Outstanding in defence but hurlers lacked attacking edge
Gerry Buckley
“The first half wasn’t good enough. You were playing against the second or third best team in the country, and you stand off them and allow them to play their running game from the half back line. They were very different from what they were in the league final.”
This opening salvo from Westmeath senior hurling manager Joe Fortune will resonate with the small band of rain-soaked supporters who made the long journey down to UMPC Nowlan Park last Saturday afternoon and witnessed a mauling from the Kilkenny Cats, albeit devoid of green flags being raised by the 22-point victors.
Fortune continued: “Listen, they ran over us in the first half. Our team realised at half-time that wasn’t just good enough. I thought we were better in the second half and the lads put their bodies on the line, but we just didn’t get the scores. I thought we tried harder. But I’m not going to put a gloss on this. We scored 1-17 against Kilkenny last year, but 1-15 of that wasn’t available today due to the absent lads. We went at Kilkenny last year and for 45 minutes we were good in that game. That is no disrespect to the lads who did play, but a day like today is hard.
“I felt today coming down that the team on duty was the best available. The U20s went back to their grade last night. I could easily have taken three of them with me but it is about Westmeath, and not me. For the future, the right thing was to let those players go with their own age group last night. Our forwards didn’t work hard enough and just didn’t click, but in defence I thought ‘Jogger’ (Tommy Doyle) was outstanding. Likewise, Darragh Egerton. We didn’t concede any goals and Noel (Conaty) made a great save from the penalty. I’m delighted for him and I don’t think he gets as much credit as he deserves at times. The boys were under serious pressure there today with the quality of ball that was being pumped in. I’m proud of the lads the way they contained that goal threat,” he added.
The Wexford native went on to say: “I’m probably an emotional old fish and I care a lot about any job that I do. But I don’t think today was good enough and I thought Kilkenny out-worked us and out-fought us. We came up against an animal that was hurting after that league final (loss to Limerick) and they certainly put us to the sword in that first half.”
There is no time for self-pity in the Westmeath camp with rapid-fire games on the horizon. In this regard, the losing bainisteoir concluded: “The lads actually spoke positively after the game. We realise where we are. We maintained our Division 1 status, but we are missing five starting players. That’s not me making excuses, but when you go down to the next level of
players, and allow the U20s stay at their grade, we just found today that it was really hard to get anywhere near Kilkenny.
“We just have to have a response next Saturday in Parnell Park. Dublin will be baying for blood after dropping a point to Antrim. We’ll have to look at ourselves in the mirror this week. Hopefully, we’ll give something back to the Westmeath people who travelled down today.”