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Weekend Predictions for SFC:
The Downs v Garrycastle: (TEG Cusack Park, Sun, 5pm)
The Downs to win by a low margin. Garrycastle have to win to qualify and will leave everything out on the pitch.
St Lomans v Caulry: (Moate, Sun, 5pm)
St Lomans to win, again by a low margin. Caulry should have pride in their jersey, playing in Moate, stayed with The Downs to half time, Senan is back and if they click will pose serious problems to Lomans. Another draw is a possibility.
Kinnegad v Mullingar Shamrocks: (Rochfortbridge, Sun, 5pm)
Kinnegad to win. Shamrocks won't roll over. Outside chance of qualifying is still there, provided results in other games go their way.
Athlone v Tubberclair: (TEG Cusack Park, Sat 5pm)
Tubberclair by the minimum
Moate v Killucan: (Kinnegad, Sat, 5pm)
Moate by the minimum
Tang v Tyrrellspass: (Shandonagh, Sat, 5pm)
Relegation decider. Tang have to win, Tyrellspass can draw or win to stay up. Tyrellspass to stay Senior.
Final Positions:
Section A:
Kinnegad => SF
The Downs => SF
St Lomans => QF
Garrycastle
Mullingar Shamrocks => Relegated to Section B
Caulry => Relegated to Section B
Section B:
Tubberclair => QF + Promoted to Section A
Moate => QF + Promoted to Section A
Athlone => QF
Killucan
Tyrellspass
Tang => Relegated to Intermediate
JoxerDaly (Westmeath) - Posts: 40 - 02/09/2026 10:15:55
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Replying To mintyfresh: "By the end of the weekend you could have both Tang being relegated to intermediate and Maryland relegated to junior. Two clubs that have played amalgamated at underage for the last 30 years and now both are struggling. I don't think they have had a minor team themselves for at least five years as they have been joined with St. Joseph's this few years as Esker Gaels and prior to that they were in with Garrycastle. It just goes to show if you take your eye of the ball at underage it doesn't take long for adult teams to suffer. If either go down at the weekend it's hard to see them coming back up anytime soon." No shame in that. A lot of clubs with bigger populations and a lot more resources than those are only playing at intermediate level and even junior. Tang especially punching well above their weight to even be Senior.
TheLineKing (Westmeath) - Posts: 35 - 02/09/2026 11:11:32
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Replying To Fighting-Cocks69: "Delaney Cup 2026, there was no Tang/Maryland amalgamation when Tang played The Downs in the 2018 Division 1 final.
Have to disagree here. I always felt the St Martin's amalgamation was completely wrong and the county board made a mess of it. Milltown, Ballymore, Tang and Maryland knew exactly what they were doing. Milltown is around 22km from Tang, while some had much closer clubs they could've joined with.
As far as I remember they didn't join together for the league but then did for the championship, which felt very calculated. Killucan and Kinnegad had built strong teams over several years, only to meet four clubs combined. Most of that St Martin's starting 15 were county players or went almost straight into senior football.
I know it was years ago, but it was very harsh on the genuine club teams especially for kin egad and Killucan losing to them so narrowly in the semi and final" The 2018 Minor team was Tang/Maryland. They are always amalgamated at under age. Maryland had a number of players on that team also.
St Martins is a completely separate argument; of course it should never have been sanctioned that year. It was nearly a county minor team.
But my point is on population and not because the clubs are suddenly trying or doing less at underage.
DelaneyCup2026 (Westmeath) - Posts: 42 - 02/09/2026 12:59:37
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Replying To Fighting-Cocks69: "Delaney Cup 2026, there was no Tang/Maryland amalgamation when Tang played The Downs in the 2018 Division 1 final.
Have to disagree here. I always felt the St Martin's amalgamation was completely wrong and the county board made a mess of it. Milltown, Ballymore, Tang and Maryland knew exactly what they were doing. Milltown is around 22km from Tang, while some had much closer clubs they could've joined with.
As far as I remember they didn't join together for the league but then did for the championship, which felt very calculated. Killucan and Kinnegad had built strong teams over several years, only to meet four clubs combined. Most of that St Martin's starting 15 were county players or went almost straight into senior football.
I know it was years ago, but it was very harsh on the genuine club teams especially for kin egad and Killucan losing to them so narrowly in the semi and final" Also was that not a separate premier competition? I'm not sure it was the regular county minor championship surely.
