Westmeath celebrate but refuse to be too cocky
However, expectation is being firmly held in check according to the chairman of the county football board Denis Coyne.
“We will probably go into the semi-final as favourites and we’ll have to live with that,” he said. “As you can imagine, the supporters are pretty excited in Westmeath right now and that can work two ways: they can boost a team but they can also ruin a team. So we will be looking beyond the euphoria for a more logical approach to our next game.”
The victory over Dublin on Sunday has quickly found a place in the history of Westmeath football. Thirty-seven years have passed since they last beat the Dubs in a SFC game.
“There were links with the present. Dessie Dolan’s father, also Dessie, was at corner-forward while his namesake, Tommy, scored the crucial goal of the afternoon. Ironically, then, like now, there was also a local election campaign in full swing.
“Westmeath were without their greatest midfielder, Mick Carley. That, too, was a good Westmeath team and with Kevin “Chuck” Higgins in goal, they had gone through the whole national league campaign without conceding a goal. It was fitting that Gary Connaughton should have played such a major role in Sunday’s victory as well. This team has been built on the foundations laid by the great minor and under-21 teams of recent years with many of the players who figured in those All-Ireland wins still active.
“We have a good under age structure in place for the past few years starting at primary school level and we have a coaching scheme in operation for several years as well and I would like to think that this all stems from that,” Coyne added. “And, apart all together from Páidi, I think that all the other managers - Mattie Kerrigan, Barney Rock, Brendan Lowery and Luke Dempsey - have all contributed to the product that we now have. They would all have left their own personal imprint on the players.
“I remember Brendan Lowery saying to me at one point that one problem we had was that everyone expected to lose - the players, the officials and, of course the supporters - but now I think that is no longer the case.
“Páidi has instilled a fierce belief into those players. All week I heard him telling the players that if Sunday’s game was going to be close then Westmeath would win it. Having listened to him I was quite happy to be just three points behind at half time.
“He has them believing in themselves and when the game was close near the end it was Dublin who buckled under the pressure. In the past Westmeath would have buckled.”
Coyne believes managers fall into two groups, the ones who patronised and those who gave players the kick up the backside when required.
“I would categorise Páidi amongst the latter,” he said. “I have watched him in action in the dressing room before the game and at half-time and he is certainly different.”
The Kinnegad publican, a candidate in the upcoming local elections, was instrumental in bringing Ó Sé to the Midlands. “It was a decision that was taken rather quickly,” he said. “I remember I was in hospital for a few days around the time Páidi split with Kerry and I read where he was attending something in Dublin and asked a friend of mine to ask him if he might be interested in managing Westmeath.
“To my amazement my friend arrived in the following day with Páidi’s mobile number and a message to ring him. I called him and he agreed and I was amazed the following morning when I was leaving hospital and read it on the front page of The Irish Examiner.” And the rest is history. “He has spent a lot of time in the county and, early on, we did a whistle stop tour of the schools which was a huge success. It is not just the players, the supporters too have a lot of faith in Páidi.”
Seamus Ó Faoláin, chairman of the Westmeath county board, was among the attendance at the 1967 quarter-final when Dublin blamed their collapse in the last 10 minutes on the heat.
“That will always remain in my memory,” he said. “But Sunday’s achievement was for me the greatest performance ever by a Westmeath team. They showed a great battling quality and they proved to everyone that the days of Westmeath choking are well and truly gone.”
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