Jack: Tailteann final ‘a chance to make good, measurable progress’

Now in his fourth season as Westmeath football manager, Jack Cooney is overseeing a settled Lake County side which is in now in with a real chance of annexing a rare piece of summertime silverware.

If Westmeath leave Croke Park as the inaugural Tailteann Cup winners on Saturday, it will be the third trophy they have won since Cooney took the reins in 2019. That year, they landed the O’Byrne Cup, before winning Division 3 of the NFL.

The Tailteann Cup is a different kettle of fish however, and although effectively an All-Ireland ‘B’ championship, Cooney puts great stock in the competition as an indicator of Westmeath’s progress in the pecking order of Gaelic football.

“I think the competition is still fairly novel. It’s finding its feet. I think it’s going to evolve over the next couple of years,” the Coralstown/Kinnegad clubman – a selector and coach with the late Páidí Ó Sé during the halcyon days of the Kerryman’s tenure as Westmeath manager –said in TEG Cusack Park last Tuesday. “If people get behind it, I think it could take on a life of its own and could be really positive.

“It’s a great opportunity for teams that are in Division 3 and 4 of the league who qualify for it, and it’s a great opportunity to develop systems and players. It’s a realistic indication of where you’re at, and it’s a realistic chance to make good, measurable progress.”

After the bitter disappointment of the Leinster SFC semi-final defeat against Kildare, when the Lilywhites were there for the taking, Westmeath kicked off their Tailteann Cup campaign against Laois. But for a second half goal from Sam McCartan, the extended season might have ground to a halt after just 70 minutes.

“We spoke about that in the group. It’s amazing the difference a win will make. We went from a losing enclosure to a winner’s enclosure before and after the Laois match. A win, no matter championship level it’s at, just lifts the spirits and lifts everything,” said Cooney. “We were able to go down and try and build on that for the Carlow game.

“So I certainly wouldn’t underestimate the value of what a championship win, whether it’s Tailteann Cup or Sam Maguire, actually brings to the group. It puts a real pep in their step on the Tuesday [at training].

“In all honesty, we were probably lucky to get out of Portlaoise with a win. We rode our luck. Our goal came at a really good time for us in the second half, when we just need to grasp onto something to close out the game, and we did that. And once that was behind us, we were able to get a bit of momentum going.”

Westmeath followed up that display with a hard-fought win against Carlow – sans captain Kevin Maguire, who was suspended from the Laois game – before returning to Croke Park to meet neighbours Offaly. A similarly tight affair was expected with the all the fire of a midland derby, but the Maroons really upped their game and put on an attacking exhibition worthy of the Sunday afternoon television billing.

“One of our objectives was to try to get back to Croke Park. And we knew if we got back there, we’d have to win two games. And if you win two games, you’re bringing winning momentum into Croke Park,” Cooney reflected.

“We wanted to put in a big performance in Croke Park, because to be honest we were disappointed with our performance [in the Leinster SFC] against Kildare. There was aspects of that game that we weren’t happy with, and we had a chance to rectify it back in Croke Park.

“We weren’t worried about attendance or the size of crowds; it was all about trying to get a positive experience in Croke Park. We don’t have an awful lot of them, and a championship win in Croker is like a win nowhere else. And that’s what we went after.”

Apart from being caught out for a couple of soft goals, the manner of the win against Offaly was so comprehensive, and the style of football so open, that it has cranked up expectations ahead of the meeting with Cavan. A different, tighter game is expected against a side which, under Mickey Graham, tasted Ulster championship success in 2020 by beating Donegal to the Anglo-Celt Cup.

The last time the sides met was in Division 2 of the NFL on February 1, 2020, a month before the nightmare of the Covid pandemic intervened, which now seems like an infinite amount of time ago. On that occasion, a real ding-dong battle ended with Westmeath conceding a late goal and losing 1-17 to 1-13.

Although Cavan’s league fortunes have since deterioriated – they were relegated to Division 4 last year – they have held their own in the championship, reaching an Ulster semi-final and bouncing back to Division 3.

“I remember that game. That was a real see-saw of a game, and it was kind of taken from us right at the death,” former Westmeath player Cooney said of the 2020 meeting. “Cavan since have gone on to win the Ulster championship, so they’re developing. They had a few really good, positive years of underage development, competing at provincial level with U20 teams, or U21 teams back in the day. A lot of that team are probably still involved.

“So in terms of their physical development, S&C programmes and so on, they’re well advanced and well down the road. And I think that’s fairly obvious in the way the team plays.

“There’s no doubt that Cavan would have been disappointed going down to Division 4, and probably a lot of people would have been surprised. But they’re back on the upward curve now, and they’ll see winning the Tailteann Cup as a huge opportunity to get straight into Sam Maguire next year.

“That’s a carrot for both teams. They’ve got promotion out of Division 4; they only lost one game against Tipperary in the league, and they’ve had two games in Croke Park already this year, like ourselves.

“So I think both counties are going to go into this game and they’re going to fully respect each other. Both teams will really want to win this.”

Last weekend, Cooney took the calculated risk of releasing some of his players back to their clubs for the county football league finals. Luke Loughlin, one of Westmeath’s key forwards this year, starred for The Downs in the Division 1 final against Cooney’s own Coralstown/Kinnegad club, which went to extra-time.

“Extra-time wasn’t in the contract!” the affable Westmeath boss quipped. “Seriously though, it’s all about doing whatever we can do to better Westmeath football. I have no divine right to hold any players and deny the clubs from them.

“We were two weeks out from it [the Tailteann Cup final], and the lads could have picked up injuries on a Tuesday night [training with Westmeath]. So there’s no point in being hypocritical about it either.

“I’m here to support and develop Westmeath football, me and everyone that’s involved here. And the clubs are a massive part of that. The clubs are developing excellent players, and hopefully when they come into our system we try and improve them another little bit.

“So we’re all in the same boat, and we’re all hopefully rowing together.”

As of Tuesday last, with most of the club finals concluded, Cooney had a panel with a clean bill of health at his disposal, and he hopes to make it to Croker without a hitch.

“Croke Park is still a long way out, so you try to keep the quality of training at a high level, try and look after recovery and make sure lads are fresh. There’s still a huge amount of work to do.

“One of the great fears at the moment is Covid, which is out there again. So we’re taking all the measures we can to try and prevent that getting into the group. There are controllables and uncontrollables there.

“At the moment though, we have a clean bill of health – a few niggles, nothing major. But there’s certainly nobody ruled out of it at this stage,” Cooney concluded.

(The above interview took place on Tuesday week last).