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Article on balls.ie on the 5 contenders.
https://www.balls.ie/gaa/westmeath-manager-gaa-candidates-637800
Personally I think there is only 1 candidate on that list which is Lar Wall but i cant see him leaving St Judes in Dublin who are a very ambitious Club. I don't know anything of note about Davy Burke. The rest i do not think would be ready for such a position. Where are the likes of Tony McEntee, Austin O'Malley, Declan Darcy, Kieron Donaghy?
Meridian (Westmeath) - Posts: 689 - 13/08/2025 08:54:00
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Replying To Meridian: "Article on balls.ie on the 5 contenders.
https://www.balls.ie/gaa/westmeath-manager-gaa-candidates-637800
Personally I think there is only 1 candidate on that list which is Lar Wall but i cant see him leaving St Judes in Dublin who are a very ambitious Club. I don't know anything of note about Davy Burke. The rest i do not think would be ready for such a position. Where are the likes of Tony McEntee, Austin O'Malley, Declan Darcy, Kieron Donaghy?" Wouldn't mind that article not a fear of Sherlock or Dowdall being in the running. I'd say John keane has a chance but he's worked with a lot of the players before they might need a fresh voice.
Bluelake (Westmeath) - Posts: 297 - 13/08/2025 10:16:07
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People on this forum need a reality check. It's unrealistic to expect us to land someone like Declan Darcy, Kieran Donaghy, or Jason Sherlock. We're a mid-division 3 team. In Leinster, Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Kildare are all ahead of us, and Offaly is closing the gap fast. On top of that, we've been beaten two years running by a fairly average Wicklow side!
What we need is someone willing to commit to a 3-year plan. By year three, the goal should be reaching the Leinster final and making it to the last 12 in the All-Ireland.
Here's my take on some of the names mentioned on this forum:
Tom Cribbin - An outdated option. He was offered the job before McCabe last year and even spoke with the county board but declined.
Lar Wall - The county board committee that appointed last year's manager said he wasn't ready for inter-county management.
John Keane - Would be a good choice, but John has made it clear in the past he doesn't enjoy being a manager and prefers coaching roles.
Davy Burke - A hard no. Roscommon is a top-8 team, arguably close to Armagh's level, but Davy hasn't delivered over the past three years.
Jack Cooney - Probably the best option, but will he want it? The downside is he's only managed defensive football with Kinnegad.
Andy McEntee - Hasn't made much impact at Antrim.
Tony McEntee - Did some good work at Sligo. However, moving from Sligo to Westmeath is more of a sideways move, so I doubt he's interested.
Buddha Mangan - A good Westmeath man who loves the county. Would love to see him involved on the coaching staff.
Paddy Dowdall - The best club manager around, but he's been managing the county's top club team, so it's hard to gauge how he'd perform at inter-county level.
Temple56 (Westmeath) - Posts: 567 - 13/08/2025 11:25:18
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Replying To locklanegale: "You reap what you sow" Please explain your comment. Ballycomoyle lined out at weekend with no Collinstown hurlers. That would be like Killucan lining out without Cormac B, Sean Leech, Eoin and Rory Keyes, Eamon Cunneen, Luke Darby, Conor Leech, Eoghan Ahearne, Conor McKeogh and Devin Hill. In other words with the bones of a junior team and Killucan have more replacements. Ballycomoyle minus the Daly's, Doyle's, Dan Higgins, John Egan, David Williams and others would be struggling to field. What are they supposed to do if the hurling club prevents players from playing?
Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2320 - 13/08/2025 13:09:24
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Replying To Claretandblue: "Please explain your comment. Ballycomoyle lined out at weekend with no Collinstown hurlers. That would be like Killucan lining out without Cormac B, Sean Leech, Eoin and Rory Keyes, Eamon Cunneen, Luke Darby, Conor Leech, Eoghan Ahearne, Conor McKeogh and Devin Hill. In other words with the bones of a junior team and Killucan have more replacements. Ballycomoyle minus the Daly's, Doyle's, Dan Higgins, John Egan, David Williams and others would be struggling to field. What are they supposed to do if the hurling club prevents players from playing?" Just to clarify a point. Joey Williams is not stopping LLG players from playing with Ballycomoyle. There are number of factors for players opting out. injuries, focusing on hurling and false claims like you've just said aren't helping. They are grown men and LLG don't have a big enough panel to be dropping players for playing football. I believe the argument was LLG don't want to pay for physios for anyone getting injured playing for Ballycomoyle. The LLG hurlers have played the last 2 years and Joey has been manager. Tommy Doyle even played Junior B last year for example.
Castlepollard players have opted out as well to focus on Hurling, this hasn't been highlighted. It's fair enough, you can't make a player play if they have a favourite sport they want to focus on.
LLG want to win a hurling championship and Castlepollard want to stay in senior A.
Ballycomoyle are heading for Junior 2 and some hammerings over the next few games.
