Great buzz for Cats visit, says Qualter

WESTMEATH senior hurling manager Seamus Qualter is confident that Kilkenny will not have matters all their own way in Saturday evenings’s Leinster SHC semi-final.

“There is a great buzz in the county in anticipation of the Cats’ visit to Mullingar,” he said.

“It’s seldom people in Westmeath get the chance to see players like Henry Shefflin and Eoin Larkin up close.

“This is our All-Ireland and we intend to make the most of it. All I want from the players is that they play to the very best of their ability.

“From the very start the winners of the Westmeath/Dublin game was going to have home advantage against Kilkenny, so there was a huge incentive for both of us to win that first round game.

“No one gave us a pup’s chance in hell of beating the Dubs, but we rose to the challenge and thankfully we came out on the right side of the score line.

“The same will apply against Kilkenny.

“Already people are saying we’ll have done well if we are beaten by 20 points, but I don’t subscribe to that view. Westmeath hurling has been improving steadily and we’ll give a very good account of ourselves.”

Qualter admits that victory in the Christy Ring competition last year has had numerous benefits.

“For a Westmeath captain to walk up the Hogan Stand and accept the Christy Ring cup was a dream come through for officials and players.

“The expressions of emotion when we went around the county with the cup was incredible.

“We also got a trip to New York which was an extra bonus for winning,” he added.

And it’s not just transatlantic trips which he recalls with fondness.

“We took that cup down to Cloyne early this year and John Allen did us the honour of putting out a strong Cork team against us in a challenge game. That was another big boost for us as hurling people.

“It’s not so long ago when the gap between Dublin and ourselves was 17 points in their favour, but we have succeeded in bridging that gap. Over the years we have been on the receiving end of some drubbings by Kilkenny and we now need to try and close that gap.

“While we don’t have anything like the resources of Kilkenny or Cork in terms of clubs playing hurling — there are only eight senior and five intermediate clubs in our county — there has been a tremendous amount of work done on the ground in promoting the game.

“Kilkenny’s arrival in Mullingar is seen as another stage in that promotion. What we cannot afford now is to receive another bad beating. That would undo all the good work that has been done.

“Brian Cody has been involved in hurling long enough to know you cannot take any chances in games like this. He’ll be telling his players to go for the jugular from the throw-in, and try and kill us off early, but we’ll be prepared for that.

“I’ve got to be realistic and say, on current form, Kilkenny are a bridge too far for us, but I will be expecting our lads to give it their very best shot. I’ll want them to be able to say there is great heart in this Westmeath team and I’m coming back again next week.”

Qualter was one of a few managers who turned down the idea of players from the stronger hurling counties making themselves available to play with the weaker ones.

“That idea is for the future. I was talking about this current year. It would be very hard for me to tell any of my players I’m ‘importing’ a couple of players from outside and they were no longer wanted.

“What kind of message would that send out? The concept is a good one, but would have to be very gradually introduced over a period of years.

Under this new arrangement, any player declaring for another county team must play with his club first. Not the ideal situation for a county manager if there is a clash of fixtures.

“If a county like Westmeath could pick up a couple of players capable of playing at inter-county level it would be great. Right now we are without our best forward, Killian Cosgrove, who is recovering from a back operation, and to have a readymade replacement for him would be the ideal situation for us.

“The concept is very good, and like the Christy Ring Cup, it’s only in about five years’ time when other counties have won it that people will say what a great idea that was.”