Everybody is here for the right reasons
As Westmeath battle with the game’s elite, manager O’Brien lauds their commitment...
THE question has been posed as to whether the visit of the Cork hurlers to Mullingar today will qualify as a novel experience or a brutal one. There is, however, no doubt as to which of those labels can be attached to last summer’s visit, when the Rebels turned Cusack Park into a killing field, running out winners by 1-40 to 0-20 in a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final.
It was a game that Cork were expected to win with Westmeath coming packaged as barrelled fish for their visitors’ shooting entertainment.
Six days previously they had lost their second Joe McDonagh Cup final inside 12 months, leaving them with a physical and mental Everest to climb and their ascent came with the guarantee of a brutal demise.
In many ways, today is a far bigger game for Westmeath in that this time they have earned the right to play Cork on a level playing field, rather than having an a token invite thrust into their hands.
Mind you, that may not make it easier but promotion to Division 1 hurling – after an absence of 32 years – is a measure of their consistency and the ambition that is driving Shane O’Brien and his players.
No one said it was going to be easy and it hasn’t been, but after a heavy opening-round defeat to Galway, they put their best foot forward against Waterford last time out when losing by nine.
‘When you pursue a challenge, you have to realise and accept there will be difficulties on the way and it all depends on how you react to those bumps and so far the lads have reacted fantastically,’ said O’Brien.
‘There is a huge amount of learning but the biggest challenge for us as a management team is to make sure that the spirits remain high and the motivation is there.
‘We have a very ambitious group and we are not just trying to go out and be competitive, and I think we showed for long periods against Waterford that we can be that in a one-off match,’ declared O’Brien.
Westmeath’s success this spring will hardly be measured by Allianz League points – after today they have unforgiving trips to Limerick and Tipperary. Neither will their wellbeing be judged on how they fare in an inevitable relegation playoff – almost certain to be against Carlow or Laois. However, the expeto rience they can garner over these testing weeks will be crucial for the summer.
The Joe McDonagh Cup – they lost in the last two finals to Carlow and Laois – is their grand prize; a competition which O’Brien passionately argues should be seen in its best light.
‘It is a fantastic competition, it gives second-tier counties the chance of winning something.
‘There is no denying that for a team to lose a final of that magnitude and try and tog out a week later in a Championship game against a stronger team is really difficult.
‘I really think the way forward is move past that six-day gap and allow for two weeks for the finalists to go into the preliminary quarterfinal.
‘But one of the biggest things the GAA could look at is the promotion of these games. Some of the games in the Joe McDonagh Cup were as good as any that were played last summer and I think it was a real pity that they were not televised.
‘We now have eir Sport, Sky, TG4 and RTÉ all active in the GAA media rights market and I really believe that the GAA should look at incorporating competitions like the McDonagh Cup into those packages.
‘The biggest thing to get right in second-tier counties is the promotion of the game, because it adds prestige and importance to the teams involved and it is a great way of ensuring the game has an identity in counties.
‘It is not enough to be streaming Joe McDonagh Cup games, I really think they need to be accessible and broadcast live and if that happened I think it would do wonders for the game in counties like ours.’
O’Brien may be a rookie intercounty manager – he was part of Joe Quaid’s management team last year, succeeding the latter when the Westmeath board cited ‘cultural differences’ in bringing his term to a close. O’Brien, however, has a track record in swimming against the tide of limited resources and tradition.
He was part of the Dublin Under 21 management team that reached the 2011 AllIreland final, managed Trinity College to a Ryan Cup title, while, under Quaid, he helped coach Kildare to a Christy Ring title in 2018.
‘I love being in among the so-called underdogs, it fosters a great spirit. Here in Westmeath, what we have is a small tight-knit community and what we lack in size we make up in heart. The lads we have are there for the right reasons. We know that it is not as glamorous to be hurling for Westmeath as it might be for other big counties, but even though they don’t give get the same rewards or recognition, they give as much if not more of themselves,’ O’Brien said.
The contrast with Cork, the game’s most populous hurling county, could hardly be greater.
O’Brien is drawing his players from 10 clubs while the depth of his squad has been stress-tested by an 11-strong injury-list, but at least he has one thing in common, or more to the point, borrowed from Cork, in his coach Frank Flannery.
He got to know Flannery – previously a selector with his native Cork when they worked together with Oulart-the-Ballagh in 2017 – and it made a lasting impression.
‘Frank is one of a kind. He is one of the most passionate hurling men I have ever met and that passion is infectious. He drives three and a half hours every night to training from his home in Kanturk, and when you have someone that committed in the group, it rubs off on everyone else.’
Flannery is just one of a high-powered management team, which also includes Tipperary’s Paudie O’Neill, Galway’s Alan Kerins, and local legends Brendan Murtagh and Paul
‘BEING AMONG UNDERDOGS FOSTERS A GREAT TEAM SPIRIT’
Greville, but it is the long-serving logistics manager/kit man Keith Quinn who O’Brien identifies an inspiring force.
‘He has been doing that job for the Westmeath hurlers for God knows how many years,’ he said.
‘We often talk about great hurling men but never think of them coming from counties like this but it is men like Keith, who are committed to a cause where there is not that much glamour or glory, but come back year after year, that I really admire.
‘Those are the kind of men that inspire whole groups, they embody the spirit you are trying to achieve and I find being around men like that humbling.’
Mind you, the glory of the game for O’Brien is not just in the abstract.
‘Our goal is to go out and win every single game and the day you do not have that mindset is the day you are finished,’ he stated.
‘We are hoping one day to take a big scalp.’
Today would be a good day as any for that to dawn.
But if it does not come to pass, they will regroup and go again – it’s what they’re used to doing.