DelaneyCup2026 (Westmeath) - Posts: 42 - 02/09/2026 13:01:03
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Replying To DelaneyCup2026: "Also was that not a separate premier competition? I'm not sure it was the regular county minor championship surely." Maryland/Tang are actually recognised as one club at underage level as far as I'm aware but stand to be corrected. Would have competed in several division 1 semi finals / finals the whole way up with that crop of players, also played The Downs in the U20 final maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I remember them being particularly strong at u20 at the time and a couple of years later Tang won the intermediate with the likes of Tumelty, Coughlan, Neary, Lennon, Keenan, Hanley, Clear, McKiernan, Bannon all around the same age. As an outsider looking in it does seem like they haven't had much coming up since that batch. From that u20 final, I don't know if any of the Maryland lads are playing now. I vaguely remember it being Tang making up the bulk of that team. Both teams in relegation trouble so is it a case of lack of youth coming up is catching up?
BadgerDog (Westmeath) - Posts: 46 - 02/09/2026 13:47:14
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Replying To DelaneyCup2026: "I don't think any eye was taken off the ball, some very good people involved in underage down there. What does need to be considered is the population of the areas and the size of the schools. I'd say there's more houses between Shandonagh pitch and the hospital in Mullingar than there is in Tang and Drumraney combined.
Tang had an excellent crop off the 2018 minor team that came through and lost a Div 1 Final to The Downs while for Maryland they had an excellent 2009 crop who came through and got to a Senior Semi Final if I remember under Finbar Egan and many of them are still lining out and doing what they can.
Very cheap to blame the clubs for taking their eye off the ball when it's far from the truth. Population in these areas doesn't really benefit from the town of Athlone in the same way that Caulry and Tubberclair probably do." There are very good people involved in both clubs, no doubt and I didn't mean it to be dismissive of any volunteer that promotes the game at underage. I know that those involved recently at the underage club side of things put a lot in and the minor tournament they've run in recent years shows the efforts being put in. However, there have been years when at least one of those senior clubs haven't had players graduate from minor to senior and that has been for more than one year and it isn't due to population alone. Then you wonder are both clubs evenly putting the same effort in or is most of the work coming from one side, ie coaching numbers, reps from senior committees on underage committees etc. Like many other clubs they lose players throughout the age groups for various reasons but you need to be bringing a couple through every year. If they can field u14, u16 why can't they at minor and when I said took the eye of the ball, I don't mean in the present tense but at some stage in the last ten years
mintyfresh (Westmeath) - Posts: 301 - 02/09/2026 14:27:06
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Replying To DelaneyCup2026: "The 2018 Minor team was Tang/Maryland. They are always amalgamated at under age. Maryland had a number of players on that team also.
St Martins is a completely separate argument; of course it should never have been sanctioned that year. It was nearly a county minor team.
But my point is on population and not because the clubs are suddenly trying or doing less at underage." Yeah I agree with the population point. Places like Maryland, Tang and Castledaly are nearly fighting a losing battle, there's just no real housing development going on in those areas. Even Milltownpass have it tough with so many clubs around them competing for numbers, although they'd pick up a few from the town/Gaybrook area.
Fighting-Cocks69 (Westmeath) - Posts: 235 - 02/09/2026 15:37:35
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Replying To JoxerDaly: "Weekend Predictions for SFC:
The Downs v Garrycastle: (TEG Cusack Park, Sun, 5pm)
The Downs to win by a low margin. Garrycastle have to win to qualify and will leave everything out on the pitch.
St Lomans v Caulry: (Moate, Sun, 5pm)
St Lomans to win, again by a low margin. Caulry should have pride in their jersey, playing in Moate, stayed with The Downs to half time, Senan is back and if they click will pose serious problems to Lomans. Another draw is a possibility.
Kinnegad v Mullingar Shamrocks: (Rochfortbridge, Sun, 5pm)
Kinnegad to win. Shamrocks won't roll over. Outside chance of qualifying is still there, provided results in other games go their way.
Athlone v Tubberclair: (TEG Cusack Park, Sat 5pm)
Tubberclair by the minimum
Moate v Killucan: (Kinnegad, Sat, 5pm)
Moate by the minimum
Tang v Tyrrellspass: (Shandonagh, Sat, 5pm)
Relegation decider. Tang have to win, Tyrellspass can draw or win to stay up. Tyrellspass to stay Senior.
Final Positions:
Section A:
Kinnegad => SF
The Downs => SF
St Lomans => QF
Garrycastle
Mullingar Shamrocks => Relegated to Section B
Caulry => Relegated to Section B
Section B:
Tubberclair => QF + Promoted to Section A
Moate => QF + Promoted to Section A
Athlone => QF
Killucan
Tyrellspass
Tang => Relegated to Intermediate" Unfortunately for them Shamrocks are out and are only playing for 4th regardless of results. Hopefully they will still be competitive
Iarmhisamhi (Westmeath) - Posts: 72 - 02/09/2026 19:22:55
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