Martin eager to Ring in new era
April 30, 2010After using the National League to find his feet, new Westmeath hurling manager Kevin Martin is turning his thoughts to the Christy Ring Cup which this year comes with the carrot of three years in the Liam McCarthy Cup for the winners.
And following Westmeath's strong finish to the Division 2 campaign which saw them escape relegation by the skin of their teeth, the former All-Ireland winner sees no reason why the Lake County can't win the second tier championship for a third time.
"There is nothing to stop us from winning it. The players are good enough, it just boils down to putting in the effort and getting themselves mentally right," the straight-talking Tullamore man says.
"We didn't have the best of league campaigns and it was looking bad after the first four games when we had no wins on the board. But in fairness to the lads, when their backs were against the wall, they came up trumps. They played their best hurling when they were under pressure and that's always a good sign. We seem to be coming into a nice bit of form at just the right time and the Christy Ring Cup is there for us if we want it enough."
Martin admits that relegation to Division 3A would have been a "disaster" for Westmeath hurling, adding that the players weren't entirely to blame for the situation which left them needing to win two of their last three matches against Antrim, Clare and Down to retain their Division 2 status.
"It wasn't just the players' fault - we (the management) were trying out different things in the first few games and they didn't come off for us," says the manager, whose selectors are Noel Geraghty (Castletown-Geoghegan) and Nicky Weir (Raharney).
"We started the year well by beating Kildare in the Kehoe Cup final, but when they turned around and beat us in the league and then Carlow put five goals past us, I was definitely worried. I watched the DVD of the Kildare game and even though we had at least 60 per cent of the possession, we lost because we were leaking goals and not taking our chances at the other end.
"But we were missing Conor Jordan, Paul Greville and Adam Price from the full back line for various reasons and their return for the latter rounds was a huge boost to us. Brendan McLoughlin took over the goalkeeper's position and as well as being very experienced, he helped to organise the defence. Leo Smith's return was also vital after he had missed the early rounds due to his involvement with Portumna in the All-Ireland club championship."
He continues: "Westmeath is a small county in hurling terms and we need everyone available to us at all times. I have no doubt that we would have been pushing for promotion to Division 1 if we had a full panel to pick from for the whole campaign."
While former Dublin goalkeeper McLoughlin and Leo Smith's brother Peter are major additions to the squad ahead of the Christy Ring Cup campaign, Martin has been left to rue the departures of home grown talents Derek McNicholas and Robbie Jackson to the US. McNicholas, in particular, will be a huge loss, having scored the late winning goal against Down in Ballycran which kept Westmeath in Division 2.
"Derek and Robbie will be big losses, but you can't blame them for heading abroad when work is so difficult to come by in this country at the moment. However, we can only work with the players we have and I'm convinced the squad we have is good enough to win the Ring Cup. As I've already said, Brendan McLoughlin is a fine goalkeeper and Peter Smith will also be a good addition once he recovers from a foot injury. Brendan qualifies to play for us because he works in Mullingar, while Peter is based in Custom Barracks in Athlone," he explains.
At the GAA's recent Congress, a motion to grant the winners of this year's Christy Ring Cup the option of three years in the Liam McCarthy Cup was accepted. This development has been warmly welcomed by Westmeath as it provides them with a major incentive to win this year's competition.
"The carrot is there for us, so it shouldn't be too hard to motivate the lads this year," the 37-year-old says.
"I accept that in previous years it may have been difficult for the players to motivate themselves because there was no promotion, but there can be no excuses this year. The prize for winning the Ring Cup is massive and I'm hoping we will grab it with both hands. I think every effort should be made by everyone to win it, and that includes the county board who need to take us into consideration when they are fixing their club football games."
Encouraged by the huge strides that have been made at underage level in the county, Martin believes it is imperative that the next generation of Westmeath players have Liam McCarthy Cup hurling to look forward to when they enter the senior ranks. He also feels it would be a fitting reward for stalwarts like to Darren McCormack and Andrew Mitchell to finish their inter-county careers playing at the highest level.
Regarded by many as one of hurling's most promising managers, Kevin won All-Ireland medals with Offaly in 1994 and '98 and was also honoured with All-Star awards in the same years. He was part of an outstanding half back line which also featured Hubert Rigney and Brian Whelahan, who was named on the GAA's Hurling Team of the Millennium.
Prior to taking the Westmeath job, he cut his managerial teeth with his beloved Tullamore. After leading them to an Offaly SHC quarter-final appearance in 2008, he performed the role of player-manager in last year's county championship success, which was Tullamore's first since 1964. It was Martin's first time to play in a county hurling final and he capped a memorable day by scoring 1-1 from full forward against Kilcormac/Killoughey - the team that had knocked out 'The Blues' the previous year.
Kevin reveals that Westmeath hurling officials had already spoken to him about the possibility of taking over from Eamonn Gallagher before the county final, but that he didn't give it serious thought until after the Sean Robbins Cup had been secured.
"They had been on to me a few weeks before the county final, but all my focus was on the final at that stage. But once that was over, I gave it a fair bit of thought and decided to give it a go. I saw it as another challenge and an opportunity to manage an inter-county team which just happened to be on my doorstep," explains Martin, who got to see some of his new Westmeath charges up close when he lined out for Tullamore against Clonkill in last November's Leinster club semi-final.
Martin is the latest Offaly man to take charge of the Lake County, following in the footsteps of fellow All-Ireland winners Johnny Dooley, Pat Delaney, Joachim Kelly and Johnny Flaherty. He is clearly a born winner and hopefully this trait will help bring success to Westmeath in the months ahead. Tweet
