Messages

Great result and performance. We battled hard and deserved the win. When Timmons went off early, we had 3 defenders making their championship debuts. That our defence was so strong and only conceded 10 points tells a lot. I thought Booth had an excellent game as did our two young wing backs. O'Loughlin had a strong game but seemed to tire in the second half, many players did in fairness as it was hot on the pitch. O'Reilly and O'Connor did some amount of running, up and down the pitch, great effort.
It was a strange enough game in that not a lot of ball went into the full forward lines because of the wind. Paul Kingston did well with the limited ball he got and O'Carroll was superb again. Scully had a great game when he came on at half time. His direct running style causes teams problems. We telegraphed our kick outs for Quigley when he came on and Westmeath mopped them up. Lowry was lively on his introduction and scored a great point and Donie got on some ball and his composure helped us over the line.
Meath will be a massive step up. Hopefully, we'll have players back fit. Attride should be as should Donie. I'd say Timmons is unlikely but Begley should be ok. Then Collins and Cahilane are maybes. It has to be said though, with some players having such good games, it's going to be hard to get back on the team for some.

Can't see us winning this I'm afraid. Inexperienced wing backs and Booth has struggled previously when it came to championship football means our back line could be under pressure. Still slow around the middle which Westmeath have exposed in our previous meetings. O'Connor and O'Reilly do add some pace. I'm not sure why Scully is not starting after a very impressive league campaign. Then no Donie up front will obviously weaken us. We have no left footed free taker on the field which has cost us scores earlier in the league. We have a few players to come in like Quigley and Kingston if he's any way fit. Hopefully they all step up and put in a great performance and hopefully a good crowd travels over.

They say you learn more in defeat and since we've lost to these twice, we should have learned a good bit. One of the big things is the kick outs. They gave up possession to us for the majority of our kick outs. For 20 minutes that was because they were down to 14 but even when they had 15, we were rarely forced to go long. They also didn't want to go long on their kick outs. When they were forced to, we generally won them. Working it short and running at us from there resulted in a high number of scores, usually with overlapping runners, our lack of pace was exposed this way. This is something we can target. We'll have to be brave to do it but we can push up on their kickouts and force them long. With Quigley likely to be starting, I think we can boss the midfield this way.
The other obvious thing we've learned is they have a huge amount of speed and some players with power to break tackles. With the extra numbers they bring back to the defence, they need that speed to counter attack. A few of their defenders are extremely quick. We're going to have to add pace to the team to counter this. Not just for this Westmeath game, Meath have the same threat if we play them, in fact all the top teams have speedsters throughout their teams. We don't have many that have speed, are good distributors and score takers, unfortunately. We have a few that have 2 out of 3 of those qualities. I think we might just have to select our fast players for the half forward and half back lines.
Move Attride to the half back line if we put Seale in the corner. Bring Carroll in at centre forward, have Scully beside him and then one of O'Connor or Reilly on the other wing. Cahilane had a bad day on Saturday, that other corner forward spot is still up for grabs.

Definitely an overreaction from some here. Especially from some who weren't at the match and were probably watching it from their bedsit somewhere in Kildare.

It's clear we still have a lot to work on. Our lack of pace is something that continues to pop up and our lack of scorers is an issue. The ball wasn't put in early until late on in the match because Westmeath had an extra man back there. That left space elsewhere but our half forwards aren't great score getters, unfortunately. That's no matter who we bring in there. Kingston actually had a fine game, O'Carroll had an off day with the shooting but his conversion rate is never 100%.

They are very good footballers, great at club level and have many strengths but Boyle and Lillis are just too slow, especially when playing against a running team like Westmeath. They don't do enough in other areas to accommodate them I'm afraid. Benny Carroll adds a lot of pace and attacking threat. Like others, he isn't a great scorer but he's likely to start in the championship. Scully hadn't his best game of the league but adds directness to the attack.

It's clear that Sugrue wasn't treating this game as the be all and end all and I think we'll have up to 5 or 6 changes come May 26th. No matter what he goes with however, we'll have to face up to the facts that we have certain limitations. We have many strengths also and gaining promotion to division 2 means it was an extremely successful league campaign. The final was just a bonus game and although it would have been nice to win, it's definitely not the end of the world to lose it.

If Quigley can remain fit, he will be starting beside O'Loughlin. Lillis to bench. He is an option at centre back but his lack of pace would be exposed. I'm surprised O'Reilly hasn't been given another run at wing forward and O'Connor as well, he was taken off against Westmeath but was having his best game of the year that day.

We got promoted without Donie playing particularly well. He changed the game when he came on against Down but has only shown glimpses since then. O'Carroll has been our main man and if we can get Donie going, that would be real danger in our forward line. I think Cahilane has won the battle for the other full forward line spot. It was and still is hotly contested. Quigley looks like he has leapfrogged back into a starting role alongside O'Loughlin.
It'd be nice to pick up some more silverware, will probably be played in Tullamore or Mullingar, maybe Parnell Park. The good news in a way is that we still have a lot of improvements to make before championship time.

