Westmeath and Cavan bid for a slice of GAA history

When Westmeath do battle with Cavan in Saturday’s inaugural Tailteann Cup final, it could be argued that they will be trying to secure the county’s most prized piece of football silverware since at least 2008.

Back in 2008, Westmeath defeated Dublin to win the Division 2 league title and indeed they went on to run the Dubs very close in their Leinster SFC meeting that year.

Since then, Westmeath have won Division 3 and 4 league titles and the O’Byrne Cup. It might be the second tier championship, but the Tailteann Cup would be a bigger achievement than those successes.

After the semi-final win over Offaly, Jack Cooney pointed out that Westmeath have never been in a situation where they are preparing for the last game of the championship season.

Yet the Westmeath players and management won’t be giving much thought to where winning the Tailteann Cup might rank in historical terms. They will simply by trying to win the game and the silverware that comes with it. And of course, the fact that the winners will be guaranteed a place in the Sam Maguire Cup group stages for next year provides a further incentive.

In hurling, Westmeath were the first winners of the Christy Ring Cup, winning the final against Down before an epic All-Ireland semi-final between Cork and Clare. Now the footballers have a similar opportunity to create a slice of history, with their final against Cavan taking place at Croke Park today Saturday (3pm), before an intriguing All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Galway and Derry.

Much has been said about Westmeath securing possession from virtually every one of Jason Daly’s kickouts in the semi-final against Offaly.

Cavan will surely have taken note and are likely to push up on the Westmeath kickout. The Westmeath management team will be aware of this probability and Daly will be looking to vary his restarts. He will need different targets to aim for if Cavan close down the short options.

The semi-final was a remarkably open game and it’s likely to be a very different contest on Saturday. Cavan will pose different questions and they certainly won’t afford Westmeath the space to produce the sparkling attacking football seen in their last outing.

Cavan manager Mickey Graham has at least two notable successes to his credit in recent years, having guided St Columba’s, Mullinalaghta to a famous Leinster club final victory over Kilmacud Crokes in 2018.

In 2020, Graham was involved in another stunning win when his Cavan side defeated Donegal in the Ulster final. It was the Breffni men’s first Ulster senior crown since 1997 and it sparked huge celebrations in a championship campaign significantly hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the fact that Westmeath and Cavan share a border, with the Bridge of Finea dividing them, a rivalry between them has never taken off as they compete in different provinces.

Indeed, Westmeath and Cavan have only met once in a senior championship game, with the Ulster side winning an All-Ireland qualifier clash in 2014 by a single point at Kingspan Breffni Park (see teams & scorers below).

An interesting aspect to that game in 2014 was that it was Dessie Dolan’s last appearance for Westmeath before he decided to retire from the inter-county scene. Now Dolan is a selector with the Westmeath team aiming to overcome Cavan in this novel final.

It’s a difficult challenge but if Westmeath play to their full potential, it’s one they are capable of achieving as Caulry’s Kevin Maguire hopes to become the first man to lift the Tailteann Cup.

There is one change to the Westmeath starting team for the eagerly awaited final against Cavan, with Nigel Harte coming in for Sam Duncan.

Westmeath (team v Cavan): Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire (captain), Jamie Gonoud; James Dolan, Ronan Wallace, Nigel Harte; Jonathan Lynam, Ray Connellan; Sam McCartan, Ronan O’Toole, David Lynch; Luke Loughlin, John Heslin, Lorcan Dolan.

Flashback - 2014 All-Ireland SFC

Cavan 1-15 Westmeath 1-14

Cavan team & scorers: Conor Gilsenan; Jason McLoughlin, Rory Dunne, Killian Brady; Joshua Hayes (0-1), James McEnroe, Robert Maloney-Derham (0-1); Damien O'Reilly (captain), Gearóid McKiernan (0-1); Michael Argue (0-2), Michael Lyng (0-3), Niall McDermott (1-2, 0-1f); Martin Reilly, David Givney (0-1), Jack Brady (0-3, 1f). Subs used: Eugene Keating (0-1) for Givney; Tomás Corr for O'Reilly; Cian Mackey for Lyng; Alan Clarke for McDermott; Mark McKeever for K Brady.

Westmeath team & scorers: Stephen Gallagher; Damien Dolan, Kevin Maguire, John Gilligan (1-0); James Dolan, Kieran Gavin, Paul Sharry (captain, 0-2, 2f); David Duffy, Ger Egan (0-2); Kieran Martin (0-1), John Heslin (0-4, 3f), Aidan Burke; Lorcan Smyth, Callum McCormack (0-3), Dessie Dolan (0-2). Subs used: Alan Coffey for Burke; Ronan Foley for Smyth; Denis Corroon for Duffy; Denis Glennon for Gavin.