If Ballycomoyle, LLG and Castlepollard can't put their differences aside, they won't come back up.
Snide remarks aren't going to help and if you're from LLG locklanegale, you're in the catchment area of Ballycomoyle and you should look to help rather than knocking a small team when they're already at the bottom.
2pointerWH (Westmeath) - Posts: 1 - 13/08/2025 14:28:06
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Which Pollard players have opted out? David Higgins, Andy Dermody, both Gaffney brothers, Joe Rabbitte, Darragh McCormack, Martin Egan, Shane Fagan all togged in the football championship last weekend. It's some coincidence that 8-9 Gaels hurlers with Ballycomoyle all stopped playing at same time. It's understandable by the way if the Gaels management want players to fully focus on winning senior title. My post was to the lad who mentioned Ballycomoyle reaping what they sow? How?
Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2320 - 13/08/2025 15:22:19
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Replying To Temple56: "People on this forum need a reality check. It's unrealistic to expect us to land someone like Declan Darcy, Kieran Donaghy, or Jason Sherlock. We're a mid-division 3 team. In Leinster, Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Kildare are all ahead of us, and Offaly is closing the gap fast. On top of that, we've been beaten two years running by a fairly average Wicklow side!
What we need is someone willing to commit to a 3-year plan. By year three, the goal should be reaching the Leinster final and making it to the last 12 in the All-Ireland.
Here's my take on some of the names mentioned on this forum:
Tom Cribbin - An outdated option. He was offered the job before McCabe last year and even spoke with the county board but declined.
Lar Wall - The county board committee that appointed last year's manager said he wasn't ready for inter-county management.
John Keane - Would be a good choice, but John has made it clear in the past he doesn't enjoy being a manager and prefers coaching roles.
Davy Burke - A hard no. Roscommon is a top-8 team, arguably close to Armagh's level, but Davy hasn't delivered over the past three years.
Jack Cooney - Probably the best option, but will he want it? The downside is he's only managed defensive football with Kinnegad.
Andy McEntee - Hasn't made much impact at Antrim.
Tony McEntee - Did some good work at Sligo. However, moving from Sligo to Westmeath is more of a sideways move, so I doubt he's interested.
Buddha Mangan - A good Westmeath man who loves the county. Would love to see him involved on the coaching staff.
Paddy Dowdall - The best club manager around, but he's been managing the county's top club team, so it's hard to gauge how he'd perform at inter-county level." The jury is very much still out on Paddy Dowdall. He took on a job with an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent. It was harder NOT to win the senior championship. Time will tell over the next few years when personnel changes and the hunger may wane for some. Too early for me to say he is the best Club manager.
Meridian (Westmeath) - Posts: 689 - 13/08/2025 16:44:49
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Replying To 2pointerWH: "Just to clarify a point. Joey Williams is not stopping LLG players from playing with Ballycomoyle. There are number of factors for players opting out. injuries, focusing on hurling and false claims like you've just said aren't helping. They are grown men and LLG don't have a big enough panel to be dropping players for playing football. I believe the argument was LLG don't want to pay for physios for anyone getting injured playing for Ballycomoyle. The LLG hurlers have played the last 2 years and Joey has been manager. Tommy Doyle even played Junior B last year for example.
Castlepollard players have opted out as well to focus on Hurling, this hasn't been highlighted. It's fair enough, you can't make a player play if they have a favourite sport they want to focus on.
LLG want to win a hurling championship and Castlepollard want to stay in senior A.
Ballycomoyle are heading for Junior 2 and some hammerings over the next few games.
If Ballycomoyle, LLG and Castlepollard can't put their differences aside, they won't come back up.
Snide remarks aren't going to help and if you're from LLG locklanegale, you're in the catchment area of Ballycomoyle and you should look to help rather than knocking a small team when they're already at the bottom." I can personally confirm that it's not Joey Williams that's stopping LLG hurlers from playing football. Joey was Ballycomoyle player manager himself 15 years or so ago.
It's a mixture of guys being injured on top of getting on in years that it becomes less manageable. Lads have enough going on in life at these ages without having to spend 5-6 nights a week training combined between two codes
westmeathgaa11 (Westmeath) - Posts: 327 - 13/08/2025 16:49:31
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Funny how Casltetown, Raharny and clonkill can all manage it while playing senior not junior football and also win some hurling championships.
JD20 (UK) - Posts: 1 - 13/08/2025 17:12:01
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Replying To Meridian: "The jury is very much still out on Paddy Dowdall. He took on a job with an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent. It was harder NOT to win the senior championship. Time will tell over the next few years when personnel changes and the hunger may wane for some. Too early for me to say he is the best Club manager." Not saying he is or isn't the best manager in Westmeath but to say it was harder not to win the championship is just a ridiculously stupid statement. Many on here were hailing that lomans were finished after downs won in 2022 and how there was a new team ready to dominate
Bluelake (Westmeath) - Posts: 297 - 13/08/2025 17:47:29
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