2009 was an annus horribilis for the Westmeath senior footballers whose decline was as sharp and dramatic as that of the Irish economy.

Not for the first time this past decade, the county's senior footballers followed up a successful year with a terribly poor one in 2009. But unlike in previous years, the outlook appears decidedly bleak as the men who delivered the Delaney Cup to the county in 2004 come to the end of their inter-county careers.
It has been a great decade for Westmeath - with that first ever Leinster title secured and three All-Ireland quarter-final appearances - but the curtain has now sadly come down on that memorable period. The great pity is that it had to end this way for many of the county's greatest servants.
The decision by Tomas O Flatharta to step down after six years of involvement with the team didn't come as any surprise after one of the worst seasons Westmeath have ever endured. After losing all seven of the National League games - including some by big margins - Westmeath were relegated to Division 2 of the National League with a whimper.
They needed extra-time to get over Wicklow in the Leinster championship quarter-final before suffering a 27-point trouncing by Dublin - the county's heaviest championship defeat since 1891.
And whatever hopes they had of restoring pride were well and truly dashed by Meath, who maintained their remarkable unbeaten championship record against their neighbours with a comfortable 10-point win in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
O Flatharta was brought to Westmeath in late 2003 by then manager and fellow Kerryman Paidi O Se and was widely praised for his training methods as the Lake County ended their Leinster championship famine the following July. He then took the manager's job when O Se resigned in 2005, and led Westmeath to an All-Ireland quarter-final appearance the following year via the backdoor route.
In 2008, he turned Westmeath into one of the most difficult teams in the country to beat by adopting an Ulster-style defensive system, and this duly yielded a National League Division 2 title, while his side also pushed both Dublin and Tyrone to the wire in the championship.
But last season proved something of a nightmare for O Flatharta and his team with injuries, high mileage and a loss of form to key players all contributing to a dramatic decline in fortunes. The team's lack of fitness was also painfully obvious as they failed to register a victory outside of the extra-time wins over Wicklow in the Leinster championship and Wexford in the O'Byrne Cup Shield.
Brendan Hackett was appointed as Westmeath's new manager last September intent on rebuilding the team, but his term in charge lasted only seven months and the rebuilding job will now be left to someone else. It certainly won't be easy given Westmeath's appalling record at underage level since 2000 when the county last savoured provincial success in the minor and under 21 grades. If there isn't an immediate improvement in underage structures, it's conceivable that Westmeath will find themselves languishing in Division 4 of the National League before too long. And that would be hard to take for supporters who have become accustomed to success since the 1995 All-Ireland minor breakthrough.
One of the biggest talking points in 2009 was Westmeath's horrific concession rate. Many supporters are still asking themselves how could the country's meanest defence become so sieve-like in the space of a year. In eight league games in 2008, the Lake County defence conceded an average of less than nine points a game, lower than any other team in the four divisions. Twelve months on, that average had more than doubled to 19 points, albeit against Division 1 opposition.
Similarly, a championship average of 11 points conceded per game in 2008 had increased to a staggering 23 points per game in championship '09. This is a problem that must be addressed if Westmeath are to stop the rot in 2010.
From very early in 2009, it became apparent that the season would be a struggle for Westmeath. After their heroics in winning Division 2 of the National League the previous season, no-one could have envisaged life in Division 1 being so tough, but deprived of many of their star names through injury, the Lake County's lack of strength in depth was brutally exposed by the heavyweights of Gaelic football.
Westmeath needed to have all their best players available to avoid a quick return to Division 2, and sadly this proved to be the case. While the youngsters who came in gave everything they had, it was asking an awful lot of them to compete against the seasoned campaigners of Kerry, Tyrone and Galway.
Such was the extent of Westmeath's injury crisis that Tomas O Flatharta was forced to blood up to seven under 21 players. Stalwart performers such as Martin Flanagan, David O'Shaughnessy, Fergal Wilson, Damien Healy and Alan Mangan didn't feature in the league campaign at all, while hamstring injuries ruled Dessie Dolan and Donal O'Donoghue out of most of the campaign as well.
