Royal warrant special attention yet again

AS the French are so fond of saying: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Rarely has that expression dovetailed more aptly than with Westmeath’s footballers who this Sunday will again attempt to prise the Meath monkey off their backs.

Two years ago, Luke Dempsey’s charges were riding the crest of a wave thanks to their swagger through the All-Ireland qualifiers, where their biggest scalp was the toppling of Mayo on a memorable evening in Castlebar.

Ultimately, though, the magical mystery tour of playing competitive football in late summer was ended by the most familiar of foes, Meath.

Not once in 119 years of GAA history have the Lake County succeeded in defeating their Royal neighbours in championship action and despite knocking heads with Sean Boylan’s troops three times in the summer of 2001, Westmeath failed to do any better than a single draw.

It was even worse last year when an injury epidemic of scarcely fathomable proportions left Westmeath dangerously vulnerable to a mauling. Again, Meath took full advantage in Leinster, running out comfortable winners in Portlaoise before Fermanagh delivered the coup de grace in Mullingar with a shockingly convincing victory.

Twelve months on and it’s almost a case of ‘as you were’ says half-forward Fergal Wilson. “The expectation within Westmeath wouldn’t be that high now after everything that happened last year. We just didn’t perform because of various reasons, whether it be the litany of injuries and the bad run of results we had in the league or whatever.

“Then against Carlow the last day we hadn’t a great game really. We came out at the start of the second half and they had some really good goal chances which if they’d taken would have left us in some trouble. So people aren’t getting very worked up about the Meath game this time around.”

Of course, the run-up to a Westmeath game wouldn’t seem right without the usual catalogue of injuries and this week has been no exception. Ger Heavin, such a huge success in 2001, is still nowhere to be seen as he adapts to a new life and job in Sligo and full-back David Mitchell is sidelined for another six weeks with a broken leg. Regular half-back David Kilmartin is out with a shoulder injury, Shane Colleary and Damien Healy were both struggling this week while Paul Conway and Michael Ennis have only just returned to having suffered broken legs within a week of each other at the start of the year.

In a county with a limited pool to dip into, it would be enough to make a grown man cry but Dempsey’s woes don’t end there. Mitchell’s injury, which he picked up in the league semi-final against Longford, was bad enough but his replacement Damien Gavin is labouring with a knock too, and third choice number three Kenny Larkin broke his jaw in an off-the-ball incident against Down last weekend.

Wilson himself is a perfect example of Westmeath’s jinx the last 18 months having broken an arm in the breakthrough win over Mayo and developed a stress fracture that saw him miss most of the 2002 league campaign. Major news in any other county; just one more casualty in Westmeath.

All in all, it leaves Westmeath with the air of the unknown as they approach Sunday’s game in Croke Park, “We really don’t know what to expect to be honest,” Wilson agreed. “If we play like we did against Carlow, Meath will have us beaten out the gate in the first-half.

“I suppose when you look at it we were within a game of the All-Ireland semi-final two years ago and because of that we know what we’re capable of. We’re not playing that hectically, although you have to take into account we were playing in Division Two. Our aims this year were to get promotion to Division One, which we’ve done, and now we have to aim for a Leinster title. That’s it really.”

The usual injury woes aside, Westmeath are confident they’ll prove a tougher nut to crack than last year. A lot has been made of Boylan’s decision to bring in ex-player Colm Brady to help with training in Dalgan Park outside Navan but Dempsey too, has drafted in some outside expertise in an attempt to beef up what was perceived to be a physically small squad.

“We have a new trainer ourselves, Johnny Mills, who is an army captain,” Wilson explained. “Johnny did a sports science course in Limerick and he’s well-served in the GAA as well as being a Mullingar man. We’ve been doing a lot of really tough work in the Curragh, at Tullamore Harriers and at the Kilbeggan racecourse over the winter especially.

“Johnny had us on individual weights programmes so the physical side of the game shouldn’t be a problem. Last year everyone was complaining we weren’t fit enough but after those January Sunday mornings running up and down in Kilbeggan, that isn’t the case this time.”

So, even taking a second Division Two title in three years into account, preparation has again been far from smooth for Westmeath as Luke Dempsey enters the final months of his three-year tenure with the county. Dempsey himself has admitted that another year akin to 2002 would make him examine his position but Wilson refuses to look that far ahead.

“The pressure is on everyone, not just Luke. I don’t know what his plans will be after this year and to be honest, none of us are thinking that far ahead. There’s a summer ahead of us now and the only thing we’re thinking of at the moment is Meath.”

For Westmeath, it’s the same as it ever was.