Footballers must avoid ‘second season syndrome’ in 2024
A very elderly priest friend of mine, who missed out on the cheque from Michael D by a matter of months when he died in 2016, often preached to me in one-on-one chats that the phrase ‘if only’ was the most pointless one in the entire English language.
He was right, of course, but it was still difficult to watch GAAGo on Saturday (having paid my €12 ‘consultancy fee’, albeit I received a valid invoice for same!) and be in Croke Park in the flesh the following day, and not reflect on a couple of unfortunate incidents in both Armagh and Cavan in recent weeks which largely dictated that Westmeath’s talented senior football team was not in the quarter-final draw for the Sam Maguire Cup after a 17-year gap.
Throw in the fact that Westmeath's fine U20 side defeated Kildare in the first round of the Leinster championship on a miserable March night in Hawkfield in what was the first ever ‘back door’ year in the six-decade history of the U21/U20 grade, and then the Lilywhites regroup and go on to win the All-Ireland title, and it amounts to an undoubtedly progressive, but a massive ‘if only’, year for Lake County football.
In some ways the latter story was revenge of sorts for Kildare dating back to Westmeath’s most successful decade covering 1995 to 2004 inclusive. Westmeath then seemed to receive what my late, great buddy Páidí Ó Sé used to term ‘the rub of the relic’ when a team got some luck. Many of us in Cusack Park on a cold March afternoon in 1999 were buttoning coats and ready to leave the ground as a Kildare sub missed an absolute sitter of a free to knock Luke Dempsey’s U21 team out of the championship. Westmeath won in extra-time, and a glorious campaign ended with Aidan Canning lifting the All-Ireland trophy in front of thousands of ecstatic maroon and white-clad fans in Limerick on May 15 – can it really be 24 years ago?
Canning received the cup from Sean Kelly who borrowed the words of arguably Westmeath’s most famous man at the time, Joe Dolan RIP, and the now-MEP graciously (given his Kingdom roots) expressed a wish that Westmeath would win ‘more and more and more’. And Westmeath did – all assisted by a team’s greatest potential 16th man and woman, Lord and Lady Luck.
However, the ‘Lucks’ deserted us this year, and we must move on. It is frustrating to think that it will be January before we see the county team in action again in the much-maligned, but useful nonetheless, O’Byrne Cup. The aforementioned Ventry legend famously referred to this pre-season tournament as ‘an opportunity to blow out some dirty petrol’. So it was, and will continue to be.
However, the National Football League which follows will demand clean engines all round for the men under the tutelage of Westmeath's football best-known footballer Dessie Dolan (assuming he stays on). I hope it is not overly arrogant to opine that Division 3 is no place for an ambitious county. But in it Westmeath are and it is entirely our own fault after some disappointing outings (an avoidable loss in Newry, for example) and downright bad displays (for instance, when well beaten by Fermanagh in Ederney) this spring. Assuming (nervously) that no Clare or Sligo or similar get to a provincial final next year, winning Division 3 would copper-fasten a place in the Sam Maguire Cup in 2024. Otherwise, a run to the Delaney Cup final is needed – very possible if Dublin are on the opposite side of the draw.
This scribe happens to think that if Dolan can get his charges to perform to the same level as they did against Armagh and Tyrone, and Galway up to Ray Connellan’s dismissal (which, of course, would not have happened had his team been awarded a free-in moments earlier), Westmeath would end up with a maximum 14 points.
Meatloaf sang that ‘two out of three ain’t bad’, but two and-three-quarters out of three is tremendous. In truth, Westmeath have been the best advertisement possible for the Tailteann Cup. A little over three decades since their pulsating All-Ireland ‘proper’ final of 1991, Meath and Down will both be mustard keen to win the second-tier cup in less than a fortnight’s time, thereby guaranteeing a slot in the ‘real’ championship next year.
The aforementioned heady days of 1995 to 2004 contained one very frustrating element – the lack of consecutive years as a power at senior level. Witness 2001 (when the maroon and white ribbons which adorned Sam could just as easily have been Westmeath's, rather than Galway’s) preceding a lifeless 2002. Similarly, the Delaney Cup win in 2004 was followed by a damp squib and early eliminations in both Leinster and the Qualifiers in 2005.
A very progressive 2008, including near-misses against Dublin and Tyrone in Westmeath's only double-All Star year (Dolan and John Keane the recipients, seemed light years back when the same Dubs inflicted a brace of 27-point defeats in league and championship action in 2009.
A lot, of course, will depend on the commitment of up to half a dozen senior players who have given huge service to the maroon and white cause for well over a decade. They owe the county nothing, but their presence, in some cases even as impact subs, could make or break next year. It would be great to think that Jones’ Road action in the business end of the Sam Maguire Cup beckons this time next year.
With a few ‘rubs of the relic’ here and there, Westmeath could be ‘the Monaghan’ of 2024.