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Westmeath Football thread

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As a Meath fan i expected us to bring a big crowd yesterday, but never to the extent it was , it must have been 5 or 6 to 1. the crowd won that free in front of the posts near end by roaring to linesman on 3 men back. anyway i think westmeath are a right decent team and too good to have been relegated in some ways. the issue with support is probably cultural, there just wasnt enough success to make following the westmeath football team a cultural touchstone like it was in meath. meath winning all irelands each generation from 1940s. also hurling is fairly strong if not seen as equal in westmeath where its definitley isnt in meath. i do notice from nieces and nephews that around places like navan when Meath senior footballers are playing a match at home its the only show in town among teens aged 12plus the all want to go and be seen to be there, its seen as a cool thing to be involved in particulalry now with girls. the meath ladies winning senior all irelands in 2021 and 22 has been a huge boost to GAA in general in Meath. in 2022 meath brought over 30,000 fans on thier own to croke park for the womens final, that had been the biggest meath support in croke park since all ireland semi final in 2009 v kerry. even bigger than the last leinster final they won in 2010. things like that just keep the flame lit. no real rugby or soccer helps as well. also getting huge amounts of interest among 2nd generation kids of emigrants from all over ireland and globally as well as kids of dubs now supporting meath teams. dont know how to bring this to a county but huge PR work needed in westmeath

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 809 - 03/03/2025 15:49:00    2594469

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Replying To dickie10:  "As a Meath fan i expected us to bring a big crowd yesterday, but never to the extent it was , it must have been 5 or 6 to 1. the crowd won that free in front of the posts near end by roaring to linesman on 3 men back. anyway i think westmeath are a right decent team and too good to have been relegated in some ways. the issue with support is probably cultural, there just wasnt enough success to make following the westmeath football team a cultural touchstone like it was in meath. meath winning all irelands each generation from 1940s. also hurling is fairly strong if not seen as equal in westmeath where its definitley isnt in meath. i do notice from nieces and nephews that around places like navan when Meath senior footballers are playing a match at home its the only show in town among teens aged 12plus the all want to go and be seen to be there, its seen as a cool thing to be involved in particulalry now with girls. the meath ladies winning senior all irelands in 2021 and 22 has been a huge boost to GAA in general in Meath. in 2022 meath brought over 30,000 fans on thier own to croke park for the womens final, that had been the biggest meath support in croke park since all ireland semi final in 2009 v kerry. even bigger than the last leinster final they won in 2010. things like that just keep the flame lit. no real rugby or soccer helps as well. also getting huge amounts of interest among 2nd generation kids of emigrants from all over ireland and globally as well as kids of dubs now supporting meath teams. dont know how to bring this to a county but huge PR work needed in westmeath"
You make a lot of good points but remember the population of Meath is 220,000 while Westmeath is just 100,000.Westmeath GAA is 40% hurling while in Meath it's 10%. But we have a major PR job to do in both codes in Westmeath no doubt about it especially as per head as a GAA county we are far ahead of Meath.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1642 - 03/03/2025 16:13:55    2594482

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@chops and @claretandblue -

Just happened to click into this thread as it was top of the list when I opened the Forum. Would like to answer two points:

You have a county board who threaten to take away home league games from clubs who don't come up with referees?


This is a good measure. We've had in place in Wexford now for the past three years, where if clubs don't supply an active referee, they lose home advantage in adult League matches and underage championship matches (lose one match in each grade & code for the first year they don't have a ref, lose two matches the second and any subsequent year). Note the emphasis on active referee - they must referee a quota of matches each year. Can't get around it by just sending somebody on a referee course and then that person making excuse after excuse that they can't take the matches they're allocated.

County players banned from playing club league games.

Common across the board. Can't expect county players to play a Club League match on a Friday night, for example, and then a National League match on Saturday or Sunday. However, county players not in the matchday 26 can be released to their clubs that weekend all right, and if there's not a county match on any given weekend, the entire county squad can be free to go play a club match.

Whatever chops might think about it, it's not specific to Westmeath, and is not a sign of your County Board being 'out of touch' or anything else.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2720 - 03/03/2025 16:43:24    2594499

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Some rant. What would you suggest county board does with clubs who don't supply referees? At a recent county clubs meeting it was mentioned that seven clubs don't have referees and that includes the senior champions in both codes plus Tyrrellspass in those three. Make some suggestions. You think other counties let players play club league games during the national league? If so why did Noel McCaffrey bring forward his recent motion? Westmeath subs at National league games have played for their clubs on the Friday before league games, Joseph Moran, Andrew Kilmartin, Fionn O' Hara and Mark Evers to name four recently. County boards don't stop players playing anything, it's managers. We're in division 2 of the league, should that not entice supporters out to watch?"
What do you suggest to get bums on seats then? All you do is give out that Westmeath has embarrassing support, and the 2004 brigade blah blah blah, how would you cure it??

Chops (Westmeath) - Posts: 779 - 03/03/2025 17:44:28    2594522

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Replying To Chops:  "What do you suggest to get bums on seats then? All you do is give out that Westmeath has embarrassing support, and the 2004 brigade blah blah blah, how would you cure it??"
Chops if you care to read my posts they're generally positive, especially about our footballers efforts this league, I asked you in a previous post to suggest things to solve issues that you brought up. Needless to say you have suggested nothing. I stated facts about our support like many other posters here have. Finally, I've never mentioned 2004 etc in a post here so at least get some facts right.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2042 - 03/03/2025 17:49:50    2594526

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Chops if you care to read my posts they're generally positive, especially about our footballers efforts this league, I asked you in a previous post to suggest things to solve issues that you brought up. Needless to say you have suggested nothing. I stated facts about our support like many other posters here have. Finally, I've never mentioned 2004 etc in a post here so at least get some facts right."
On the 27th of January only days after the worst storm we have seen you were going on about the fair weather supporters from 2004.... With experts like yourself sure there's no need for anyone to go to games. You consistently harp on about how lamentable, and embarrassing it is. Nobody is making you go chief if it embarrasses you then stay at home.

Get your own facts right.....

The Westmeath support was as usual lamentable, easily outnumbered by the Louth supporters, its very rare that we ever have greater support than any visiting county, it must be demoralising for players and puzzling for new management teams, no idea why? Likes of Roscommon, Offaly, Longford, always have great home support. People always have an excuse, weather, matches on tv. The fair weather supporters from 2004 etc have gone back into hiding. Any solutions?

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2040 - 27/01/2025 12:59:01

Chops (Westmeath) - Posts: 779 - 03/03/2025 20:10:37    2594565

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