Doyle excels as Westmeath finish league with a win

Westmeath 3-18, Carlow 3-15

By Gerry Buckley

Killian Doyle scored a whopping 1-15 as already-relegated Westmeath ended their National Hurling League Division 1B campaign by securing their first points of 2025 with a deserved win against Carlow, in what was a lively encounter at Netwatch Cullen Park last Saturday.

For the men in maroon and white, this was a ‘dead rubber’ played in front of a very small crowd. Carlow still had a small chance of progressing to the top flight, largely due to their sensational win against Waterford on day one. Remarkably, however, the atmosphere reeked of a ‘dead rubber’ for both teams, with very few home supporters and just the usual few handfuls of away diehards present.

Overall, this has to go down as a timely and morale-boosting win for Seoirse Bulfin’s much-maligned charges ahead of the Joe McDonagh Cup next month. At full strength and displaying much less profligacy than was the case on Saturday, Westmeath can undoubtedly be strong contenders for the tier two championship. However, it must also be stated that Division 2 in 2026 (effectively tier three of the league) contains some very unappetising fixtures, but that issue is for another day.

Doyle was the star man right from the off and he scored the opening 1-3 of the game – three fine points from play, prior to a goal from a free in the tenth minute. Indeed, it was difficult to ascertain whether his angled shot from the placed ball was a deliberate attempt at a three-pointer, but it certainly caught Kyle Foley off-guard.

However, the home team, wearing a predominantly all-white strip and lining out very differently from the match programme, rallied with a 12th-minute goal from their marquee forward Marty Kavanagh and a point gifted to Fiach O’Toole. The sides equally shared six points by the 26th minute – Joey Boyle (play) and Doyle (two ‘65’s) for the winners, and Kavanagh (two frees) and Donagh Murphy (a great score in open play) for the losers.

A great move ended with Jake Doyle netting in the 27th minute to edge Tom Mullally’s troops ahead for the first time (2-4 to 1-6). However, Westmeath responded immediately with a quickfire brace of goals from David Williams – the first set up by an intuitive Doyle handpass, and the second a delightful opportunist finish after Doyle had initially been denied by Foley.

Point exchanges ensued between the respective number 11s, Kavanagh and Doyle (frees), and Jon Nolan (play) and Doyle (free). In the last action of the first moiety, Kavanagh dissected the posts from a ‘65’. Westmeath led by 3-8 to 2-7 at the interval.

Early in the second half, Kavanagh (a free) and Doyle (a well-worked score) swapped points. A Jack Treacy point and a 45th-minute goal from Conor Kehoe levelled the scoring at 3-9 apiece, with Westmeath looking vulnerable when goal opportunities arose. Doyle (a free) and Murphy (an opportunist score) quickly traded points. The teams went on to equally share half-a dozen points by the hour mark – Doyle (two, play and a monster free) and David Williams for Westmeath, and Kavanagh, Murphy, and Fiachra Fitzpatrick for their opponents, leaving the scores tied at 3-13 apiece.

To their credit, Westmeath looked very determined to break their duck to round off a largely poor campaign, and that man Doyle led the way with a hat-trick of points (a free and a superb brace from play), followed by a fine score from his club colleague Eamon Cunneen. Another Doyle free as the clock ticked to 70 minutes put the Lake County firmly in control. A minimum of three minutes’ added-time was announced, but all that Carlow could muster therein was a point each from sub John Michael Nolan (open play) and Kavanagh (a free, when most of the small crowd expected him to try and blast home a goal).

Scorers - Westmeath: K Doyle 1-15 (1-6f, 0-2‘65’), D Williams 2-1, J Boyle, E Cunneen 0-1 each. Carlow: M Kavanagh 1-7 (0-5f, 0-1‘65’), C Kehoe and J Doyle 1-0 each, D Murphy 0-3, F O’Toole, J Nolan, F Fitzpatrick, J Treacy, JM Nolan 0-1 each.

WESTMEATH: Jack Gillen; Conor Gaffney, Aaron Craig, Gary Greville; Eoin Keyes, Robbie Greville, Shane Williams; Davy Glennon, Eamon Cunneen; Joey Boyle, Killian Doyle, Mark Cunningham; David O’Reilly, Niall O’Brien, David Williams. Subs used: Peter Clarke for Cunningham (46), Darragh Clinton for Glennon (58).

CARLOW: Kyle Foley; Paul Doyle, Niall Bolger, Lorcan Doyle; Colm Beck, Kevin McDonald, Darragh Nolan; Jon Nolan, Fiachra Fitzpatrick; Jake Doyle, Marty Kavanagh, Fiach O’Toole; Conor Kehoe, Jack Treacy, Donagh Murphy. Subs used: John Michael Nolan for O’Toole (54), Ted Joyce for J Doyle (61), Eric English for Treacy (67), Chris Nolan for Murphy (70+3), Richie Coady for Fitzpatrick (70+3).

Referee: Thomas Walsh.