These injuries left the Lake County facing a mission impossible, and relegation looked inevitable as early as the second round when they slumped to a 0-7 to 1-18 defeat to Derry in Ballinascreen. The team seemed to lose all heart after they were denied a famous victory over All-Ireland champions Tyrone by a last-gasp Colm Cavanagh goal in round four, and they were already Division 2-bound when they crashed to an embarrassing 27-point defeat to Dublin in the final round at Parnell Park. At the time, many were quick to dismiss the result as a once-off, but Dublin proved that it was no fluke when they trounced Westmeath by the same margin a little over two months later.
While many of Westmeath's marquee names returned for the Leinster championship opener against Wicklow in Tullamore, there was no obvious improvement in the team's performance and they could have and should have been beaten by Mick O'Dwyer's charges. In hindsight, losing to Wicklow would not have been such a bad thing considering what awaited Westmeath against Dublin. As it turned out, Wicklow went to reach the last 12 of the championship and perhaps Westmeath would have achieved something similar if their confidence hadn't been completely shattered by the Dubs.
After racing into an early 0-3 to 0-0 lead, Westmeath struggled for the rest of the first half and trailed by two points at the break. Indeed, Wicklow's lead would have been more had Gary Connaughton not saved an eighth minute penalty from Tony Hannon.
With Wicklow, and Hannon in particular, continuing to spurn good chances, Westmeath fought back to lead by 0-10 to 1-5 with 15 minutes remaining. The Garden County then knocked over three unanswered points to regain the lead before Fergal Wilson forced extra-time with an equalising point in stoppage time.
The more experienced Lake County side took control in extra-time, thanks largely to a dominant midfield showing from substitute David O'Shaughnessy. Three points from impressive debutant Conor Lynam and Fergal Wilson in the second period saw Westmeath emerge as 0-16 to 1-11 winners.
Two weeks later, Westmeath football suffered one of its most humiliating defeats at the hands of Dublin in the Leinster semi-final. A ruthless Dublin team hammered the Lake County by 4-26 to 0-11 in front of over 50,000 fans and a live TV audience. There was absolutely nowhere to hide for a Westmeath side that capitulated in spectacular fashion.
The tone for a disastrous afternoon was set when Dublin posted three points inside the first two minutes. By the 10th minute, the game was already over as a contest with the purring Metropolitans 0-8 to 0-0 in front.
John Connellan eventually got the bewildered midlanders off the mark, but Dublin kept piling on the scores and a Bernard Brogan goal late in the first half following a terrible defensive mix-up left them 1-14 to 0-4 to the good at the break.
There was no respite for Westmeath in the second half as further goals from Brogan, Tomas Quinn and Darren Magee added to the massacre. Long before referee Jimmy White mercifully sounded his final whistle on the stroke of full time, many Westmeath supporters had left the ground, unable to take anymore.
When Westmeath were paired with old rivals Meath in the second round of the All-Ireland qualifiers at Cusack Park, it not only offered them a shot at redemption but the opportunity to finally secure a first ever championship win over their illustrious neighbours in 22 attempts.
But although the home side battled valiantly in the first half in the most testing of conditions, they didn't have the quality or belief to really threaten Meath. And when man of the match Joe Sheridan scored Meath's goal in the 33rd minute, the Royal County were well on their way to the next round.
Meath had sprinted into a 1-10 to 0-3 lead by the 47th minute before a Martin Flanagan goal and a Conor Lynam point reduced the deficit to six. But with Sheridan causing all sorts of problems at the other end, Meath upped the tempo again to pull clear for a 1-15 to 1-5 victory.
Westmeath football has reached a crossroads and on last year's evidence, it's going to be quite a while before the county is in a position to compete with the big boys once again. Tweet

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