Dempsey’s heroes back from depths of despair

LUKE DEMPSEY is wearing shades as he holds court with reporters. It’s not known whether this has to do with Westmeath footballers rediscovering their bright future in Croke Park yesterday.

Two years ago, Westmeath put Cork to the sword at the same venue to claim a Division two title and went on to be the poster-boys of the summer. Only inexperience twice denied them victory over Meath. Dempsey isn’t making any rash predictions yet, but the smile plastered across his face told its own story.

Absolutely delighted,” Dempsey gushed. “Last year was a foul and despairing year for us. We started off with six defeats to Premier counties in Division one and that dented the team’s confidence. The players themselves were down when we went into the championship and it showed when Fermanagh gave us a drubbing in Mullingar.”

All that’s in the past. “This was a great performance by this team,” Dempsey affirmed. “Look, we had only five players from the 2001 team that played here in Croke Park. We lost our regular full-back, had to reshuffle our defence, I thought Damien Gavin was magnificent for his first game at full-back.

“We had to do this against the form team in the Division, Limerick. But from the depths of despair last summer, we now have a national title and a new confidence going into this year’s championship.”

Talk inevitably turns to the championship and Dempsey and his side are back in Croker next Sunday, facing Carlow in a potential banana-skin. “Carlow will probably think Westmeath will be out celebrating all week, but we won’t be. We will take this win for what it is, but we know there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up in the team. We will work on that this week.”

Across the corridor, the other ‘most highly-rated young manager’ in the country tries to mask his disappointment with alarming honesty.

“I thought we had it won,” Liam Kearns sighed. “The lads put in a real Hail Mary effort and this is very disappointing. But the most disappointing aspect for me is that we were going for goals in the last few minutes, where we could have taken our points. Westmeath are a decent side. The goal was a killer. But we had the chances to get back into it.”

Onwards to Cork for Kearns and his well-coached side. While there are still a couple of creases that need to be ironed, the Kerryman doesn’t hold any fears about next Sunday’s encounter.

“All the advantages are with Cork. It’s in their backyard, they have the tradition, they have been watching us for the past few weeks and we are just coming off this hard game. But I have no doubts the lads will give it everything , just like they did today.”