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Westmeath Football thread

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Replying To londoner:  "Absolute rubbish."
You were obviously not there !

Anyone who was would have seen the following

"Definitely a bit of goading towards McCabe at the final whistle from a couple of players that didnt feature last season. Heat of moment stuff but understandably some of the Cavan players and 1 selector (not McCabe) took exception to. Could have got nasty but enough peace makers intervened"

ExiledCuCu (Cavan) - Posts: 294 - 01/06/2026 22:02:38    2677142

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Replying To BigSur:  "Danny on crutches and in a boot so not good I'd say. Ormsby not too bad I believe and might tog the next day."
Danny has a stress fracture. 10 weeks
Shane Ormsby has a quad injury but not too bad. Hopefully back for the next one.

hamsamwiches (Westmeath) - Posts: 15 - 02/06/2026 00:37:57    2677153

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Replying To Chops:  "Wow what a performance in extra time. Team looked a bit flat at times, particularly in second half. Maybe the weight of expectation of playing a first championship game at home after being crowned Leinster champions was there or a few cobwebs after touring with the cup and all that goes with that. But the turnaround in extra time was incredible.

10 point swing, from 6 down to 4 up. The early 2 pointers from Baker and Wallace in second half of extra time were instrumental in the comeback. Then the battle Heslin put in to wrestle the ball and send on to Kelly who layed to O'Sullivan for the goal was the winning of the game. O'Sullivan was immense again covering every blade of the middle third. He robbed a Cavan ball in first half that set Brandon Kelly up for a brilliant score. The workrate of the team when their backs are to the wall and the calmness of getting out of it are whats impressing me the most. We witnessed history this evening in Cusack park. Five consecutive victories in senior championship for Westmeath. We now have at least 2 more games to look forward to.

Thank you so much to Mark McHugh, his backroom team and this wonderful squad of players for giving us so many new fantastic memories. And may the thousands of kids there today looking up to them aspire to be as good as them in the future."
great summary
def won it and lost it a few times
my heart!
fair play to cavan too they gave it their all
two teams trying their best to win fair and square

d7h (Westmeath) - Posts: 39 - 02/06/2026 01:24:56    2677154

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Replying To londoner:  "Massive congratulations to Mark McHugh, his management team & the panel of players on a fantastic performance to dig out the win last evening. The team are a delight to watch, playing front foot football, aggressive when they need to be and no little quality throughout. The really pleasing thing again was the hunger throughout the team, teamwork, spread of scores throughout the team, calmness under pressure, discipline, i could go on. The young players on board have really stepped up. We are now setting standards that others would aspire to. Mark McHugh is a shrewd general, his timing & subsequent impact of the substitutes is class.

We are where we want to be now in with the big dogs for the next round. Whoever we get, they'll know our bark is getting louder and although we'll be massive underdogs anything can happen from here on.

Iarmhi Abu"
absolutely agree with all that IA

d7h (Westmeath) - Posts: 39 - 02/06/2026 01:26:08    2677155

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Replying To Roscavan:  "As an avid Gaa follower from Cavan living in roscommon. Enjoyed the match on Saturday great atmosphere and pleased with the cavan comeback. Go to a lot of games following roscommon and Cavan. Had an issue with which I wasn't gonna to bring up until I saw another poster mention it. Very disappointed with the booing and noise from the very first cavan free kick and throughout the game. haven't come across it at this level before and probably not a good example for the new young fans. Best of luck and we might meet again"
Agree that its not a nice aspect of the game, but its been there for over 25 years. Many long term Westmeath fans will remember the Hill and Dublin fans in general booing a 17 year old PJ Ward kicking frees during the 2000 Leinster Minor final. Remember when he kicked the insurance point that day, running towards the Hill cupping his ear.

It's been part of Ulster football for years.

You must be going to very few games if Saturday was the first time you noticed it

Dessie15 (Westmeath) - Posts: 226 - 02/06/2026 06:45:17    2677158

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Replying To Roscavan:  "As an avid Gaa follower from Cavan living in roscommon. Enjoyed the match on Saturday great atmosphere and pleased with the cavan comeback. Go to a lot of games following roscommon and Cavan. Had an issue with which I wasn't gonna to bring up until I saw another poster mention it. Very disappointed with the booing and noise from the very first cavan free kick and throughout the game. haven't come across it at this level before and probably not a good example for the new young fans. Best of luck and we might meet again"
kids and people blowing the horns at every free kick was doing the same a child in the 90s hardly new to the game its evident in every game.

