." Do Joseph's go up Intermediate automatically as downs are a second team? Im assuming Joseph's will be our representative in Leinster either way... Highball_Lowball (Westmeath) - Posts: 20 - 19/10/2026 17:04:20 2697925 Link
Replying To Highball_Lowball: "Do Joseph's go up Intermediate automatically as downs are a second team? Im assuming Joseph's will be our representative in Leinster either way..." The Downs second team would go up to intermediate if they win, as their first team plays in the senior championship there would be no collision to prevent them from going up. St Joseph's are already confirmed as the Westmeath reps in the Leinster Junior football championship and will play the winners of Curraha (Meath) and Ballymore (Longford) in the quarter final. Ballymore actually lost their junior final but Clonguish B beat them so can't go on and represent in Leinster. BadgerDog (Westmeath) - Posts: 129 - 19/10/2026 19:28:09 2697946 Link
Replying To Highball_Lowball: "Do Joseph's go up Intermediate automatically as downs are a second team? Im assuming Joseph's will be our representative in Leinster either way..." Second teams can't play in Leinster but they can play in Intermediate in Westmeath so The Downs could win Junior 1 and not play in Leinster but still play Intermediate level in 2027 Darragh (Westmeath) - Posts: 386 - 19/10/2026 22:52:36 2697971 Link
If Shandoangh win at the weekend, Can Will Scahill play in the Leinster campaign? I have heard he can as some counties allow u18s play to play. Temple56 (Westmeath) - Posts: 672 - 20/10/2026 12:46:14 2698003 Link
Replying To Temple56: "If Shandoangh win at the weekend, Can Will Scahill play in the Leinster campaign? I have heard he can as some counties allow u18s play to play." Yes, as far as I'm aware the rule for Leinster is u18s can play, its only a by law in Westmeath that stops them. Same thing applies if teams enter the Leinster league at the start of the year WestmeathGael1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 13 - 20/10/2026 14:45:23 2698018 Link
Replying To Temple56: "If Shandoangh win at the weekend, Can Will Scahill play in the Leinster campaign? I have heard he can as some counties allow u18s play to play." Yes he will be allowed play. BadgerDog (Westmeath) - Posts: 129 - 20/10/2026 14:49:17 2698019 Link
Yes he can PowellJohn3 (Westmeath) - Posts: 112 - 20/10/2026 15:19:09 2698024 Link
Replying To BadgerDog: "Yes he will be allowed play." How does this work ? A_Chairde (Westmeath) - Posts: 402 - 20/10/2026 16:19:39 2698032 Link
Replying To Temple56: "If Shandoangh win at the weekend, Can Will Scahill play in the Leinster campaign? I have heard he can as some counties allow u18s play to play." No need to worry about it. I cant see them winning. Meridian (Westmeath) - Posts: 742 - 20/10/2026 16:23:26 2698033 Link
Replying To Meridian: "No need to worry about it. I cant see them winning." Well it matters to Milltown too. I'm sure they'd love to have Eoin Donohue playing. jamsie (Westmeath) - Posts: 538 - 20/10/2026 16:33:04 2698036 Link
Replying To A_Chairde: "How does this work ?" The rules for Leinster Gaa club competitions is a player has to have celebrated their 17th birthday before January 1st of that current championship year, so basically on last year of minor (u-18) to be eligible , whereas the rule in Westmeath is a player has to be 18 or over (u-19) to be eligible. I know that Westmeath teams that have entered Leinster competitions as a pre season type thing have been allowed to play 17 year olds but then could not play them in Westmeath competitions later that year. However, I have spoken to someone since earlier and they said that Local County bye laws take precedence in scenarios like this. He is under the impression a player can only play in the provincial campaign if they are legally eligible to play in their own county championship first. But we should really be focusing on the actual final and letting the top table figure these things out if they need to be. BadgerDog (Westmeath) - Posts: 129 - 20/10/2026 16:51:30 2698039 Link
