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Westmeath Hurling thread

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "How can you know that we have good teams at under 14 or even under 15 level? They've hardly played any matches at that age at county level. We seem to have strong teams in hurling at every age grade for last few years according to some posters here but that's not the reality at inter county under 20 level or minor. Like you I go to lots of Westmeath hurling matches and today's disappointing display was felt by all Westmeath's supporters. There was a sense beforehand that a shock result was possible or at least a very competitive game, Dublin lead by 6 points to nil after five minutes, all scored from play. Even then it seemed that we were in for a long afternoon. This Westmeath's team had hammered Derry who beat Antrim and also hammered Carlow, we looked good in both matches, however bridging the gap from those teams to the likes of Offaly, Dublin etc is incredibly difficult,"
This Westmeath team also only drew with Meath. Would there be much chance of Dublin only drawing with the Meath men even on a bad day ? That result was glossed over afterwards but in hindsight it was an early sign of a gap in quality.
Like you say bridging the gap is the hard bit.

Jack_Sparrow (Westmeath) - Posts: 1018 - 28/04/2024 20:35:50    2541285

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "How can you know that we have good teams at under 14 or even under 15 level? They've hardly played any matches at that age at county level. We seem to have strong teams in hurling at every age grade for last few years according to some posters here but that's not the reality at inter county under 20 level or minor. Like you I go to lots of Westmeath hurling matches and today's disappointing display was felt by all Westmeath's supporters. There was a sense beforehand that a shock result was possible or at least a very competitive game, Dublin lead by 6 points to nil after five minutes, all scored from play. Even then it seemed that we were in for a long afternoon. This Westmeath's team had hammered Derry who beat Antrim and also hammered Carlow, we looked good in both matches, however bridging the gap from those teams to the likes of Offaly, Dublin etc is incredibly difficult,"
Going off u15 games vs strong teams from Tipperary etc and getting results. Winning a Leinster u15 schools final having beaten Offaly schools and a Kilkenny schools selection.
I'm going off that, but we will see how they develop as you said minor and u20 is where you see it and I share the same disappointment trust me.
The only positive I'd take out of the u20s is that you can say 4 of them have made the step up to senior and Holding and McCormack should as well.
Trying to remain positive or look at the positives where I can.

Dheen (Westmeath) - Posts: 797 - 28/04/2024 21:50:26    2541310

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I've managed to attend some of the u14 and u15 games and you can see they are getting good coaching and well organised with big panels playing against good opposition and getting results. It's about keeping that going into minor and u20. The minors at the moment I wouldn't shoot them down straight away, getting Aaron Flanagan, Darragh Kenny, Padraig Casey and some of these lads back should strengthen them back up, they were a loss at the weekend. We'll see how they fair in the knockout game vs Kildare.

Dheen (Westmeath) - Posts: 797 - 28/04/2024 22:05:45    2541314

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Westmeath might have shown some improvement at senior, bringing in some new talent and a few underage teams are showing potential. So are most other teams competing at the bottom of Tier 1 and top of Tier 2. We're pretty much where we should be given the playing pool, structures and facilities.

There's no disgrace in losing to Kerry, Offaly, Laois, Dublin etc. League campaigns often differ from c'ship. Until minor teams regularly make leinster finals or challenge the big teams it's objectively hard to assess progress. The odd scare or surprise will always happen but it's about making those results unsurprising - that's the difference.

Then the key development years 16-20 overlap with big changes in their lives (school/college). If structures and facilities aren't present their development isn't optimised. Plenty will drop off the radar too and this feeds into the senior team obviously. Nonetheless, it does start earlier than this and it's been super positive to see the 14/15 year olds making some strides.

gedupoutofit (Westmeath) - Posts: 164 - 30/04/2024 10:29:51    2541708

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Replying To gedupoutofit:  "Westmeath might have shown some improvement at senior, bringing in some new talent and a few underage teams are showing potential. So are most other teams competing at the bottom of Tier 1 and top of Tier 2. We're pretty much where we should be given the playing pool, structures and facilities.

There's no disgrace in losing to Kerry, Offaly, Laois, Dublin etc. League campaigns often differ from c'ship. Until minor teams regularly make leinster finals or challenge the big teams it's objectively hard to assess progress. The odd scare or surprise will always happen but it's about making those results unsurprising - that's the difference.

Then the key development years 16-20 overlap with big changes in their lives (school/college). If structures and facilities aren't present their development isn't optimised. Plenty will drop off the radar too and this feeds into the senior team obviously. Nonetheless, it does start earlier than this and it's been super positive to see the 14/15 year olds making some strides."
Yeah spot on and completely agree that when we get big results against Tier 1 counties and it becomes less and less surprising that's when you can say we are making significant progress. Their is talent at u14/u15. U14s might not have played many games but they have a very large panel of two teams and have beaten the likes of Offaly so far. U15s have a large panel of over 50 players as well and have beaten Offaly and Kilkenny schools when playing on the Westmeath schools team and then with the county u15s they beat a Tipperary side in Castletown on Saturday. No Tipperary side are a bad side.
We are maximising what we have with the playing pool but it's encouraging to see Castledaly have started a juvenile club, and I've heard talk of another club thinking of doing similar. That's what we need, the interest is there. The county board should be willing to assist these clubs as best they can.

Dheen (Westmeath) - Posts: 797 - 30/04/2024 12:31:07    2541760

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Your comment about no Tipperary side being a bad side was surely written before you saw Tipp's effort against Limerick last Sunday!!!!!!! To say they were deplorable is an understatement. It's good to see our players competing against likes of Tipp and Kilkenny schools but sometimes it leads to greater expectations than are realistic, Tipperary had three under 15 sides in action last weekend at different venues, it's not the likes of Tipp etc we need to measure against but Kildare, Laois and Offaly, they're our real opponents, Offaly 20s are very strong this year and beat Dublin already, we saw what Dublin were like in Cusack on Sunday. Minors facing Kildare this weekend in knockout championship is a real test of progress.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 1502 - 30/04/2024 13:10:42    2541782

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Your comment about no Tipperary side being a bad side was surely written before you saw Tipp's effort against Limerick last Sunday!!!!!!! To say they were deplorable is an understatement. It's good to see our players competing against likes of Tipp and Kilkenny schools but sometimes it leads to greater expectations than are realistic, Tipperary had three under 15 sides in action last weekend at different venues, it's not the likes of Tipp etc we need to measure against but Kildare, Laois and Offaly, they're our real opponents, Offaly 20s are very strong this year and beat Dublin already, we saw what Dublin were like in Cusack on Sunday. Minors facing Kildare this weekend in knockout championship is a real test of progress."
Very true, I don't disagree with what your saying, just trying to commend the work that's being done to try get us to a better level and standard at underage.
Ultimately we need that bigger playing pool to make real progress otherwise we will always be fighting an uphill battle. I hope the county board can help the likes of Castledaly and what they are trying to do to offer hurling to youngsters in these areas.
I really have to praise them for putting the effort in and hopefully it does encourage other clubs in the south of the county to follow suit. Nothing is impossible when the interest is there.

Dheen (Westmeath) - Posts: 797 - 30/04/2024 13:35:59    2541796

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