Westmeath win no fluke as Qualter turns to Cats

A LOT of people were shocked at Westmeath’s win over Dublin in the Leinster senior hurling quarter-final on Sunday; they shouldn’t have been.

In an age where hurling is struggling to make an impression anywhere outside its usual constituencies, Westmeath is one of those counties where there is genuine improvement. Last August in Croke Park, before the magnificent Cork/Clare All-Ireland semi-final, Westmeath outplayed Down in an equally nail-biting Christy Ring Cup final, won in injury time with two late points. It was overshadowed by the bigger game that followed, the drama of Cork’s late comeback win, but that Westmeath/Down match also had a lot of quality hurling.

Just for example, Westmeath free-taker Andrew Mitchell outscored Cork’s Ben O’Connor by 0-9 to 0-5 (Mitchell was outstanding again last Sunday); Westmeath midfielder Enda Loughlin outscored Jerry O’Connor by 0-4 to 0-2; different games, yes, and this is not to suggest that Andrew and Enda are a better combination than Ben and Jerry. But, importantly, all else being equal, the Westmeath duo would live with the higher-profile Cork twins.