New territory for Castledaly as they represent Westmeath for first time

IT"S been a hectic last few weeks for all those associated with Castledaly. But now it"s time to get back to business. The unique nature of the club"s maiden Westmeath SFC win on October 12 meant celebrations in and around the village continued for quite some time. Understandable you might say, though, considering the club"s long and often heartbreaking wait for a senior county title. But this Sunday sees Castledaly return to action in the shape of an away meeting with Navan O"Mahony"s in the quarter-finals of the Leinster SFC (Páirc Tailteann, Navan, throw-in: 2.30pm). Castledaly club chairman, Alan Duffy, who is also part of the playing panel, said this week: 'Castledaly is a small rural club and the county championship meant a lot to us. There was a period of a couple of weeks where celebrations were ongoing and it was important that the children and older people of Castledaly were involved. To be fair, we probably won"t know how the players are until ten minutes into Sunday"s game, but training has been back to normal recently. 'You look back at Westmeath, when they won their first ever Leinster title, and they then seemed to lose a bit of focus for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Derry. It happens from time to time. But there"s an optimistic atmosphere around the club and hopefully we will give a very good account of ourselves.' Alan, in his third year as club chairman, said it means a lot to the players to be representing Westmeath and feels the club will enjoy its first venture into a Leinster senior football championship. 'It"s a new experience for everyone at the club and it"s something to be enjoyed,' he said. 'Navan O"Mahony"s are fairly big guns, though, and will be very strong opposition. But it"s an exciting venture into the unknown for the club. It"s an honour for the players. We are a close knit community club and have waited a while for this occasion.' It"s generally acknowledged that Castledaly enjoyed a large portion of neutral support at the recent county final against Garrycastle. No doubt, the tag of underdogs swayed most neutrals in their direction that day. Alan is hoping the team will get similar support on Sunday. 'We"re hoping for a bit of support from the rest of the county. There"s only a couple of hundred in Castledaly and I suppose someone has to remain at home to watch the house! But we felt the groundswell of neutral support at the final was a major factor over in Mullingar. With the game taking place in Navan, hopefully we might get some support from the north of the county,' Duffy said. Alan"s two younger brothers, Gordon and Niall, form a formidable midfield pairing for Castledaly.