By the way, I thought Pigott was excellent today at center back. He's growing into the position very well.

Not wanting to run anyone down but I'd disagree with this. Not sure he has the football in him. I think Begley is our man here. I hope not but I wouldn't be surprised if Meaney doesn't make a return. Right or wrong, he hasn't had many minutes and getting taken off early today might be the final straw for him.

He did. Everyone likes the lesser counties to do well but the way Carlow have gone about things has left them with few admirers. Especially from counties who've come up against them. A horrible, defensive, cynical and sometimes filthy game plan. This member of their management team is well known and his actions today were disgusting. Not only the aforementioned incident but running onto the pitch to get in the referees face when the game is still ongoing is unacceptable. I'm delighted Carlow have been sent back to division 4, it's where they belong. 

Got to try out a number of players, got promoted, get a bonus match, play division 2 next year, been a very successful league. Great to see Quigley back, our spine is very strong now. The build up to the championship begins now but it'd be nice to pick up a trophy in two weeks.

How do O'Byrne Cup midweek games get played? Westmeath played Dublin in the O'Byrne Cup final which was on a Friday, they only qualified for the final the weekend before. How did that happen?

It isn't right but now we just have to beat Carlow and hope Longford do us a favour. It makes no sense, it should have been played last night. The league final is due to be played on Saturday week. Nothing can be done now I suppose.
We know how Carlow are going to play, we will need to be patient at times and hopefully, we can get enough scores to get us over the line. Will be interesting to see the team selected with our next competitive game a few months away.

The game will be on TG4 just for anyone who can't make it. Don't know if Mossy can get TG4 in the states.

The trialling of personnel and positions has been very worthwhile. I'd say Sugrue has learned a lot. It still appears to be quite a large squad and some more might get a chance to shine in the last two games. I'm not sure who's left but players will be cut soon, some will go with the u20's and others will have benefitted from their time with the squad and it could pay off at a future date for them. They see what it takes to make it at inter county level and they have the opportunity to work hard on what they need to improve if they have the interest and determination to do so. Having a chat with Ross Munnelly should give them a fair idea on what's required.
Looking at the starting team. It looks like only 7 positions have been decided upon. Keeper Brody, full back Timmons, one corner Dillon, wing back Begley, midfield O'Loughlin, full forward line of Kingston and O'Carroll. The other corner back position is between Seale, Collins and Attride. Wing back Attride, Scully, Collins or O'Connor, we also have a number of other half back options on the squad. Centre back appears to be between Attride and Piggott, of course Begley can go back there but they seem to want him on the wing. Lillis and Meaney will battle it out for the other midfield position unless Quigley makes an amazing recovery. The half forward line is up in the air. Boyle has been there the whole league. Kingston didn't work out at centre forward despite some promise. O'Connor has been in and out. Then we have Carroll doing very well the last day. Scully looking good when moved forward. Byrne started a few games, O'Flynn showed promise coming on, Lowry is an option and there's a good few more also. The other corner forward spot is between Ross, Cahilane, Murphy and possibly Barry and Paul Kingston. I'm probably forgetting some but I think that's the lay of the land.

They showed great battle to win that. As has been said, it looked like a Longford win until the last 20 minutes. Poor shooting and bad decision making cost us a lot in the first half. Nothing was going right for Donie, he got one good mark and we also scored some nice points but it was mixed with some really sloppy play. Even when we dominated for the last 20 minutes, we missed a lot of chances. It has to be said, the conditions were poor. The wind wasn't directly down the pitch so it made harder to convert chances, although Longford took a far higher percentage than we did.
We still have some questions over a number of positions. We need a centre back. We could put Attride there again when Seale comes back. Lillis had a tough night on a good player, I think Meaney is a better option. Scully has been very good at wing back but he offers a lot going forward. Munnelly had a good game and a great achievement to play 100 league games, he does get knocked off the ball a bit too easy on occasion though. We have tried a good few players in the league and unfortunately, some appear not to be at the right level as yet.
On the plus side, Timmons came back in and he makes a huge difference to out defence. Begley is always an option on kick outs and the freer role on the wing is really suiting him. O'Loughlin was very good. Benny Caroll had a good come back, adds some pace. As has been said above, other players to come on added pace also. O'Flynn looked solid. Murphy and Lowry did well also. Maybe a few of these deserve a start the next day to try to stake a claim. O'Carroll was good again but he and Kingston can play better. It's a huge plus that we won despite this.
Overall this league campaign has been very beneficial. It looks like we're safe now and in with a chance of promotion. We have done this while trying out a number of players and made a number of positional switches. We still have a lot of competition for places and two more games to assess further and then settle on a first 15. Going up to division 2 would be nice but staying in division 3 for another season wouldn't be disastrous as we continue to build.

Just another point, I don't think it was totally coincidental that we conceded the 2 goals after Meaney was subbed. Yes, the 2nd goal came after the sending off but I think Meaney did a lot of dirty work, hard tackling and tracking back.