A truly great team coming to Mullingar on Sunday next

As last Sunday’s mind-boggling hammering of Antrim by our footballers was taking shape, a colleague asked me, “Is this Westmeath’s biggest-ever win?”

When I get a chance, I will try to answer that question categorically from what I would like to think are fairly comprehensive stats accumulated over the years (and thanks, as ever, in absentia to the late, great Paddy Flanagan for his invaluable help in this regard).

However, with the impending arrival of Limerick to TEG Cusack Park, another question that hit me in recent days was whether a team chasing a Liam MacCarthy four-timer had ever played a National Hurling League game in Mullingar. My records suggest that Tipperary on February 10, 1952 ticks specific that box.

It tends to evoke potential retirement thoughts, sitting in a rocking chair with a pipe (well, it won’t be lit!) and slippers, when yours truly recalls a strange sentimental attachment to Limerick hurling. My first day in work as a trainee accountant was on September 3, 1973, six days before my 17th birthday, complete with an unruly mop of long hair – now where did that fall out in the intervening half-century?

It felt very adult circa 10.45am to be at my first-ever work tea break, a plethora of 20-something-year-olds and young hirsute me discussing Limerick’s first All-Ireland win in 33 years the previous day in rain-swept Croke Park, their seventh overall (that’s a figure which Man Utd fans will want to avoid since last Sunday). Little did any of us (and may the Lord rest two since-deceased colleagues) think that it would be a whopping 45 years before some other gang of workers would be discussing the Treaty men’s eighth title.

Of course, that number has risen to 11 as John Kiely’s superb side has dominated the small ball game since they broke through in 2018. Indeed, a non-awarded ‘65’ in 2019 could have meant they would have been the first hurling five in-a-row champions. And who says that this relatively young team won’t still achieve that feat in 2024?

Their huge physical side, with skill in abundance in every position, and a strong bench, have been a joy to behold over the past half-decade. A joy, that is, to effective neutrals like ourselves who are never involved in the business end of the Liam MacCarthy Cup. That, unfortunately, will be our lot again in 2023, while retaining a definite target of keeping our spot in the race for the Bob O’Keeffe Cup. That seems pretty much certain to require a home win against Antrim on Sunday, May 28.

More detailed talk of that match is for another day, but respectable league showings against Limerick and Galway (a week later) in Mullingar, ahead of a likely relegation play-off, are the immediate priority.

The few handfuls of Westmeath people in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday week left the wonderful facility more than content with a two-goal defeat at the hands of Cork. Yes, we all get Joe Fortune’s oft-stated mantra that “these lads don’t do moral victories”, but this was surely an acceptable moral victory, particularly given that the home team’s third-minute goal had us worried that an avalanche of three-pointers might ensue. To their great credit, goalkeeper Noel Conaty and several hard-working defenders ensured this was not the case.

While Fortune and his troops are to be admired for their non-acceptance of ‘moral victories’, a pragmatic viewpoint would be that a similar result next Sunday to what was achieved by the banks of the Lee would be very acceptable. Kyles Hayes will be absent due his retrospective one-match ban, but the men in green and white will feature some of the best hurlers seen nationwide in many a long day.

Sunday’s game will be the 13th league clash between the two counties. Remarkably, Westmeath won the first and third of these in 1946 and 1956 respectively. Indeed, I was very proud when chatting to Limerick legend Eamonn Cregan back in 2007, that one of the key men in that 1973 breakthrough side recalled attending the game in Mullingar in 1956 as a ten-year-old, and being awe of our very own ‘Jobber’ McGrath who scored a whopping 4-4 that day in the home team’s 5-8 to 3-10 win over the then-reigning Munster champions.

The three NHL games between the sides this millennium resulted as follows:

19/2/2011, Limerick, Limerick 1-20 Westmeath 0-15

1/3/2020, Limerick, Limerick 1-24 Westmeath 0-18

13/6/2021, TEG Cusack Park, Limerick 3-26 Westmeath 0-18 (details hereunder)

Scorers –

Limerick: A Gillane 0-8 (5fs, 1‘65’), S Flanagan 0-4, K Hayes 1-1, P Ryan and D O’Connell 1-0 each, B Murphy (2fs) and T Morrisey 0-3 each, P Casey 0-2, R English, G Hegarty, G Mulcahy, C Boylan and B O’Grady 0-1 each.

Westmeath: N O’Brien 0-6 (5fs, 1‘65’), C Doyle 0-3 (1f), D McNicholas, J Coll and A Clarke 0-2 each, C Boyle, S Clavin and A Cox 0-1 each.

Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Jerome Boylan, Richie English, Barry Nash; Brian O’Grady, Ronan Connolly, Kyle Hayes; Robbie Hanley, Darragh O’Donovan; Tom Morrissey, Peter Casey, Conor Boylan; Aaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan, Graeme Mulcahy. Subs used: Adrian Breen for Flanagan (h-t), Pat Ryan for Mulcahy (49), William O’Donovan for Hanley (49), Gearóid Hegarty for Morrissey (57), Barry Murphy for Gillane (61), Darren O’Connell for Casey (61), Dan Morrissey for Hayes (62).

Westmeath: Noel Conaty; Darragh Egerton, Tommy Gallagher, Conor Shaw; Aaron Craig, Tommy Doyle, Aonghus Clarke; Cormac Boyle, Shane Clavin; Niall O’Brien, Derek McNicholas, Joey Boyle; Darragh Clinton, Niall Mitchell, Ciaran Doyle. Subs used: Josh Coll for Clinton (27), Kevin Regan for Craig (46), Alan Cox for C Boyle (52), Brendan Doyle for Egerton (61), Shane Williams for J Boyle (61), Jordy Smyth for O’Brien (65).