National Forum

Westmeath Football thread

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To mintyfresh:  "Absolutely disastrous result. To be 8 points up and lose like that. Stuck in Division 3 and not ideal form heading into championship"
We are playing with a goalie / 3 defenders / 2 midfielders / 9 forwards / and then to defend our lead of 7 points we introduced 2 more forwards. While the lads were unlucky today, Wexford missed 3 other solid goal chances to our zero. It is no wonder that all the strong teams in the Division have beaten us. Hugely disappointing.

johnnyh (Westmeath) - Posts: 30 - 22/03/2026 21:17:35    2662369

Link

Replying To Maroon Heaven:  "Speechless after that. Westmeath love the last min drama.

Good luck to Wexford. Can't fault them in our loss. PS. Whittaker and Cooney were immense today."
If there are any positives to find from the league campaign it was the performances of Matty Whitaker and Brian Cooney. Overall as a team it has been bitterly disappointing, very frustrating to watch. I try to stay positive but have enough after today

A_Chairde (Westmeath) - Posts: 379 - 22/03/2026 22:06:10    2662379

Link

Replying To A_Chairde:  "If there are any positives to find from the league campaign it was the performances of Matty Whitaker and Brian Cooney. Overall as a team it has been bitterly disappointing, very frustrating to watch. I try to stay positive but have enough after today"
Agree 100%. Brian Cooney has had an excellent campaign and was best player on the pitch last week. Didn't have the same influence today but played his part in what should have been a win. Matty Whitaker has that really rare ability to beat most defenders he faces from a standing start. Has ever played at 11, we need a key to unlock Luke Loughlin who has been below his usual high standards?

johnnyh (Westmeath) - Posts: 30 - 22/03/2026 22:30:27    2662387

Link

Replying To johnnyh:  "Agree 100%. Brian Cooney has had an excellent campaign and was best player on the pitch last week. Didn't have the same influence today but played his part in what should have been a win. Matty Whitaker has that really rare ability to beat most defenders he faces from a standing start. Has ever played at 11, we need a key to unlock Luke Loughlin who has been below his usual high standards?"
I'm sure you're all hugely disappointed with that result yesterday, it looked like you had it in the bag, just needed to hold possession during that last phase.
Obviously I'm delighted with the result and the way our lads never game up.
Whitaker is a rare talent, especially when running at the opposition.
I think maybe you're being a bit harsh on Loughlin
( based on yesterday). We'd be delighted with how our defence, especially Porter, never gave him a clear sight at goal despite the possession he had.
Anyway lads, really hard luck yesterday, but i think the future is bright, you have some fine young footballers, plus the great colleges win last week.

Yellaman (Wexford) - Posts: 217 - 23/03/2026 09:30:14    2662429

Link

Yesterday, where to start? Deja Vu at the very end (Wicklow, Meath etc) from last year so very disappointing to lose out at the very end but it has become a pattern that is hard to shake. At 69 minutes game was won for us. At 69'30 game was lost! The pity was after TJ Cox shot wide, we didn't set up to contest their kick out, 1st Mistake. When we didn't, the wexford back was allowed too much latitude to run from defence. Luke had a chance to nail him but was badly off balance; guy should have been hauled down. play stopped and time for team to get shape, that was the second mistake. Third mistake was not facing the play and that came from multiple sources, the finish for the goal was good however, the complete team was wrong footed and not set up in any way to defend the ball coming in. Its easy to criticise from the stand though and none of the players intended any of this; it can happen. It just seems to be happening too often from a Westmeath perspective. Regroup, take a breather, be peed off but plan for the next game against Longford on 12th April. Keep at it. Thats all you can do!

Greengrass1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 51 - 23/03/2026 10:01:45    2662438

Link

Just a pity how it unfolded yesterday-for 55 mins we were very good -we created and scored some great pts and the move and finish by Lynam for the goal was excellant.We were in total control and then loss of game control killed us
Why did we continously go long with kick outs when we gave up possession from nearly every kick!!-go short keep the ball and kill the clock.TJ Cox is a good yoing player but surely those more eperienced players around him and there were a few should have been demanding the ball to keep possession.Its in every forwards dna to shoot when the chance arrives but yesterday and 40 seconds out from the hooter was not the time to shoot.But how good was Matty Whittakker-by far the best player on the pitch and a real positive for Westmeath going forward.

