NOT even an early morning warm up supervised by former Cork coach Johnny Clifford could inspire Westmeath as they felt the full force of a spirited Cork side in this one sided Division Two game at Pairc Ui Rinn yesterday.
There was little hint of what was to come in the opening quarter as the home side made hard work of their 0-4 to 0-2 lead but in a marvellous 10 minute spell before half time Cork slammed in four goals to lead 4-9 to 0-3 at the break.
Cork did not let up on the resumption and further goals by Alan Browne, completing his hattrick, and his clubmate Alan Cummins gave Jimmy Barry Murphy's side a good start to this year's campaign.
For Westmeath it's very much a case of back to the drawing board. Few of their players were up to the required standard and only Brian Kennedy, who scored two goals Sean McLoughlin and Fergal Fagan can look back on this game with any degree of satisfaction.
Barry Murphy and his fellow selectors would have preferred a much tougher test, but he must have been pleased to see Brian Corcoran, Jimmy Kelleher, Fergal McCormack and Ger Cunningham, making his 100th National League appearance, in such sparkling form.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)