National Forum

Westmeath Hurling thread

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Replying To Loughlenegale:  "There's a fair bit to unpack in that take, but the biggest issue is the framing - it leans heavily into a kind of football-first bias that quietly assumes hurling should take a back seat when dual-talented players are involved. Exactly what I have come to expect"
Exactly, a warning to hurling people. I have been saying we have to be united. When the hurlers were winning Ring and Mcdonagh cups the CB had decent hurling club participation now it is totally football dominant.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1963 - 25/05/2026 16:36:19    2675497

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Replying To jobber:  "Exactly, a warning to hurling people. I have been saying we have to be united. When the hurlers were winning Ring and Mcdonagh cups the CB had decent hurling club participation now it is totally football dominant."
Very few people from sole hurling clubs putting themselves forward for county board positions.

Greengrass1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 65 - 29/05/2026 09:57:35    2676388

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the whole sense of apathy towards hurling in the county draw stream was clear to see, slotting it in between the football draws and no discussion about it, its alarming how far hurling has gone the pecking order in the county in such a short space of time.

preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 836 - 29/05/2026 13:18:54    2676432

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Replying To Dheen:  "The minor hurlers performed better overall than the minor footballers this year with only 3 players duel players starting. 13 of the u20 team are underage again next year, those players will all come through over the next couple of years and we will just have to be patient . There was a young team there in 2011/2012 under Brian Hanley after a lot of experienced hurlers stepped away , they were underperforming but he stuck with them despite lots of criticism which in hindsight was the best thing for us going forward, we competed well then between 2014 to 2024. The current team have been underperforming massively and probably would struggle against certain club sides in the county like I said however its a young side and definitely in the midst of a rebuilding phase. The senior footballers have a lot of quality players in their prime and a nice balance of youth and experience, the hurlers have a majority of players under the age of 25 and its clearly showing. We do well to compete in both codes at a good level, we've fallen away in hurling but I do see us coming back stronger in a couple of years time all going well."
Flavour of the month stuff. Football is flying high so that's getting all the attention and rightly so. I'd agree with Dheen above. Brian Hanley did a good job blooding in a younger and less experienced group that began to replace the successful Ring team stalwarts of the mid to late noughties, Paul Greville, Darren McCormack, Andrew Mitchell, Enda Loughlin etc.

I think Kevin Martin was manager and won the Christy Ring with us in 2010 but then the following year we lost every game in the league and would have been relegated to division 3 only to be saved by a restructuring of the league format as often happened at the time. Martin got made the scapegoat though for the abysmal showing in the league and Hanley was parachuted in for the championship in 2011 and steadied the ship for the championship.

In fairness the following year Hanley instilled a lot of belief in that group and hit the ground running, I think he trawled the county with a long series of trials and training that winter looking for fresh talent. That hard work and effort paid off when Westmeath shocked Antrim in the first round of the Leinster championship in 2012. That shows how quickly things can change if the effort and commitment levels are there from the players.

The county board can review the season, see how the management team feels about another year, and if the players have faith in the management, then knuckle down and try again anew next year.

RadioactiveTan (UK) - Posts: 50 - 29/05/2026 18:29:43    2676486

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Replying To preddan:  "the whole sense of apathy towards hurling in the county draw stream was clear to see, slotting it in between the football draws and no discussion about it, its alarming how far hurling has gone the pecking order in the county in such a short space of time."
And its not getting better in the short term.Hurling clubs have got complacent and many have forgotten the bad old days which have returned so quickly. This has nothing to do with a brilliant football team but everything to do with our clubs apathy.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1963 - 29/05/2026 19:48:00    2676492

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Replying To preddan:  "the whole sense of apathy towards hurling in the county draw stream was clear to see, slotting it in between the football draws and no discussion about it, its alarming how far hurling has gone the pecking order in the county in such a short space of time."
Isn't the groupings in WM predetermined though. Isn't there 6 in senior A, Senior B , intermediate etc and everyone plays each other once? There isnt a lot to talk about id imagine. Ive nothing against that system or anything but im not sure that there is a lot to talk about.

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 512 - 30/05/2026 17:44:50    2676618

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Was Conor Murphy injured for New York? Didn't see him even come on as a sub, worrying as he would likely have been a guaranteed started for us this year

westmeathgaa11 (Westmeath) - Posts: 353 - 31/05/2026 00:22:41    2676674

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Replying To jobber:  "And its not getting better in the short term.Hurling clubs have got complacent and many have forgotten the bad old days which have returned so quickly. This has nothing to do with a brilliant football team but everything to do with our clubs apathy."
As a small hurling county the only road to success is to maximise all the resources available to you. We are now on the rebuild road however in doing so we will have nowhere near the turnover of players as appears to be the case on here. Hurling clubs need to rally and get themselves a voice on the board and fix the shortcomings elsewhere. It's a misery how you have senior teams fix to take us down at club level and fall so far back at county level when from the outside the opposite should be the case like Naas and Kildare

Sloweddie (Kilkenny) - Posts: 31 - 31/05/2026 12:38:07    2676721

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