Bruno@1 (Westmeath) - Posts: 312 - 23/03/2026 10:35:09    2662452

Link

Replying To Greengrass1:  "Yesterday, where to start? Deja Vu at the very end (Wicklow, Meath etc) from last year so very disappointing to lose out at the very end but it has become a pattern that is hard to shake. At 69 minutes game was won for us. At 69'30 game was lost! The pity was after TJ Cox shot wide, we didn't set up to contest their kick out, 1st Mistake. When we didn't, the wexford back was allowed too much latitude to run from defence. Luke had a chance to nail him but was badly off balance; guy should have been hauled down. play stopped and time for team to get shape, that was the second mistake. Third mistake was not facing the play and that came from multiple sources, the finish for the goal was good however, the complete team was wrong footed and not set up in any way to defend the ball coming in. Its easy to criticise from the stand though and none of the players intended any of this; it can happen. It just seems to be happening too often from a Westmeath perspective. Regroup, take a breather, be peed off but plan for the next game against Longford on 12th April. Keep at it. Thats all you can do!"
No you are wrong the first mistake was Cox shooting.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1903 - 23/03/2026 12:58:55    2662503

Link

Replying To johnnyh:  "Agree 100%. Brian Cooney has had an excellent campaign and was best player on the pitch last week. Didn't have the same influence today but played his part in what should have been a win. Matty Whitaker has that really rare ability to beat most defenders he faces from a standing start. Has ever played at 11, we need a key to unlock Luke Loughlin who has been below his usual high standards?"
Played all of his football as a forward at underage, interesting that he never played county underage.

OverTheHill85 (Westmeath) - Posts: 255 - 23/03/2026 13:03:03    2662504

Link

Replying To Fighting-Cocks69:  "I'd agree with parts of that, but not all of it.
Those CBS lads trained a lot on the Shamrocks back pitch which, to be fair, isn't a great surface, and even places like The Downs or Shandonagh would be better grounds. But I don't think the pitch is the main factor here.
For me, it's down to the coaching. You've a group of young coaches there who are either still playing or only recently finished, so everything they're doing is modern, sharp, and very game-focused. The patterns of play, movement, and decision-making those lads showed against Tralee were top class, and that doesn't happen by accident-that's coaching and proper training.
Don't get me wrong, a COE would be massive and would bring the county on hugely, no doubt about that. But even with facilities, if the coaching and setup aren't right, you won't see the full benefit.
Another thing I noticed-Granard winning the All-Ireland B at the weekend. A lot of that team were part of the Longford minor side that won Leinster recently. That's no coincidence. They're coming from a strong, well-coached setup.
Then you look at CBS-they had a good few lads involved with Westmeath minors, who didn't get out of the group from what I remember. That kind of tells its own story.
So overall, I'd lean towards it being more about coaching and the structures in place rather than facilities alone-though both obviously matter.
Could be wrong, just something I picked up on. And fair play to Granard as well, great win."
CBS are a well coached team indeed, their decision making under pressure in those last few minutes was excellent. Mikey Weir spoke about it after the game, they had been practicing scenarios like that in training, when you are 1 point down with 2 minutes to go etc. The first 10 minutes was real Roy of the Rovers stuff, the best we have seen from a Westmeath team at Croke Park in a long time. The timing and movement of the forwards and the transition from defence to attack, although losing the midfield battle in the second half nearly cost CBS. They weren't getting enough supply into the forwards. CBS are lined with quality players, the pick of 4 Clubs, from the Mullingar area, that are consistently competing in Division 1 at underage. Mullingar is one of the fastest growing towns in Leinster, CBS is benefiting from the population growth. Management have a lot to do with the success, the lads in charge have probably had this group from First Year but quality both individually and collectively was a defining factor. As I said they are loaded with quality players from a growth area, the vast potential is being tapped into and not before time. There generally is a difference in environment between a Schools Senior set up and a Inter County underage set up. At Schools, skill can dominate but at County level you are coming up against physically developed teams and therefore you can struggle with intensity etc. Even the most skilful players can be made look average without proper strength and conditioning. I will give you an example, our County U20 squad of this year don't do any gym sessions collectively. The Kildare U20 squad do a collective gym session once a week and are required to do one more in their own time. We will be physically mowed out of it again as was the case last year against Meath. I take your points on the coaching but having a Centre of Excellence would drive the standards higher. A Centre of Excellence sets the tone for how a County operates. Brian Cody said "there's no point in talking about anything except standards of excellence. Absolute excellence."

iarmhiabu (Westmeath) - Posts: 321 - 23/03/2026 13:30:51    2662519

Link