Summer perils down aristocrats

Gaelic Games: Four teams in Croke Park yesterday. Two underdog outfits. Two aristocracies. The sky blue. The wind gentle but the afternoon still crazy as the little guys won and the great families were left to wonder. The stadium rattled till it was a boiling tureen of noise and happy chaos.

Dublin first. Opening their summer against Westmeath and doing so on their home patch. This place used to be their playground. Yesterday they left in tears. Beaten by two points. Their first championship loss to Westmeath since the bad old days of 1967. They slunk out of the Leinster championship and find themselves with just six days to get themselves prepared for, and excited about, the prospect of playing London in the qualifiers.

Not only did Dublin leave the field to a chorus of boos from their own followers but they had just a short respite before the humiliating news of what they'll be doing next Saturday was broken to them. Never has there been such a distance between the county team and the glamour they spawned in the 1970s.

For Westmeath, deliverance from their hell of near successes and close things was sweet. They held their nerve as Dublin cut loose early on and they made the right changes. Jason Sherlock, with four points from play in the first 16 minutes, was held scoreless for the rest of the day. And late on, when things got hectic, Westmeath pulled away confidently with three points down the closing stretch.

It was vindication, not just for a team who many had diagnosed as lacking the bottle for the big days but for their manager Páidí Ó Sé, who had to answer many questions about his management capabilities down through the years, despite his familiarity with these big days in Croke Park. Yesterday was a day to swell any CV.

"I have had lots of good days," he said as he stood soaking wet in the middle of the Westmeath dressing-room with just a towel wrapped around his midriff, "and I wouldn't be getting carried away but today is special, when you take the scalp of a county like Dublin. That's a big one. The first one would be Kerry. Then Dublin. They were shortlisted as a team that could win the championship this year. We had to play well all through the field today. You couldn't pick a man of the match out there today. They all gave Trojan work."

From the Dublin dressing-room no word. Just a parade of ashen faces walking slowly out the back door and straight onto the team coach.

As they did so they could hear what remained of the attendance warming to Wexford's assault on Kildare. Through the spring, Wexford gave out warnings that they were on the cusp of something big but when they lost Scott Doran on the eve of the championship the ranks of the also-rans seemed to beckon.

They have class, though. And the class wears the number 15 jersey. Mattie Forde had eight points yesterday, a modest haul for a man of his accomplishment but enough to break Kildare's back.

The game was no classic and never had the excitement of the opening match but Wexford will be indifferent. They led by six points to five at the break, four points having come from Mattie Forde and one other from his brother Pat.

Through the second half Kildare looked occasionally like they could pull away but it never happened and the Forde brothers helped themselves to similar rations again. Four points for Mattie, one for Pat. Two late frees from John Hegarty sealed the win, Wexford's first over Kildare in the championship since 1986.

For their penance Kildare must play Offaly next week. They won't need to be reminded that when the sides met in the league a few weeks ago Offaly took the honours. Such are the perils of summer.