Westmeath retain their edge over disappointing Kingdom
Kerry 0-10 Westmeath 0-12
WELL, then, that’s it confirmed – this Westmeath team are simply better than this Kerry team.
There’s no other conclusion you can draw after the Kingdom suffered their fourth straight defeat at the hands of the Lake County across league and championship. Again there wasn’t that much between the sides – just two points on the scoreboard – but Westmeath’s edge has been consistent and persistent.
Kerry could have few complaints as they stood in a blustery and bitterly cold Cusack Park doing their duty and waiting for Westmeath to collect the cup. Beaten by the better team, again. No complaints and no consolation.
There will, however, be plenty frustration. It wouldn’t have taken much more for Kerry to have won this game. In the first half with the breeze at their backs they had ample opportunity to grab the three additional points they needed to win this game.
A succession of wides put paid to that. Even then that’s clutching at straws a little. It’s not as if Westmeath were flawless up front, they found it just as, if not more, difficult to score with the breeze at their backs.
Instead this game was won and lost in the physical stakes. Westmeath were the more robust side and from very early on it was clear that this was a more focussed Westmeath, a meaner and more determined one.
Kerry were game and worked exceptionally hard, but too often they found themselves bottled up by Westmeath men as they attempted to carry the ball forwards and, when they sought to go long to break the logjam, they got very little if any change at all out of it.
The quality of ball might not have been the best – Westmeath were putting severe pressure on the Kingdom further out the field – still you would have expected more of it to stick.
Mikey Boyle had Westmeath full-back Tommy Doyle in all sorts of bother in Austin Stack Park, here the man-mountain (wearing number twenty six but playing at three) was imperious and without that outlet Kerry’s attacking threat was severely limited.
To beat Westmeath they probably needed a goal and they never really got a sniff of one aside from one half chance for Shane Conway and not again until late in the second half, but that was a chance forged more in hope and desperation than anything else.
The first half played out along expected lines. The breeze allowed Kerry a certain grip on the game, but there was never a sense that they were in control. There was never a sense that the lead they were forging would be sufficient to the task at hand.
After ten minutes they were just a single point clear having shot three straight points – two points from Shane Conway (one from play) and a sideline cut by Jack Goulding – to overcome an early Westmeath lead of two.
After fifteen minutes the gap remained stubbornly at a single point – 0-4 to 0-3 – bit by bit though Kerry began to forge a more meaningful lead. A point by Daniel Collins on nineteen minutes from distance showed a possible route around the Westmeath defence, but Kerry persisted too much with the long ball.
Kerry fired over the final three points of the half – two Conway frees, a Pádraig Boyle point from play – to give themselves a five point lead at the break, 0-9 to 0-4. It hardly seemed enough, not with that breeze and not with Westmeath looking as sharp as they were.
When Joe Quiad’s men started the second half with a point by Darragh Clinton – assist Allan Devine – it felt pretty ominous for the Kingdom. To their credit this Kerry team never threw in the towel, kept on battling right to the last.
Indeed, five minutes into the half they even managed to restore their five point advantage when Shane Conway set up Pádraig Boyle for the Ballyduff’s man’s second from play of the afternoon.
The fact that it was the Kingdom’s last score of the game, however, tells you pretty much all you need to know about what transpired after that. Westmeath kept the Kingdom pinned down on their own half of the field and although they squandered quite a lot of chances, the sheer volume of chances they created made it inevitable that they’d overhaul the green and gold.
It took them until fifty eight minutes to do so – thanks to a beautiful point from the half-way line by the hugely impressive Killian Doyle – but once they did it felt decisive. As long as Kerry remained in front, however improbably, they had a chance. Once they went ahead, Westmeath surged.
In the space of four minutes Westmeath had fired over three points – second half sub Derek McNicholas with a point from play and a pointed free from Doyle following on from his point from play – to take a lead they would never relinquish.
Probably Quaid’s men should have pushed on more decisively for home from there. Kerry, however, showed their mettle, taking advantage of a certain nervousness in a Westmeath side chasing their first return to Division 1 hurling in a generation, to create a few late chances.
It wouldn’t have been a fair reflection of the match had Kerry managed to fashion a goal, but stranger things have happened. Two minutes into time added on Dáithí Griffin sent a ball across the face of goal and it looked as if a Kerry player connected with it. A brief moment of panic for Westmeath, but the shot was blocked, cleared and the Leinster men claimed the title. Disappointment for the Kingdom, delight for Westmeath.