McCabe full of praise for 'improving' Westmeath team
“We probably had opportunities, a few long-range frees that we should have used better and probably tried to work more scores. Between drop-shorts and wides, we may have had 15 or 16. The lads know that. They don’t need to be told. But we’re starting to do a lot of things right and we’re continuing to improve each day.”
So said Westmeath senior football manager Dermot McCabe after the most galling defeat suffered by his charges in 2025, a last-gasp and controversial goal from Meath’s Conor Duke denying the home team a first National Football league Division 2 point.
Nobody in the very large attendance was completely sure whether the new hooter brought in by the FRC had sounded before or after Duke’s dramatic strike, but the score counted on the all-important scoreboard. In this regard, the Lake County bainisteoir opined: “Look, I don’t want to be in every headline about this. It’s extremely difficult for referees and officials. I said this from the very first game. There was a very passionate crowd, a huge Meath support and the Westmeath support is beginning to grow. There was huge noise.
“Therefore, it would have to be a very powerful hooter for everyone to hear it. When their forward (Duke) caught the ball, the hooter went, is how I would consider it. It’s a learning, and it’s disappointing that these learnings are in the National League,” he added.
It was put to him how well his charges had played in every encounter to date with no tangible reward, and McCabe responded: “Yeah, I could sing that song! Two points today, or even a point, would have left us still in the battle. We still have Down and Roscommon to play. It’s disappointing that today may have evaporated our chances of staying in Division 2. We’ve lost a lot of players through retirements and travel, so we’re down maybe a dozen from last year’s panel. And we’ve injuries on top of that. But in January we finalised our panel and said we would put our heads down and work hard. I’m very proud of the panel and the efforts they are making.
“Today, we lost Wally (Ronan Wallace) who is our captain and is a mighty man for us. He’s inspirational for us. Likewise, Kevin O’Sullivan felt the quad in the warm-up. Joe Moran stepped up and battled extremely hard. Charlie Drumm is gone to the States for work purposes for a few months, but Jack Geoghegan worked extremely hard at full back,” he stated.
Unlike a week earlier when McCabe’s native Cavan cleaned out his troops in and around the midfield area, Westmeath won ample possession to win last Sunday’s game. He giggled when this was put to him, saying: “Yeah, we’re doing a little bit in training to work on some things, I suppose!”
McCabe was philosophical about the Royal County men nabbing crucial goals at the end of both halves. “We’re getting used to injury-time goals! I’m not sure what the reason is; maybe a lack of experience? But the lads don’t want to hear this. They just want to win games,” he concluded.