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.

Westmeath are not all-powerful, not from one to 15, but they do have several players of the highest calibre, and they are making progress.

What had fooled people was Westmeath’s performance in this year’s league. They finished behind Kerry in their section of Division 2, unbeaten (drew with Kerry, lost out on scoring difference), but unimpressive. Kerry’s subsequent trouncing at the hands of Dublin in the Division 2 final put an even worse gloss on events, making the Metropolitans hot favourites last Sunday. Not a true reflection of Westmeath, according to manager Seamus Qualter. “Every one of those lads have trained really hard for this, trained since last September. We took the league as it came, we’d have liked to have done better but we didn’t; it was always about May 21, and playing here, nothing else was in our focus.”

There are those who will point to the conditions in Portlaoise, and certainly the games should not have been played, the waterlogged pitch introducing a lottery-type scenario. Regardless of conditions, however, Westmeath were going to put it up to the Dubs. This wasn’t Cork, or Kilkenny (their next opponents), this was someone they could deal with. “There’s a huge gap to be bridged to the top four or five counties, we have only 14 hurling clubs, eight senior, six intermediate, so we’re confined to the players we have. But when you look at the heart, you can’t beat that, you can’t beat wanting to win, and we really wanted to win this game. At half-time, we knew we had them, it was about belief. We went one ahead, two ahead, we were driving forward all the time, controlled the game. All these things work. I thought all our backs were outstanding, Paul Greville, Darren McCormack and John Shaw especially, Enda (O’Loughlin) and Brian (Connaughton) worked hard at midfield. It was a total team effort.”

Missing from the team that performed so well in Croke Park last August was perhaps their best player, certainly their best prospect. Still just a minor, Killian Cosgrave started at full forward that day, ended at centre, pivotal to much of what Westmeath were trying to do. He ended also with three fine points from play, surely a star in the making. Since then the youngster has had his problems, ultimately he had to have a back operation, but Westmeath have taken his loss on the chin and found a worthy replacement in Derek McNicholas. “Killian is our Eoin Kelly, he’s our star,” says Qualter. “We treat him like that, we mind him. I’d love to see him back at some stage, but it looks like he’s out for the year.

Dermot Curley is another who’s out, recovering from a groin operation, he should be back by June or July. That will help.” Yes, but it will help only in the qualifiers, which is probably where Westmeath will be headed after their next outing. Even in Cusack Park, Westmeath’s county ground, Kilkenny won’t be beaten. But, forewarned and all as they will have been by the result last Sunday (Cody’s Cats are never complacent anyway), Kilkenny will be tested. They will most certainly be tested. Good for hurling, very good.