Will troubled Lake men sink or swim?

Leinster SFC Quarter-Final

In Westmeath, it is hard to think in those terms. The decade just gone was the most successful in the county’s history but it ended with the senior footballers in disarray.

Westmeath have won just once in their last 17 league and championship fixtures and that single success, against Wicklow last summer, was by common consent an atrocious game of football.

They face Mick O’Dwyer’s men again tomorrow and God knows they would bite your hand off for a win of any description. Entertainment? Not on the agenda.

Who could blame them? Armagh, Down, Derry and Dublin (twice) have all hammered them by double scores in the last two seasons and most of their other defeats, though less ugly in numerical terms, have been just as dispiriting.

“I suppose, when you look at it, we were up in Division One with a lot of the bigger teams and it would obviously have been harder to defend against teams of that quality,” says wing-back Michael Ennis. “It is just one of those things that happened and it is hard to put your finger on how we went from one extreme to the other.”

The accumulation of so many disappointments took its toll in an unsightly fashion last month when the latest outbreak of GAA player power ushered Brendan Hackett from the manager’s chair after a mere handful of months in the job.

Pat Flanagan was the man subsequently empowered with bringing order to the chaos and stabilising matters as best he could as they sailed towards the potentially choppy waters of the championship.

It is an unenviable task, although the return to the squad of both Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon and an influx of ten U21s from the side which reached this year’s Leinster final has helped freshen things up. But Ennis is adamant that the litany of losses needs to be stemmed sooner rather than later.

“That’s what it is all about. We just want to go out there and start winning. To do that you do need plenty of the older faces around, although having some younger lads coming in gives you a nice blend.”

Ennis gives a rueful smile when reminded that six years have passed since he scored a point on Westmeath’s days of days, the day they claimed their first ever Leinster crown at Laois’ expense in a provincial final replay.

At that stage, Dublin had won just one of the previous ten provincial titles. Now, few believe there is a county that can deprive them of a sixth in a row.

“Leinster is wide open and Dublin are definitely the target for everyone. They have been Leinster champions for the last five years but I don’t go along with this thing about there being no other good teams. Kildare have made progress. Meath are always strong.

“Other counties like Wicklow are coming on as well. They had a tremendous year last year. Even Carlow. Their U21 team had a great run in the championship. They were fierce unlucky to lose out to Dublin and they went on and won the All-Ireland so the standard is there.”

Tomorrow will tell us if Westmeath are up to it.