After a few difficult years, ladies football in Westmeath is on the up again with new clubs popping up all over the county. But according to county board treasurer Sheila Lyster, there is still a lot of ground to be made up before the glory days can be revived. Hard to believe it now, but Westmeath was once regarded as a major power in ladies football. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Westmeath inter-county team was one of the strongest around and came tantalizingly close to winning an All-Ireland senior title in 1987 when they lost the final at Croke Park to the great Kerry team of that era. In 1995, Westmeath captured the All-Ireland 'B' title at Dublin's expense, but while the Metropolitans have gone from strength to strength since then, the Lake County's fortunes have plummeted to such an extent that they now find themselves operating from Division 4 of the National League. But after a few difficult years, Westmeath ladies football is on the up again. New clubs are appearing throughout the county and Westmeath players are getting the taste for success again. Garrycastle put All-Ireland Feile titles back-to-back last July, while Our Lady's Bower, Athlone and Moate Community School both captured Leinster Colleges titles in March. "It's great to see things picking up again," enthuses Westmeath ladies football board treasurer Sheila Lyster. "We now have 16 clubs affiliated to the county board and that doesn't include Killucan or Tubberclair who are in the process of forming teams. The county junior team are putting in a huge effort under their new manager Michael Delaney from Leixlip and have high hopes for this year's championship. "Their first goal, however, is to get out of Division 4 and if they could do that, it would be a great boost to their confidence. Our long-term objective is to get back to the level we were at 15 or 20 years ago when we were challenging for All-Ireland titles at both county and club level. But it will take a lot of hard work and patience before that can happen," she adds. Sheila, who is synonymous with the once mighty Rochfortbridge club, feels Westmeath has paid a heavy price for neglecting its underage structures and it is only now that ladies football is finding its feet again in the county. "Because Rochfort-bridge were so successful, it was easy to forget about the underage and sadly that's what happened," she explains. "Young players are the lifeblood of any sport and we didn't have any coming through until recently. Between them, Rochfortbridge and Coralstown kept the thing going but it's great now to see all the new clubs and players making their presence felt." Despite her allegiances to Rochfortbridge, Sheila admits that it wasn't healthy for the game to see them dominating for so long. "Even though I'm Rochfortbridge through and through and took great delight from their victories down the years, it's good to see new teams challenging their dominance. Garrycastle won their first senior title in 2003 and last year it was the turn of St. Loman's. "I wasn't surprised by either success because both clubs have put in a huge amount of work at underage level over the past few years. This year, St. Loman's, Garrycastle, Milltown, Moate and Rochfortbridge will battle it out for the senior championship and any one of them could come out on top." The intermediate and junior championships are expected to be just as keenly contested. Mullingar Shamrocks, Kilbeggan Shamrocks and Clann Gaels will do battle for the intermediate title, while the junior championship is a seven-horse race involving Loughnavalley, St. Paul's, Athlone, Tyrrellspass, Coralstown, The Downs and Ballycomoyle. Last year's senior final was a novel affair between St. Loman's and Milltown. Despite having to contend with heavy rain as well as thunder and lightning in the first half, the Mullingar side played some great football to lead by 2-8 to 0-1 at the interval. However, Milltown showed tremendous character in the second half to eat into the Loman's lead. But they left themselves with too much to do and it was Joe Maleady's talented St. Loman's team who were left to celebrate a 4-8 to 4-2 victory in what was their first year in the senior ranks. Loman's started in whirlwind fashion with early points from Stephanie Kelly, Amy Matthews and Leona Archibald being followed by a goal from the outstanding Matthews. The centre forward continued her tour de force when she slotted home a penalty and followed up with her second point moments later. The Mullingar girls had increased their lead to 2-6 to 0-0 when Katie Somers finally got Milltown off the mark with a point in the 25th minute. But there was no respite for the Rathconrath side as Stephanie Kelly added two further points to give Loman's a huge advantage at the break. Although Milltown opened the second half scoring through Anne-Marie Creagh, the game looked over as a contest when Kelly notched a third St. Loman's goal eight minutes into the half. But Milltown refused to throw in the towel and their perseverance was rewarded when Laura Halligan - who was unable to start due to a broken finger - scored two goals in as many minutes to revive their challenge. A third goal from Katie Somers had reduced the deficit to six points before Matthews stopped the rot for Loman's when scoring her third goal from a close-in free. Faced with a nine-point deficit, there appeared to be no way back for Milltown but, after Halligan had a penalty brilliantly saved by Aisling Layde, the same player completed her hat-trick to leave it a six-point game once again. But that was as close as they came as St. Loman's held on for a historic victory. Ladies football had little or no profile nationally when Sheila first became involved, but in the past decade there has been an explosion in interest which has seen playing membership swell to over 90,000. A driving force in the growth and development of the sport has been Kinnegad's Geraldine Giles, who was recently elected as president of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association for a second three-year term. "There is a lot more glamour attached to ladies football now and I think Geraldine Giles has played a huge part in making it the success it is today. We're very proud to have her as president and I've no doubt that the sport will continue to prosper under her leadership over the next three years," Sheila says. Sheila is part of a dedicated and hard-working county board executive which also includes Tom Walsh (chairman), Angela Boyhan (secretary), David Kelly (PRO) and Suzie Feery (underage secretary). And while the board faces many challenges, Sheila and her colleagues are determined to meet them head on. "One of the problems which we are trying to put right is the big fall-off of players after the ages of 18 or 19. Girls tend to be more studious than boys and they usually put their studies ahead of ladies football when they go away to college. "We are also striving to increase our sponsorship and PR, while next year will see us hosting the National Congress in Mullingar. This is a big event to be taking on and we are hoping that every club in the county will rally behind us," she concludes. Tweet

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