Four-goal Westmeath stun Meath to throw Leinster SFC race wide open

ROYAL RUMBLE: Westmeath's Shane Corcoran is tackled by Meath defender Seán Coffey in SUnday's Leinster SFC tie in Tullamore. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Leinster SFC: Meath 0-25 Westmeath 4-18 

A Leinster football championship that many predicted would be the most open in at least 15 years has already lived up to its billing with the county pegged widely as favourites bundled out at the quarter-final stage.

Meath, All-Ireland semi-finalists last year, and a team that will play Division One football next spring, fell to a neighbour that couldn’t quite make it out of the third tier. If that’s not proof of a province dealing with a new dawn then nothing is.

Glasnost in Glenisk O’Connor Park.

This felt big, even before the beginning, with throw-in pushed back ten minutes to allow for the influx of traffic into Tullamore. That alone felt fresh after the era of Dublin dominance that only ended with Louth’s title in 2025.

Meath started as if control was the priority, playing keep ball for the first 150 seconds before Jordan Morris escaped the clutches of Conor Dillon, his man-marker, to pop the first point over the bar. The rest of the game was so much more frenetic.

Not at first, though. Westmeath had pulled something from the hat in putting Conor McCormack between the sticks rather than Jason Daly but the new man lasted only nine minutes before being stretchered off.

McCormack got hurt saving a shot on goal by Cian McBride and both sides would swap gilt-edged chances for a three-pointer from there to the break. The difference was that Westmeath scored from two of their theirs.

It was bubbling up perfectly. Morris and Dillon were engaged in a captivating game of cat and mouse, Luke Loughlin was producing flashes of brilliance at the other end and players like Ray Connellan, Matthew Whittaker and Jack Flynn were adding touches of their own.

The two first-half goals owed something to luck, but more to creativity.

Whittaker claimed the first 25 minutes in when, after zipping through the centre, the ball was spilled, recovered and, in the split second where the defenders stopped, despatched into the bottom corner of the net.

Six minutes later and Shane Corcoran latched on to a quick sideline ball move, his enterprise rewarded when a mishit shot deflected off either a defender or the Meath goalkeeper before scuttling over the line.

Meath found responses to both but three consecutive points from Mark McHugh’s side left them with a six-point – 2-9 to 0-9 – lead at the interval and with no less than 14 players having already added to the scoreboard.

A Loughlin two-pointer stretched the lead out to eight. It was an advantage that Westmeath would restore twice more through the next ten minutes as the to-and-fro nature of the game continued as before.

Those two goals were already proving to be worth their weight in gold and, while Loughlin hobbled off injured after 51 minutes, Westmeath struck again soon after when Corcoran claimed a second goal with a bullet to the top corner.

The gap now was ten points.

Kudos to Meath, they ate into that deficit from there to the finish. James Conlon picked off point after point and Ruairi Kinsella had a pair of two-pointers in a quick five-point haul as Westmeath made the odd mistake that left the door ajar.

Only two points separated them until one last-ditch Meath kickout was intercepted and Dan McCartan waltzed through an acreage of space to claim his side’s fourth goal with two seconds to go.

The Leinster Championship: where it’s at.

Scorers for Meath: R Kinsella (0-6, 2 2-pts); E Frayne (0-4, 1 2pt); J Conlon (0-4); J Flynn (0-3, 1 2pt); J Morris (0-3, 2f); J O’Connor and A Lynch (both 0-2); B Menton (0-1.

Scorers for Westmeath: S Corcoran (2-2); M Whittaker and D McCartan (both 1-0); L Loughlin (0-6, 1 2pt); S McCartan (0-4, 3f); R Connellan (0-2); B Kelly (0-2, 1m); B Cooney, K O’Sullivan (both 0-1).

Meath: S Brennan; S Lavin, S Rafferty, B O’Halloran; D Keogan, S Coffey, C Caulfield; J Flynn, B Menton; J O’Connor, R Kinsella, C McBride; J Morris, E Frayne, A Lynch.

Subs: J Conlon for Lynch (37); C Hickey for McBride and K Smyth for O’Halloran (both 50); C Duke for O’Connor (54); K Curtis for Frayne (57).

Westmeath: C McCormack; D Scahill, C Drumm, T Baker; R Wallace, S Allen, M Whittaker; B Cooney, P Connellan; K O’Sullivan, S McCartan, C Dillon; S Corcoran, L Loughlin, B Kelly.

Subs: J Daly for McCormack (9); S Ormsby for Cooney (49); R Forde for Loughlin (51); T Molloy for Allen (53); D McCartan for Kelly (61).

Referee: B Cassidy (Derry).