Replying To Meridian: "Not sure where you got that from what I said. I'd be pretty sure that 7 or 8 Clubs have people playing with them who live in the Mullingar area. Does that make all of them town Clubs? Absolutely not. A town Club is a Club who has their Club grounds within the town. Mullingar Shamrocks, St Loman's and St Oliver Plunkett's. Cullion would be the next nearest but I still wouldn't classify them as a town club and I certainly wouldn't classify The Downs or Shandonagh as town Clubs." You can't really argue that a club isn't a town team when a large portion of its players come from the town itself. The fact that its grounds are located on the outskirts of the town doesn't change that. Shandonagh's pitch is roughly 2km from the town. How many of Shandonagh's players are actually living in Ballinea? When you search The Downs, it comes up The Downs Mullingar on Facebook. The proof is in the name. If Kinnegad's club grounds was in Coralstown and not Kinnegad, they wouldn't be a town team? bananaskin (Monaghan) - Posts: 52 - 20/10/2026 17:11:37 2698042 Link
Budda mentioned on the podcast that a Roscommon lad has transferred to Milltown having lived in the area for a while and is in contention to be involved in the final. Did Kavanagh go ahead with appeal - not sure how it could be overturned unless on a procedural matter. He's a big loss no question. Shandonagh would want to get the match ups right from the start, not like the semi final. In the junior you'd imagine it's St Joseph's to lose although they will be under a little bit of pressure to get the job done this time. I think they have the forwards to win it. BigSur (Westmeath) - Posts: 1272 - 20/10/2026 19:18:16 2698052 Link
Replying To Meridian: "No need to worry about it. I cant see them winning." I stand corrected but think they have not beaten Shandonagh once in previous 6 or 7 Championship meetings. fogonthetyne (Westmeath) - Posts: 15 - 20/10/2026 20:31:18 2698063 Link
Replying To jamsie: "Well it matters to Milltown too. I'm sure they'd love to have Eoin Donohue playing." He was solid today against Edenderry. Has potential to be a future county full back. Played centre today and didn't look out of place against a physical Edenderry team ExiledCuCu (Cavan) - Posts: 316 - 20/10/2026 21:12:14 2698066 Link
Its a crazy rule in westmeath, one of only two counties in ireland i believe, it's been on the table at westmeath convention to change the rule over last couple of years but top table have the votes and one or two are very vocal against the change at the top table. Fixtures are the issue and nothing to do with welfare of players, as the spin will go. This was evident by minors playing two games in two days hurling and football this year. The Downs could have a number of the winning minor team involved in leinster, a big boast to the training panel even if they don't break into team. Not sure about LLG but plunketts have a good few that would be now available to play leinster,most likely Ahern will start. The rule should be same in every county for minor players. Either they all allowed play or none allowed play. Losing to many players after u17 county. Upforthegame23 (Westmeath) - Posts: 186 - 21/10/2026 07:24:20 2698071 Link
Replying To BadgerDog: "The rules for Leinster Gaa club competitions is a player has to have celebrated their 17th birthday before January 1st of that current championship year, so basically on last year of minor (u-18) to be eligible , whereas the rule in Westmeath is a player has to be 18 or over (u-19) to be eligible. I know that Westmeath teams that have entered Leinster competitions as a pre season type thing have been allowed to play 17 year olds but then could not play them in Westmeath competitions later that year. However, I have spoken to someone since earlier and they said that Local County bye laws take precedence in scenarios like this. He is under the impression a player can only play in the provincial campaign if they are legally eligible to play in their own county championship first. But we should really be focusing on the actual final and letting the top table figure these things out if they need to be." Anyword on Westmeath changing the rules back to allow last year of minor (u-18s) to play Senior/Intermediate/Junior? ELB7 (Westmeath) - Posts: 4 - 21/10/2026 07:28:20 2698072 Link
Rumours that county seniors have restarted ? Any new players asked to take part ? Marooned2019 (Offaly) - Posts: 21 - 21/10/2026 09:06:02 2698077 Link
Replying To ExiledCuCu: "He was solid today against Edenderry. Has potential to be a future county full back. Played centre today and didn't look out of place against a physical Edenderry team" Really good player. Sean Byrne had a fantastic game yesterday too. Colaiste Mhuire must have a very good chance of winning Leinster again A_Chairde (Westmeath) - Posts: 402 - 21/10/2026 10:46:47 2698084 Link

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