Westmeath ladies last year achieved their two main objectives of retaining their National League Division 2 and All-Ireland intermediate status under Kenny McKinley, who has since handed over the managerial reins to another former county football star Dermot Brady. The Westmeath ladies football team preserved their intermediate status on January 25 last when they trounced Limerick by 5-15 to 1-3 in a relegation play-off at Ballinagore. It was not a position Westmeath had expected to find themselves in after they finished fourth of five teams in Group B of last year's All-Ireland intermediate championship. But a bizarre rule which protected bottom-placed Kilkenny from relegation meant that Westmeath faced a battle for survival against Group A's bottom side Limerick instead. "It's a crazy rule that we had no knowledge of when we played Fermanagh in our final championship game last August," outgoing Westmeath manager Kenny McKinley says. "It was only in October that we learned we would have to play Limerick in a relegation play-off. It should have been Kilkenny, but because they had been promoted from junior in the past two years, they couldn't be relegated and we were left to fight it out with Limerick. It left the new manager Dermot Brady with a very difficult first game in charge, but thankfully the girls gave a great performance to stay up. "It would have been very disappointing to go down, especially in those circumstances, but at the end of the day we achieved our two main goals which were to retain our Division 2 and intermediate status. The new management has got off to a great start and hopefully they'll be able to build on it for the rest of the season." Under the guidance of 1995 All-Ireland minor winning centre back McKinley and his assistant Pat Laide, the Lake County marked their debut in Division 2 of the National League with a facile victory over reigning All-Ireland intermediate champions Leitrim. They drew with Sligo in their second outing before losing to both Waterford and Clare. The latter defeat was especially costly as it put Westmeath out of the running for a semi-final spot. "Clare beat us and they went on to win the league final," Kenny ruefully reflects. "If we had taken our chances against them, it could have been a different story. Overall, though, it was a good achievement to stay in Division 2. We had just come up from Division 3 and I thought we coped reasonably well in the higher division," he adds. With their league campaign at an end, Westmeath turned their attention to the Leinster and All-Ireland intermediate championships. The Leinster championship comprised just four teams - Longford, Wexford, Kilkenny and Westmeath. McKinley's charges were pitted against Kilkenny in one semi-final, while Longford and Wexford met in the other. As it transpired, Kilkenny beat Westmeath by a point to progress to the final. The All-Ireland intermediate championship now represented Westmeath's last chance of winning silverware in 2008. Drawn in the same group as Wexford, Fermanagh, Kilkenny and Longford, Westmeath opened their campaign with a 1-9 to 3-8 defeat to the Slaneysiders at rain-lashed Lakepoint Park in Mullingar. Undoubtedly the game's turning point was the sin-binning of Westmeath's centre back Joanne McCormack early in the second half. During the 10 minutes McCormack was out of the game, Wexford took full advantage by scoring an unanswered 2-3, turning a one-point deficit into an eight-point lead. The home side rallied well and scored five points without reply, but the goal they needed to get back on level terms would not come and Wexford eventually won by five points. Westmeath bounced back to beat Kilkenny by 0-9 to 1-5 in Kilkenny, and in the process avenged their Leinster championship defeat to the Cats. Despite being without a number of regulars, the visitors edged a close contest. But the maroon and whites' hopes of progressing in the All-Ireland series were all but ended when they succumbed to neighbours Longford by 2-9 to 6-9 at Bunbrosna. Only a point separated the sides at half-time, and indeed Westmeath could have been ahead had a 'goal' by Georgina Fagan late in the first half not been disallowed for square ball. However, there was no denying Longford's superiority in the second half as they powered to a comfortable victory. Longford had led 0-3 to 0-2 before Fagan flicked a sideline ball to the net for the opening goal after 20 minutes. But Longford responded with two goals, the first coming from a Denise Murtagh penalty, to lead 2-3 to 1-5 at half-time. Whatever Longford manager and county player Enda Williams said to his players during the interval worked a treat as they went on to dominate the second half with Murtagh, Emer Dooley, Edel Quinn and Michelle McElvaney finding the net. Katie Somers scored a second Westmeath goal in the closing stages, but it was no more than a consolation score. The Lake County's championship interests came to an end when they suffered a third defeat to Fermanagh at Lisnaskea. The home side took the lead inside the first minute and then had to settle for a point from penalty, after Gemma Leahy got her fingertips to the spot-kick. Leahy was eventually beaten before Westmeath replied with a goal of their own, scored by Katie Somers. However, two more Fermanagh goals, the second of which was extremely fortuitous, gave them a 3-5 to 1-4 cushion at the break. With Laura Walsh, Carol Finch, Georgina Fagan and Elaine Finn all to the fore, Westmeath laid siege on the Fermanagh goal in the third quarter, but they had a number of poor wides and were rocked back on their heels in the 41st minute when a Sharon Little free resulted in Fermanagh's fourth goal. Georgina Fagan responded with a similar score for the visitors, but it was a case of too little, too late as the Erne County ran out 4-7 to 2-7 winners. McKinley points out that Westmeath's prospects were undermined by summer emigration and injury which robbed him of five of his best players. "Triona Durkan, Jenny Rogers and Fiona Claffey travelled abroad, while Leona Archibald and Mairead McCormack missed the championship through injury. They would have all played down the middle for us had been available. We had a similar problem in 2007, but it was a lot worse last year. We have a small pool of players to pick from which means we can't afford to be without anyone," he says. McKinley and Laide also took charge of the minors who bowed out of the Leinster championship at the hands of Kildare. "They had no manager as such, so it was decided that they would train with us. Sadly, they had just one game in the championship which was disappointing." Hope for the future was provided by Yvonne Egan's under 12 side who reached the Leinster blitz final in Carlow. The Lake County enjoyed wins over Louth, Meath and Dublin before losing the final to Dublin by a point. A number of the under 12 players played at half-time during the All-Ireland ladies football final at the end of September. After two years in charge of the intermediate team, McKinley and Laide have passed the baton on to Dermot Brady and his selectors Eoghan Kevlihan and Aidan Lennon who, ironically, was a team-mate of McKinley's on Westmeath's 1995 All-Ireland winning side. "We enjoyed our time in charge and would like to think we have progressed the team. Dermot Brady was over the Westmeath minor footballers for three years and has a fair bit of experience in team management. There is good potential in the team and hopefully Dermot, Aidan and Eoghan will be able to bring the best out of the girls," the St. Loman's clubman concludes. The Westmeath ladies team that lost to Fermanagh in the All-Ireland intermediate championship was: Gemma Leahy; Edel Marshall, Lisa Burke (captain), Carol Finch; Niamh O'Mahony, Joanne McCormack, Elaine Finn; Fiona Leavy, Laura Walsh; Emma Morris, Katie Somers, Ruth Kearney; Laura Halligan, Eimear Connellan, Georgina Fagan. Subs: Aine Melody, Deirdre Robbins, Edel McCormack, Karen McDermott, Louise Kelly and Sarah McManus. Tweet

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