Divided loyalties as Hanley eyes an upset

YOU could call Westmeath manager Brian Hanley a high flyer these days. A few weeks ago, having overseen the exploits of Liam Mellows in the Galway SHC in the morning, he was flown by helicopter to Dr Cullen Park in Carlow where Westmeath were taking on the home side in the Leinster championship.

Victories in both games made it all worthwhile. But the surprise win in the second game set up a meeting against his native Galway in the Leinster quarter-final. Thankfully though, there’s no high jinks on this occasion.

“The Galway county board really helped me out before Carlow, fixed the Liam Mellows game for early in the morning which allowed me to get in both games,” he said.

“The helicopter though was Westmeath’s call, nothing to do with me. The Galway championship is stopped now until mid-July at least.”

It’s going to be a real conflict of interest for Brian who – by his own admission – knows this Galway team better than he knows Westmeath.

“That would be (a) fair comment. I’ve only been involved with Westmeath for the last three months but I worked with some of the Galway lads for two solid years at U21.

“We had Joe Canning and James Skehill, great players, super attitude. Then last year Barry Daly, Eoin Forde, Johnny Coen – mighty work-rate and lovely lads as well. David Burke is another lad I came across at underage.

“I’ve managed a few more of them with the club, done an awful lot of work with John Lee, David Collins and Aongus Callanan (Liam Mellows), and to be playing against them now – three great lads, in great form, super guys to work.

“Plus, I’ve played against a few of them as well (Brian is a triple All-Ireland club winner with Athenry), so yes, all in all I’d know them better. Why wouldn’t you, your own county?

“My heart will probably be in my mouth a bit for these lads, hoping they’ll do well. It’s great to see those lads developing, and you’re happy to be able to say you played a little part in that development.”

So, he’s half-hoping for a Galway win then?

“Not at all, I want only to win a game of hurling. We’ll be as competitive as we can and that’s regardless of whether we’re playing Galway with Westmeath or playing my own club with Liam Mellows. I’d really love to see Galway go on to win an All-Ireland, regardless, but I’m looking for a good performance from Westmeath, I want us to be competitive, and after that the result can take care of itself.”

It’s a decent Westmeath team too, lots of very good hurlers, but they weren’t in the best of form when Brian took over. A pointless league campaign, they didn’t win or even draw a single game – saw the end of Kevin Martin as manager before the final game, which hasn’t left Brian with a lot of time to turn things round. He was impressed with what he found when he took over, however.

“I found a very dedicated group, very committed. I had heard that facilities weren’t great but that’s not true; in Galway we have only one floodlit pitch in the county, Mullagh, in Westmeath they have five or six.

“Lads are eager to learn, eager to hurl, they have good hurlers, but whatever happened to them in the league this year they haven’t stepped up from winning the Christy Ring last year, they were at a very low ebb after the league campaign. But I’ve found them good to work with, it’s been very enjoyable, to be honest.”

The game is fixed for Cusack Park in Mullingar and that is something Hanley is excited about. A fine pitch it is too, but strange jerseys. Maroon-and-white, those are the normal Westmeath colours, the same colours as Galway, so, to avoid a clash, one had to change.

“Galway won the toss,” Brian explains, “They’ll be wearing maroon, we’ll be wearing green, the Leinster jersey. But Mullingar is in great nick; when they played Down in the Allianz Hurling League — that was the first time I saw them — I felt then it was a super pitch.

“It has a capacity of around 15 to 20,000 — probably won’t be full but so what, everything is right about it. I have a sister teaching in Athlone and she tells me that there’s a great buzz about Galway coming.

“There’s a good bit of talk about it but the only real expectation is among ourselves, on the panel, the expectation I put on myself as a manager is the same as when I was a player, everything I do I try to do to the best of my ability.

“I said before we played Carlow, I wanted us to play as well as we could and if we did that we’d win the game. If we perform to the best of our ability against Galway the scoreboard will look after itself again, and whether that’s good enough to win or not, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Picture: Westmeath manager Brian Hanley, right, with members of his backroom team arriving at Dr Cullen Park for their Leinster Championship opener against Carlow last month. Westmeath won 4-10 to 1-14. Picture: SPORTSFILE