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Westmeath Football thread

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I would like to see a Leinster minor club championship to see how our winners fare out compared to other counties.

Reality is our record at minor level for the vast majority of this millennium is woeful.

Probably in the bottom 3 of Leinster teams that compete. We've only been to one final in the last 20 years where we were outclassed while the last 2 years have seen our nearest neighbours Offaly and Longford lift the trophy.

Would be interesting to see where a very good Shamrocks minor team this year would compare with this other winners in different counties.

Blackjack (Westmeath) - Posts: 54 - 01/12/2025 12:27:31    2646616

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Hearing Tang are staying in house after a succession of outside managers with Paul Conway set to take over the senior team. Good appointment.

mintyfresh (Westmeath) - Posts: 284 - 01/12/2025 16:46:54    2646670

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Replying To Blackjack:  "I would like to see a Leinster minor club championship to see how our winners fare out compared to other counties.

Reality is our record at minor level for the vast majority of this millennium is woeful.

Probably in the bottom 3 of Leinster teams that compete. We've only been to one final in the last 20 years where we were outclassed while the last 2 years have seen our nearest neighbours Offaly and Longford lift the trophy.

Would be interesting to see where a very good Shamrocks minor team this year would compare with this other winners in different counties."
I've thought the same about a provincial and all Ireland minor championship, think it would be great. We generally do poor at minor and 20s/21s level even when we have strong teams for one reason or another, often looking physically insufficient.

We do however have the most schools in from a county in the preliminary qfs in the brother bosco cup and which seems to have been a trend in recent years (I'm aware some Marist players are from Roscommon and rochfortbridge may get a few from Offaly?).

Midlandsman (Westmeath) - Posts: 47 - 01/12/2025 17:46:19    2646685

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Replying To Blackjack:  "I would like to see a Leinster minor club championship to see how our winners fare out compared to other counties.

Reality is our record at minor level for the vast majority of this millennium is woeful.

Probably in the bottom 3 of Leinster teams that compete. We've only been to one final in the last 20 years where we were outclassed while the last 2 years have seen our nearest neighbours Offaly and Longford lift the trophy.

Would be interesting to see where a very good Shamrocks minor team this year would compare with this other winners in different counties."
They took the major out of minor when they changed the grades to Under 17. It's really just seen more and more as a development grade every year.

iarmhiabu (Westmeath) - Posts: 285 - 01/12/2025 19:02:37    2646693

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Replying To Midlandsman:  "I've thought the same about a provincial and all Ireland minor championship, think it would be great. We generally do poor at minor and 20s/21s level even when we have strong teams for one reason or another, often looking physically insufficient.

We do however have the most schools in from a county in the preliminary qfs in the brother bosco cup and which seems to have been a trend in recent years (I'm aware some Marist players are from Roscommon and rochfortbridge may get a few from Offaly?)."
CBS are really the only school fielding a fully Westmeath-based team. Marist draw heavily from Roscommon-players from Clann na nGael and St Brigid's in particular. Moate also have lads from Tubber and other clubs along the border, while Rochfortbridge usually feature a mix from Rhode, Croghan, St Brigid's and, at times, even Meath players from the likes of Ballinabrackey.
Ulster run their provincial minor competition every year, and it seems to work extremely well. I believe they play it over one weekend, and the Gowna/Lavey amalgamation won it this year. A similar approach could work in Leinster and would also put pressure on the county board not to be playing minor and U20 finals in the middle or end of November.

Fighting-Cocks69 (Westmeath) - Posts: 103 - 01/12/2025 22:08:20    2646715

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There was a Leinster minor club tournament ran by Eire Og in Carlow. However this ended a few years ago when some counties changed to U17 and some stayed at U18 so there was no consensus age group in Leinster. St. Paul's in Belfast run the Ulster club tournament.

Wmeath2 (Westmeath) - Posts: 194 - 02/12/2025 03:16:43    2646726

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Replying To Fighting-Cocks69:  "CBS are really the only school fielding a fully Westmeath-based team. Marist draw heavily from Roscommon-players from Clann na nGael and St Brigid's in particular. Moate also have lads from Tubber and other clubs along the border, while Rochfortbridge usually feature a mix from Rhode, Croghan, St Brigid's and, at times, even Meath players from the likes of Ballinabrackey.
Ulster run their provincial minor competition every year, and it seems to work extremely well. I believe they play it over one weekend, and the Gowna/Lavey amalgamation won it this year. A similar approach could work in Leinster and would also put pressure on the county board not to be playing minor and U20 finals in the middle or end of November."
Why would you want a minor club competition going on when Secondary schools championships at full tilt. Total disrespect and disregard for the Post Primary schools scene.

