Westmeath primed to keep Louth waiting

LEINSTER SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP:THE 50-YEAR gap has a nice ring to it and their form has been impressive so perhaps Louth are indeed poised to reach their first Leinster football final since 1960. They have the scoring forwards. They have the confidence. And they certainly have the incentive. If only the one certainty in sport wasn't uncertainty.

Their six-point win over Kildare earlier this month marked one of the best overall performances of the summer, with eight Louth players contributing points, some of which would rival anything hit by Kerry or Tyrone.

Kildare were comprehensively beaten, and the truth is Louth probably hadn’t played as well since 1960, when they last made the Leinster final, only to lose out to Offaly (their last Leinster title was 1957, the year they also went on to win the All-Ireland).

One of the fears is Louth have been in this position several times before, and failed; nine times, to be exact – losing Leinster semi-finals in 1964, 1975, 1983, and six more during the 1990s. Yet this may be their best chance to bridge the gap and face-off against either Dublin or Meath back in Croke Park on July 11th.

What is certain is Westmeath will be no pushover in Croke Park on Sunday evening (the throw-in time being the unusually late 5.50pm). They may have lost a staggering 16 of their last 18 competitive matches, they may only had manager Pat Flanagan on board for the last eight weeks, and they may have only just sneaked past Wicklow in their quarter-final, but Westmeath still have considerably more experience at this stage of the championship, having contested two Leinster semi-finals in the last two years, and famously winning the title outright in 2004.

One man not surprised by Westmeath’s win over Wicklow – or the fact they are actually marginal favourites for Sunday – is Brendan Hackett, who preceded Flanagan as Westmeath manager until his unceremonious exit at the end of the league, having reportedly “lost” the dressingroom.

Hackett doesn’t harbour too many hard feelings against Westmeath, and actually anticipated them beating Wicklow in the previous round, despite general expectations to the contrary.

“Most people looked at Westmeath’s league form and saw seven losses,” recalls Hackett. “But they didn’t look under the surface. We should have beaten Meath and lost by a point. We should have beaten Kildare and lost by a point. We put up a good score against Laois. With the exception of Armagh and Down, we ran every team in Division Two very close.

“And remember we were using a lot of new players. We tried out 30 different players in total, using seven or eight new players every game.

“So Westmeath definitely weren’t as far away as some people thought. And during that time the under-21s were getting to a Leinster final, putting away Kildare, Meath and Laois, before losing to Dublin (who went on to win the All-Ireland).

“Wicklow were struggling their way through Division Four, and weren’t particularly impressive against a poor Carlow team.

“So I always thought they were a good bet against Wicklow, even though they only scraped by them on the day.”

When Flanagan came, as recently as April 21st, he admitted the fitness base of Westmeath was good, and all he needed to work on was their confidence. Flanagan brought in Paul Conway and David Mitchell as selectors – both were members of the 2004 Leinster title-winning panel – but the real boost to confidence was the return of forwards Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon, who had opted out of the panel under Hackett.

Since the win over Wicklow, two-time All Star defender John Keane and Derek Heavin have also come out of retirement to throw their considerable experience behind Westmeath’s cause.

Both players had been adamant and with Hackett that their playing days were over; Keane due to injury and after being recently married, and Heavin after deciding to concentrate on work commitments.

Hackett has his own suspicions as to why did they did come back.

“John Keane didn’t come back to restart his career,” suggests Hackett. “He came back for one last throw of the dice, in 2010. Derek Heavin too.

“With Wicklow out of the way, and Kildare out of the way, they only had Louth, a Division Three team, standing in their way of a Leinster final. That was probably the call for Keane and Heavin to come back, to help make that Leinster final.

“Dublin we know are not going that well, and who’s to say they couldn’t take Meath?”

Certainly Flanagan now has considerable options going into Sunday’s game. Frank Boyle and Michael Ennis are playing well mixed in with under-21s Conor Lynam, Ciarán Martin and the teenage Ger Egan. Paul Greville is an nice new discovery in the forwards.

Martin Flanagan is carrying a heel injury from the quarter-final win over Wicklow, but Dolan – a substitute in the Wicklow game – is a more than capable replacement if he fails to start.

If Keane is brought back into the defence, Donal O’Donoghue could be released to play at midfield, his more natural position, to partner David Duffy.

That is the likely challenge facing Louth as they look to bridge that 50-year gap – but then no one said it would be easy.