These are boom times for ladies football with new clubs springing up all over the country on a weekly basis. For so long dominated by Rochfortbridge and Coralstown, the Westmeath ladies scene has never been so vibrant as county board chairperson Tom Walsh proudly explains. After a few difficult years, ladies football in Westmeath is on the up again. There are now 16 clubs affiliated to the county board and there are signs that Westmeath could become a force to be reckoned with at inter-county level once again. Powered by players from the Rochfortbridge and Coralstown clubs, Westmeath ladies football reached its zenith in 1987 when they county side contested the All-Ireland senior final against Kerry. That should have heralded a new and exciting era for the game in the Lake County, but despite the success of Rochfortbridge on the provincial and All-Ireland stage throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Westmeath ladies football was in serious decline until the turn of the millennium when things started to pick up again. Westmeath's revival has coincided with an explosion in interest which has seen playing membership swell to around 100,000 nationwide. A driving force in the growth and development of the sport has been Kinnegad's Geraldine Giles, who will begin her second three-year term as president of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association at this year's National Congress which takes place in the Mullingar Park Hotel at the beginning of March. "The interest is back in Westmeath ladies football after a few tough years," says Westmeath county board chairperson Tom Walsh. "We used to have a situation where a girl would have to travel long distances to play ladies football, but now every girl in the county has an opportunity to play the game on their doorstep. There are 13 adult clubs along with three juvenile clubs now operating in every corner of the county. Girls are now starting to take up the game at seven and eight years of age, and are getting a lot of enjoyment from it." Walsh, who succeeded Moate's Triona Murray as chairperson in 2005 after serving a year as vice-chairperson, has welcomed the emergence of relatively new clubs such as St. Loman's, Milltown, Garrycastle and Kilbeggan Shamrocks as major players in the local championship. "There was a very high standard in last year's senior championship," notes Tom, who is synonymous with the Milltown club. "St. Loman's retained their title after beating Milltown in the final for the second year-in-a-row. Moate and Garrycastle also gave good accounts of themselves and with Kilbeggan coming up from the intermediate ranks, it makes for an even more competitive senior championship in 2006. "The intermediate and junior championships were also keenly contested last year and we can expect some great games in these grades again this year." Last year's senior final at Cusack Park resulted in a comprehensive victory for the holders St. Loman's over Milltown. Joe Maleady's charges laid the foundations for their success in the opening five minutes when they scored 2-2 without reply. This early scoring burst left Milltown with a mountain to climb and, while they reduced the deficit to a more manageable five points at the half-way stage, the Mullingar girls regained their grip on proceedings after the break to run out winners by 2-12 to 1-5. On the same day, Kilbeggan Shamrocks continued their meteoric rise through the ranks with a hugely impressive 0-20 to 0-4 victory over an outclassed Clann Gaels team. Like St. Loman's in 2002 and 2003, Kilbeggan have now put intermediate and junior titles back-to-back and will be hoping that their momentum will carry them all the way to a senior title in the coming season. A resurgent Coralstown captured the 2005 junior title following a four-point win over Tyrrellspass at St. Loman's. While Coralstown can look forward to playing in this year's intermediate championship, Tyrrellspass will be hoping it's a case of third-time lucky in 2006 after losing the last two finals. Westmeath still have a long way to go before they return to the heights of the 1980s, but the signs are encouraging nevertheless. Last May, under the guidance of Kildare man Michael Delaney, the Lake County reached the National Football League Division 4 final which ended in a disappointing 3-8 to 6-12 defeat to Wicklow. The concession of five first half goals scuppered Westmeath's best laid plans and despite a gritty second half performance, they never looked like making up the ground against an impressive Wicklow side. The youthful Westmeath side was rocked by the concession of four goals in the first 13 minutes and trailed by 1-4 to 5-6 at the interval. However, they showed admirable character in the second half to close the gap thanks to goals from Shelly Fletcher and Leona Archibald. When Archibald added a point midway through the half, the margin was down to seven points but then disaster struck when Edel Kennedy scored a sixth Wicklow goal to put the result beyond doubt. The Westmeath minor team, which was jointly-managed by Ollie Rogers and Paul McGann, showed plenty of promise en route to a Leinster 'B' championship final defeat to Longford. The under 16s, meanwhile, reached the Leinster 'A' championship semi-final where they lost to a strong Kildare team by 1-4 to 1-15. The Westmeath team was managed by Liam Eivers, PJ McManus and Gerry Feery. Despite some good individual performances from Fiona Leavy, Karen McDermott, Susan Brady and Triona Geoghegan, Westmeath were simply unable to contain Kildare's skilful and pacey forwards, led by brilliant centre forward Aine Gately, who registered five points in the first half alone. "All of our county teams made good progress last year, but we really need to take the next step this year by winning something. We have a very promising senior team, but they're probably lacking experience at the moment," says Walsh, whose daughters Karen and Helen both play for Milltown. Former Westmeath All-Ireland minor winning centre back Kenny McKinley has been appointed manager of the senior team for the coming season and Tom is confident that he can improve their fortunes further. "I'm sure Kenny will get a good response because he was on the Westmeath minor team that won the All-Ireland in 1995 and is still playing senior football with St. Loman's. He has a high profile within the county and knows what it takes to be successful. "His objective will be to win the Division 4 title and have a good championship run after that. We are guaranteed four matches in the Leinster junior championship and it would be a great boost if we could qualify for the knock-out stages." All in all, the Mayo native is pleased with the direction Westmeath ladies football is taking. "While it mightn't yet be reflected in our performances at inter-county level, the game is as strong as it has ever been in Westmeath. We have hundreds of girls playing the game, although I'm concerned about the big fall-off of players after the ages of 18 and 19. "But we're continuing to increase our playing numbers and the fact that we are hosting the National Congress this year shows just how far we've come." The Westmeath team which contested the National League Division 4 final against Wicklow was: Niamh Mulligan; Ruth Heduvan, Aoife McCormack (captain), Karen Farrell; Fiona Leavy, Lisa Burke, Carole Finch; Triona Durkan, Fiona Claffey; Shelly Fletcher, Edel McCormack, Clare Corcoran; Laura Halligan, Stephanie Kelly, Leona Archibald. Subs used: Eimear Connellan, Ciara McCormack, Amy Matthews, Edel O'Connor and Aine Cunningham. Tweet

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