moros (Roscommon) - Posts: 1191 - 02/12/2025 07:57:23    2646730

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Replying To Fighting-Cocks69:  "CBS are really the only school fielding a fully Westmeath-based team. Marist draw heavily from Roscommon-players from Clann na nGael and St Brigid's in particular. Moate also have lads from Tubber and other clubs along the border, while Rochfortbridge usually feature a mix from Rhode, Croghan, St Brigid's and, at times, even Meath players from the likes of Ballinabrackey.
Ulster run their provincial minor competition every year, and it seems to work extremely well. I believe they play it over one weekend, and the Gowna/Lavey amalgamation won it this year. A similar approach could work in Leinster and would also put pressure on the county board not to be playing minor and U20 finals in the middle or end of November."
St. Joseph's Rochfortbridge played Colaiste Mhuire yesterday, Joseph's had 26 man panel named, 23 of whom were from Killucan, Kinnegad, Milltownpass and St. Mary's Rochfortbridge.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2487 - 02/12/2025 10:14:53    2646739

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Replying To moros:  "Why would you want a minor club competition going on when Secondary schools championships at full tilt. Total disrespect and disregard for the Post Primary schools scene."
it wouldn't have a major affect on any Roscommon players if Connacht brought this in, considering a Roscommon school has only won the Senior A Post-Primary title twice in the last 56 years. The reason I mentioned the Ulster model is that it shows the competition can realistically be run over a single weekend. If some clubs don't want to take part, they can simply opt out. But who wouldn't want the best clubs in each county competing against each other. Most school teams have been training since early September, juggling both club and school

Fighting-Cocks69 (Westmeath) - Posts: 103 - 02/12/2025 10:47:46    2646747

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30 months ago Westmeath were literally millimetres away from knocking a decent Tyrone team out of the All Ireland championship.

Tyrone went to Donegal the following week and won comfortably.

Tyrone and Donegal were both in the All Ireland semi final last year while we lost 2 championship matches to teams who played in division 4.

We are not that far off but we need to get the mindset right and really believe we can compete in the Sam Maguire cup and win matches.

Westmeaths last big win outside the Leinster Championship at Sam Maguire level was probably against Galway in 2006.

Hopefully we can repeat a result like that 20 years later next season.

Blackjack (Westmeath) - Posts: 54 - 02/12/2025 11:11:33    2646752

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Replying To Blackjack:  "30 months ago Westmeath were literally millimetres away from knocking a decent Tyrone team out of the All Ireland championship.

Tyrone went to Donegal the following week and won comfortably.

Tyrone and Donegal were both in the All Ireland semi final last year while we lost 2 championship matches to teams who played in division 4.

We are not that far off but we need to get the mindset right and really believe we can compete in the Sam Maguire cup and win matches.

Westmeaths last big win outside the Leinster Championship at Sam Maguire level was probably against Galway in 2006.

Hopefully we can repeat a result like that 20 years later next season."
9 of the team that stated that match are no longer part of the panel. I appreciate what you're saying we can give most good teams a rattle but always end up on the right side of tight matches. Before we talk about Sam maguire wins we should look to get promoted from div 3 which is never easy, we've struggled to do it with better teams. A good year would be to get promoted and win a match in Leinster.

Bluelake (Westmeath) - Posts: 333 - 02/12/2025 11:23:00    2646754

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Replying To Fighting-Cocks69:  "it wouldn't have a major affect on any Roscommon players if Connacht brought this in, considering a Roscommon school has only won the Senior A Post-Primary title twice in the last 56 years. The reason I mentioned the Ulster model is that it shows the competition can realistically be run over a single weekend. If some clubs don't want to take part, they can simply opt out. But who wouldn't want the best clubs in each county competing against each other. Most school teams have been training since early September, juggling both club and school"
The Ulster minor championship begins at the end of November and is played on a knockout basis with the final traditionally played on New Year's Day. It's not ran off on a weekend. Connacht also have a minor provincial competition. November & December are the main months for schools senior championship so if Mullingar shamrocks were playing in a Leinster competition it would directly conflict with CBS. Throw in Plunketts & CBS hurlers and it would be a lot with some players then going straight into county minor or U20.

Wmeath2 (Westmeath) - Posts: 194 - 02/12/2025 12:52:05    2646767

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Say what you want about selections , what not . Fair play to all the team a Iarmhi Tv . Its great to have nights last night to pay respects to the players of westmeath

Marooned2019 (Offaly) - Posts: 15 - 02/12/2025 16:40:22    2646807

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