NFL Division 2: Meath 3-14 Westmeath 1-17
Pandemonium. A disputed Meath goal with the last kick of the game, a pitch invasion, uncertainty as to what the actual result was, the winning manager brandishing the new rules “a joke”, the losing manager struggling to see the funny side of it all. Utter chaos. Hooter-gate in Mullingar.
The latest episode of this derby ended in bedlam – but ultimately it ended with a Meath victory over a Westmeath side for whom bad luck has been their only luck in Division 2 this season.
With 10 seconds left on the clock, and the sides level, Meath pushed forward in search of a winner. With time almost up, Keith Curtis launched a speculative Hail Mary in on top of the Westmeath goal. From a forest of bodies, Conor Duke answered Meath’s prayers.
Duke made an outstanding leap to win possession, turned, took two steps, and rifled the ball with his left foot to the top-right corner of Conor McCormack’s goal.
But the hooter appeared to sound just before the ball left his foot – certainly Westmeath felt so. The rule states that a score only stands if the ball has left the player’s foot and is in the air when the hooter blares.
“This score, the ball was caught in the 70th (minute), the hooter went,” said Westmeath manager Dermot McCabe. “Unfortunately for us the Meath player finished a brilliant goal, but immediately when I looked at the catch it was 70.03 on the scoreboard, the hooter was sounding, the noise was immense so nobody heard it.”
Referee Barry Judge was surrounded afterwards and nobody seemed quite sure if the goal stood. It did. Meath had pulled off a great escape. Westmeath were pulling their hair out in frustration. Nothing like the noisy neighbours to get the dander up.
Behind the main stand afterwards, members of the Westmeath backroom team sought clarification on the implementation of some rules. Their stats team showed video clips of decisions they felt went against them.
Meath manager Robbie Brennan adopted the Arsene Wenger stance on Duke’s winning goal.
“I didn’t see it, I was giving out to the linesman, I didn’t actually see it,” he said. “I heard the roar, turned and saw the ball in the back of the net.”
Westmeath deserved at least a draw from the encounter, but instead they dangle over the Division 2 relegation trapdoor with no points after five games. Meath are joint top of the table with eight points, this being their fourth straight victory.
All things considered, you’d have imagined the new rules are going down well in the Meath dressingroom. But you’d have imagined wrong.
“My own honest opinion, not with my Meath manager hat (on), is that they’ve lost the run of what we are trying to do,” said Brennan.
“The whole idea here was to try protect the game and we’re not doing that – that’s not Gaelic football.
“You check a score at half-time of a game and it’s 17-0 to somebody, it’s a joke to be honest with you the way it’s gone. It’s a mix of outdoor basketball with a breeze, soccer-style defending with 11 behind the ball in zonal stuff, and a bit of rugby thrown in for a few scrums around the middle. I don’t like it, it’s not Gaelic football.”
Before all that post-match drama, there was actually a game of football played at Cusack Park on Sunday.
Westmeath, fighting for their lives, played against the wind in the first half and with Luke Loughlin, Matthew Whittaker and Robbie Forde showing well they were just two points adrift with one minute of the opening period remaining.
However, Meath launched a high ball in on top of the Westmeath goal and Adam O’Neill won it, turned and clipped it beyond McCormack, 2-8 to 0-9. History was to repeat itself at the end of the second half.
Jordan Morris scored Meath’s first goal but he also had a penalty saved in that opening half. The visitors struggled to win possession on long kickouts and at times seemed to lack the kind of energy they brought during recent victories over Down and Roscommon.
Westmeath, with the aid of the wind, kicked the first three points of the second half and a well-taken two-pointer by Loughlin brought the Lake County level in the 56th minute.
A left-footed point by Eoghan Frayne edged Meath back in front but Westmeath hit the front on the hour mark when the evergreen Kieran Martin reacted quickest to a ball off the upright to score a poacher’s goal, 1-16 to 2-11.
It set up a tense finish and coming down the straight Meath probably would have taken a draw if offered it when still one point adrift in the 68th minute. Frayne levelled matters one minute later. But the drama was only starting.
“The lads are quite realistic that we didn’t play well,” added Brennan. “That last score is papering over an awful lot of cracks.”
WESTMEATH: C McCormack; J Gonoud, J Geoghegan, C Dillon (0-0-1); J Moran, R Forde (0-0-3, 1f), S McCartan (0-0-1); R Connellan, F O’Hara; D McCartan (0-0-1), B Cooney (0-0-1), M Whittaker (0-0-2); L Dolan (0-0-1), L Loughlin (0-1-4, 1f, 1tpf), B Kelly (0-0-1).
Subs: K Martin (1-0-0) for Kelly (52 mins); R Wallace for Dolan (57); A Kilmartin for Cooney (65)
MEATH: B Hogan; S Lavin, S Rafferty, D Keogan; B O’Halloran, A O’Neill (1-0-0), C Caulfield; J Flynn (0-1-1), B Menton (0-0-1); C Duke (1-0-3), J Kinlough, T O’Reilly; J Morris (1-1-1, 1f), S Walsh, E Frayne (0-0-4, 2f).
Subs: C O’Sullivan for O’Reilly (25 mins); E Harkin for O’Neill (47); A Lynch for Walsh (50); K Curtis for O’Sullivan (60); M Murphy for O’Halloran (70).
Referee: B Judge (Sligo).
