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Westmeath Football thread

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Replying To OverTheHill85:  "Centre of Excellence for the current generation is very unlikely; I think some of the fundraising for it has gone to other areas of expenditure.

I don't think our U20 team has a dedicated S&C coach which in 2025 is not good.

The changing of championship structures and U18s not been allowed play is ridiculous.

At what stage do the county board realize they need to serve clubs and our players rather than themselves. So what if they have to organise additional fixtures, deal with it. The U17 championship was on a Monday night for years then all of a sudden it was put to a Friday night so they could justify it as an issue and a planning problem.

Hopefully Wallace can fix this but time will tell."
Minor fixtures were changed to Fridays so that under 14s and 16s could be fresh for county dev squad games and training on Sat mornings. Parents expressed understandable concern that a 15 year old could be playing on a Friday night for his club at 7.00 and then have a match on Sat morning at 11.00. A simple explanation, no conspiracy theory involved

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2556 - 24/01/2026 12:41:40    2652877

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Minor fixtures were changed to Fridays so that under 14s and 16s could be fresh for county dev squad games and training on Sat mornings. Parents expressed understandable concern that a 15 year old could be playing on a Friday night for his club at 7.00 and then have a match on Sat morning at 11.00. A simple explanation, no conspiracy theory involved"
Ah come on now. Could U14 not be played Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday?

Well you tell me who benefits from their decisions if there's unanimous support for no structure changes why they are pushing for it?

OverTheHill85 (Westmeath) - Posts: 220 - 24/01/2026 14:39:47    2652902

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Replying To Iarmhisamhi:  "Strange that Coralstown/Kinnegad only have one player on county panel despite reaching 2/3 of last county finals. Yet teams that they would beat regularly and have beaten recently have up to 4 players. When the club championship starts, they will probably still be one of the main challengers to The Downs, surely one or two others on their team must be worth a look?"
More should be involved if they accepted invitations to join the squad but only one player accept an invitation!

Matthew (None) - Posts: 1109 - 24/01/2026 17:33:36    2652928

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Good spread of players from across the clubs in the senior football panel.Im sure more were invited in but thats all the manager can do is ask them if they are interested.Some are not and wont commit and you cant force them in

Bruno@1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 297 - 24/01/2026 19:23:53    2652956

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Replying To Matthew:  "More should be involved if they accepted invitations to join the squad but only one player accept an invitation!"
Fair enough

Iarmhisamhi (Westmeath) - Posts: 39 - 24/01/2026 21:19:48    2652970

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Absolutely blessed to win that. If sligo had a few forwards they'd have won easy. Although it was great to be lucky rather than unlucky.

Bluelake (Westmeath) - Posts: 342 - 25/01/2026 15:57:46    2653089

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Replying To Bluelake:  "Absolutely blessed to win that. If sligo had a few forwards they'd have won easy. Although it was great to be lucky rather than unlucky."
Scraped that. Sligo must rue all the wides.

2maroonjerseys (Galway) - Posts: 126 - 25/01/2026 17:10:40    2653119

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Winning an o Byrne cup seems to have given some of our players a false sense of their own worth . We were blessed to win that game but the lack of work rate in the 2nd half was alarming

mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1915 - 25/01/2026 17:13:32    2653121

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Agree, an eight point lead at home became a one point deficit heading into injury time. Sligo will be wondering how they didn't win it but maybe McHugh is a lucky general. Midfield area a big concern, Sligo hoovered up possession, they must have had 12 wides, Lynam's two goals were vital, Sam Mc made a difference in first half, Danny kicked good scores, Luke seemed reluctant to shoot, credit to Shane Corcoran's for his superb winning point, Div 3 looks like being a minefield and I think 10 points will ensure promotion. Clare next who will need a win.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2556 - 25/01/2026 18:06:14    2653133

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Far from a fluent performance today and no doubt we got out of jail but first game of league on the back of a good O'Byrne cup run , no doubt performances will improve but it's satisfying to see us win the game in the way we did so many times in recent years we've had morale victory after morale victory and nothing to show for it , a win is a win onwards and upwards iarmhi Abu

Also great Westmeath turnout today something we haven't seen for quite awhile, hopefully wally is only carrying the dead leg mchugh referred to in his post match interview and will be back in time for the trip to Ennis.

TheGaaMan77 (Westmeath) - Posts: 80 - 25/01/2026 19:57:00    2653155

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Result was everything. Performance was 6/10. Very little ball winning in middle third. Lots of work to do

Iarmhisamhi (Westmeath) - Posts: 39 - 25/01/2026 20:19:48    2653163

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The team still need to work on their concentration levels, work desperately hard to build a 8 point lead but go into full meltdown mode in the latter stages. This was a common trend in games last year.

iarmhiabu (Westmeath) - Posts: 297 - 25/01/2026 20:35:19    2653168

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Replying To Bruno@1:  "Good spread of players from across the clubs in the senior football panel.Im sure more were invited in but thats all the manager can do is ask them if they are interested.Some are not and wont commit and you cant force them in"
3 Caulry players start today Bruno should be 4

lakecounty90 (Westmeath) - Posts: 167 - 25/01/2026 22:18:05    2653209

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Replying To lakecounty90:  "3 Caulry players start today Bruno should be 4"
2 of them would want to start contributing on the scoreboard or they wont be there.

Meridian (Westmeath) - Posts: 718 - 26/01/2026 11:42:05    2653285

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any updates from Fridays nights meeting on this years championship structures?

martyW (Westmeath) - Posts: 340 - 26/01/2026 14:23:20    2653348

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Replying To martyW:  "any updates from Fridays nights meeting on this years championship structures?"
Everyone on the floor even hurling delegates disagreed with changing football format. Tough job for Paddy Wallace to walk into as county chair. The changing of the formats will still be put forward to the CCC. After that I think it comes back to a vote.

Temple56 (Westmeath) - Posts: 609 - 26/01/2026 16:29:20    2653394

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Replying To martyW:  "any updates from Fridays nights meeting on this years championship structures?"
The 5 amalgamations were given unanimous approval, St Loman's/Shamrocks, Tyrellspass/Moate, Tubberclair/Tang, The Downs/Kinnegad/Killucan and Athlone/Garrycastle, should break up the Caulry monopoly.

iarmhiabu (Westmeath) - Posts: 297 - 26/01/2026 16:58:42    2653401

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