Westmeath 3-22 Offaly 2-16
Maybe they should start promoting the Tailteann Cup as football with hurling scorelines.
The second match here was a riot of points and goals and saves and misses, the kind of game you just never see between the top teams with all their fusty old structural discipline and organised defending.
Westmeath racked up 3-18 from play to skip through to a final against Cavan three weeks from now. That will do it most days, right enough.
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The Tailteann Cup will be fine, by the way. Eventually we’ll come to realise that it doesn’t need all the hand-wringing and think pieces and oh-so-earnest boosterism.
The players are loving it, the managers are going full throttle for it, the 16,616 supporters who turned up here numbered around 150 more than what came to Croker for last weekend’s final 12 matches in the All-Ireland series. It is its own thing, rattling along on its own momentum.
It doesn’t need to be patronised or over-egged. This was enjoyable stuff between a couple of obviously flawed sides. Westmeath came third in Division Three back in the spring and looked every bit a side here who ought to be playing at a higher level.
They were physically dominant in the exchanges, routinely accurate in front of the posts and every bit as cynical as the 33-10 free-count suggests.
“We were comprehensively beaten by a much superior Westmeath team,” John Maughan conceded afterwards.
“They’re very strong, physically strong and there’s no doubt we were struggling in most lines. We got overrun from the get-go. It was just a question from half-time onwards of playing for pride, playing for the jersey and that kind of stuff. It’s a different kind of conversation you have when you go in seven or eight points down at the break. It was a difficult afternoon for sure.”
Maughan was non-committal afterwards on whether or not he’ll stick around for a fifth season with Offaly but it’s not hard to imagine him deciding he has his work done. Offaly were poor here, never recovering from a desperate start in which they went 1-4 to 0-0 down inside the opening quarter-hour.
With Ronan O’Toole in quicksilver form at the heart of the Westmeath attack, Offaly couldn’t lay a finger on the runners coming through at will. The Westmeath goal came at the end of a run from deep by centre-back Ronan Wallace, who brushed off a turnstile tackle from young Offaly corner-back Lee Pearson along the way before burying his finish. As an example of sheer conditioning forcing the issue, it was pretty telling.
To Offaly’s credit, they hit back with a goal of their own soon after, Keith O’Neill stitching a fine shot past Jason Daly after a quick free from Niall McNamee. But the rat-a-tat nature of the scoring gave them no time to take the sting out of the game or to try and edge their way back into matters.
This was to-and-fro football, up and down the pitch. Westmeath led 2-11 to 1-6 at the break – and that was despite kicking nine wides and dropping another two attempts short. John Heslin was in his usual imperious form, popping up in the scoring zone as and when the mood took him and applying his own sheen on things.
Lorcan Dolan scuffed home the second Westmeath goal on 22 minutes and they could have had a third on the half hour, only for Heslin’s shot to cannon clear off his own man, corner forward Luke Loughlin.
The best Offaly could offer in response were a trio of McNamee frees and some tireless defiance from Anton Sullivan. But an eight-point margin was always going to be too much for them to turn around after the break.
They gave it a go, all the same. Points from the highly-promising O’Neill and sub Dylan Hyland built a little momentum but a good save by Daly from the rampaging Jordan Hayes kept them at bay. Lorcan Dolan nailed his second goal of the day on 53 minutes after a strong run through the middle from full-back Kevin Maguire and that was that.
“We have never been in a position where we were working to the last game of the season,” said Westmeath manager Jack Cooney afterwards. “We’re in uncharted territory here, so we’re really, really going to enjoy it, knowing that three weeks’ time is our last game of the season.
“It’s been great, coming off the last two Covid-affected seasons where literally it’s knockout. So, whether it was a Tailteann Cup or whether it was the qualifiers . . . like, every county team is developing and we have a number of players in there that were never in Croke Park until we played Kildare here. And we’ve a couple of lads outside of the 26 that I invited up, just to tog out in a dressing-room, and they’re mad excited.
“So, I’m hoping that as a result of our trip up here today, and our trip in a few weeks’ time, that that is going to drive those guys on to want to be better and to be part of this, because it is a long-term project for us to try and get to a higher standard and get to a higher level consistently.”
Offaly: Paddy Dunican; Lee Pearson, Declan Hogan, David Dempsey; Rory Egan, Johnny Moloney, Cian Donoghue; Conor McNamee, Jordan Hayes; Bill Carroll, Ruairí McNamee, Anton Sullivan (0-2); Jack Bryant (0-1), Niall McNamee (0-6, 0-6 frees), Keith O’Neill (1-2). Subs: Dylan Hyland (0-3) for Carroll, 25 mins; James Lalor for C McNamee, 41 mins; Mark Abbott (0-1) for Pearson, 52 mins; Cathal Flynn (1-0) for Bryant, 53 mins; Jack McEvoy (0-1) for R McNamee, 65 mins
Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jack Smith, Kevin Maguire, Jamie Gonoud; James Dolan (0-1), Ronan Wallace (1-0), Sam Duncan; Jonathan Lynam, Ray Connellan (0-1); Sam McCartan (0-3), Ronan O’Toole (0-4), David Lynch; Luke Loughlin (0-2), John Heslin (0-8, 0-4 frees), Lorcan Dolan (2-1). Subs: Robbie Forde (0-1) for Duncan, 46 mins; Ger Egan for Lynam, 55 mins; Alex Gardiner (0-1) for L Dolan, 63 mins; Nigel Harte for J Dolan, 69 mins; Ciaran Martin for Loughlin, 69 mins
Referee: Paul Faloon (Down)
Westmeath
Score 3-22
First half 2-11
Second half 1-11
From play 3-19
Wides 9
Frees conceded 33
Yellow cards 3
Black cards 0
Red cards 0
Offaly
Score 2-16
First half 1-6
Second half 1-10
From play 2-10
Wides 10
Frees conceded 10
Yellow cards 0
Black cards 0
Red cards 0
Attendence: 16,616