Dazzler30 (Westmeath) - Posts: 87 - 02/06/2026 08:24:49    2677163

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Replying To hamsamwiches:  "Danny has a stress fracture. 10 weeks
Shane Ormsby has a quad injury but not too bad. Hopefully back for the next one."
Thank you brother

crispsandwich99 (Westmeath) - Posts: 17 - 02/06/2026 10:51:05    2677223

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Replying To Dessie15:  "Agree that its not a nice aspect of the game, but its been there for over 25 years. Many long term Westmeath fans will remember the Hill and Dublin fans in general booing a 17 year old PJ Ward kicking frees during the 2000 Leinster Minor final. Remember when he kicked the insurance point that day, running towards the Hill cupping his ear.

It's been part of Ulster football for years.

You must be going to very few games if Saturday was the first time you noticed it"
It was the first time ever I noticed it in Cusack Park.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2655 - 02/06/2026 11:05:07    2677235

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "It was the first time ever I noticed it in Cusack Park."
Maybe not in Cusack Park, and in fairness over the years there haven't been many matches in Cusack with crowds over 5000. But I have been attending games all over the country for 40 + year and this has been an aspect of our games for over 20 years. I don't like it. Respect should be shown to the free taker, but all fans are guilty of it at different times.

Dessie15 (Westmeath) - Posts: 226 - 02/06/2026 11:36:39    2677251

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Replying To ExiledCuCu:  "You were obviously not there !

Anyone who was would have seen the following

"Definitely a bit of goading towards McCabe at the final whistle from a couple of players that didnt feature last season. Heat of moment stuff but understandably some of the Cavan players and 1 selector (not McCabe) took exception to. Could have got nasty but enough peace makers intervened""
McCabe did plenty of goading himself to the crowd behind him when Cavan scored the goals and the equalising 2 pointer. He spent the whole game in the linesman and standby referees ears argueing every call. He should have at least been spoken to by the referee for his behaviour.

Chops (Westmeath) - Posts: 904 - 02/06/2026 11:40:43    2677254

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Replying To d7h:  "great summary
def won it and lost it a few times
my heart!
fair play to cavan too they gave it their all
two teams trying their best to win fair and square"
People forget that Cavan went to Castlebar this time last year and turned over Mayo. Mayo went on to beat Tyrone. Tyrone beat Cavan convincingly in final group game. Its nit a bad Cavan team

Chops (Westmeath) - Posts: 904 - 02/06/2026 11:43:19    2677256

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Looking forward, what do we think of the draw and our chances against Galway in Salthill.

It really is a case of Youth v Experience when you look at the 2 teams.

My view is that we'll be massive underdogs but have nothing to loose against 1 of the favourites for the AL.

londoner (UK) - Posts: 128 - 02/06/2026 13:11:04    2677300

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While a home draw in Mullingar would have been nice-Galway is only down the road and in my opinion its a great draw.All the pressure will be on Galway as home favourites but this Galway team are beatable and the tag as underachievers is there for a reason.Westmeath will have nothing to fear and nothing to lose as underdogs and this suits us-Mark McHugh will have homework done and will head to Salthill with a game plan.Really looking forward to this one.

Bruno@1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 331 - 02/06/2026 13:32:19    2677312

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It's a very different Westmeath team that lost 2 years ago in Mullingar. 7 of those who started that day are either retired, injured, or gone abroad, and Kieran Martin off the bench that day also retired. It will be a real gauge of where the team is at. My heart says we can win but my head is saying Galway have the experience. That said when Roscommon ran at Galway in the Connacht final the got some handy scores. It's going to be an interesting contest.

Chops (Westmeath) - Posts: 904 - 02/06/2026 16:41:55    2677381

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26k capacity in Pearse Stadium - presume it will sell out ?

BigSur (Westmeath) - Posts: 1256 - 02/06/2026 17:01:29    2677390

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Replying To Chops:  "It's a very different Westmeath team that lost 2 years ago in Mullingar. 7 of those who started that day are either retired, injured, or gone abroad, and Kieran Martin off the bench that day also retired. It will be a real gauge of where the team is at. My heart says we can win but my head is saying Galway have the experience. That said when Roscommon ran at Galway in the Connacht final the got some handy scores. It's going to be an interesting contest."
Westmeath were in the game 0:10 each with 3 minutes to go when a poor handpass on the half way line was intercepted by Shane Walsh who was the only forward in the Westmeath half........he ran in to score the goal unchallenged.... I was directly opposite him when he caught got the ball.....I genuinely have never seen anyone run that fast before or possibly since

ExiledCuCu (Cavan) - Posts: 294 - 02/06/2026 17:11:10    2677394

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