Well Done westmeath minor hurlers

ormond lad

the performance of the weekend has to go to the Westmeath minor hurlers. All Ireland champions Kilkenny with a number of last years squad involved were pushed to the pins of their collars to hold on in Mullingar. A couple of fortunate goals did not help matters but a gallant fight back saw only two points in it at the finish. 2-10 to 1-11.
Luckily Westmeath get a second chance in the Leinster Championship and perhaps more upsets are on the way
Kilkenny up by 9 points at half time and westmeath brought it back to level scores with 7 minutes left before 2 points got kilkenny through

ShamoBuc

That is great news for them and any other county willing to put the work in!!!!!

Fair play to Westmeath. The Game needs themselves and the Carlow's of this world to make the breakthrough.

To have the belief to stand up to a superpower like Kilkenny who are the current All Ireland champions, and turn the game around despite being 9 points down at half time is a credit to them. They have proven that all teams can make the breakthrough if the belief is strong enough. There is a book called 'Hurling, The breakthrough years', which details the emergence of Clare, Wexford and Offaly in the nineties and to a lesser extent the Kerry and Down teams who caused a few league upsets during that era.

What struck me as amazing was that before Anthony Daly lifted Liam McCarthy twice they were very much the whipping boys of Munster taking hiding after hiding, year after year with a few near misses in the meantime. it was not until Len Gaynor seen their potential and said 'we can win a Munster title' that Daly and Clare believed they could make the breakthrough.

The_Kew_Tour

Well done Westmeath, hope this is sign of things to come.

A19B1C12

Everyone forgets how ****e Dublin were a few years ago.

EVERY county can put together 15 good players if they put their minds to it.

Kojak

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Well done Westmeath, hope this is sign of things to come.

Agreed, it would be good to see these bunch of lads stick together and possibly develop into a fair Senior team.

Didn't this kind of result happen a number of years ago between Westmeath and KK. AFAIK Brian Cody had something to do with their minors and, by all accounts, was lucky to come away with a 2 point win.

Clareman

Deleted User wrote: »

What struck me as amazing was that before Anthony Daly lifted Liam McCarthy twice they were very much the whipping boys of Munster taking hiding after hiding, year after year with a few near misses in the meantime. it was not until Len Gaynor seen their potential and said 'we can win a Munster title' that Daly and Clare believed they could make the breakthrough.

I think you're giving far too general a view of what it took, it wasn't just a case of someone from Wexford coming up and going "lads, ye can win ye know", the Clare team of the 90s was a direct result of the Clare minor team that lost the 89 All Ireland to Offaly, which in turn was thanks to some of the best College teams to come from Clare (Flannan's and Shannon).

A lot of work went into the under-age structures to get things right there and every led to the senior team which was the right mix of youth and experience.

IMVHO for a county to be successful you have to start at under-age and make winning a habit along with recognising where to invest smartly, you also can't stop just because you have a couple of good years at the top table. 1 of the reasons Clare are gone back is because not enough investment was put into having new players coming through, players just weren't able to make the senior team cause they couldn't replace the "legends" we were left in the position where half our team retired at the same time with no-one to replace them.

Clareman

Clareman wrote: »

I think you're giving far too general a view of what it took, it wasn't just a case of someone from Wexford coming up and going "lads, ye can win ye know", the Clare team of the 90s was a direct result of the Clare minor team that lost the 89 All Ireland to Offaly, which in turn was thanks to some of the best College teams to come from Clare (Flannan's and Shannon).

A lot of work went into the under-age structures to get things right there and every led to the senior team which was the right mix of youth and experience.

IMVHO for a county to be successful you have to start at under-age and make winning a habit along with recognising where to invest smartly, you also can't stop just because you have a couple of good years at the top table. 1 of the reasons Clare are gone back is because not enough investment was put into having new players coming through, players just weren't able to make the senior team cause they couldn't replace the "legends" we were left in the position where half our team retired at the same time with no-one to replace them.

Fair point. Flannans always had excellent teams. i think Clare were guilty of maybe keeping that class of the mid nineties around too long, great hurlers as they were and Offaly were guilty of the same thing. Psychology i believe is a big thing in sport though, however its only 1 factor and as you suggested the potential with Clare was there already.

Clare took a few drubbings before they came through and could have easily went the other way despite the ground work that was put in in the late 80s but the seeds of success had been sown long before Len Gaynor took charge of the seniors.

nice_guy80

another win for Westmeath minor hurlers

beating Offaly 1-14 to 0-9

PARKHEAD67

Clareman wrote: »

I think you're giving far too general a view of what it took, it wasn't just a case of someone from Wexford coming up and going "lads, ye can win ye know", the Clare team of the 90s was a direct result of the Clare minor team that lost the 89 All Ireland to Offaly, which in turn was thanks to some of the best College teams to come from Clare (Flannan's and Shannon).

A lot of work went into the under-age structures to get things right there and every led to the senior team which was the right mix of youth and experience.

IMVHO for a county to be successful you have to start at under-age and make winning a habit along with recognising where to invest smartly, you also can't stop just because you have a couple of good years at the top table. 1 of the reasons Clare are gone back is because not enough investment was put into having new players coming through, players just weren't able to make the senior team cause they couldn't replace the "legends" we were left in the position where half our team retired at the same time with no-one to replace them.

Flannans had nothing to do with Clare hurling.When I attended that place the "hurlers" were from Limerick(Brian Geary), and Galway(Gantley).Dont even start me on that place. I was captain of a good club at the time and I (was not good enough) for Flannans. Flannans can kiss my ass.

Kojak

nice_guy80 wrote: »

another win for Westmeath minor hurlers

beating Offaly 1-14 to 0-9

Good win for Westmeath. Are they in a Leinster semi-final now?

sendit

Good win for there seinors today aswell

Kojak

Who will get to wear the Maroon jerseys the next day seeing as both Galway and Westmeath wear that colour?

Will there be a toss of a coin, or more likely, the home team (i.e. Westmeath) get to wear maroon and the away team (Galway) have to wear a different colour.

premierstone

Kojak wrote: »

Good win for Westmeath. Are they in a Leinster semi-final now?

Yes they will play dublin in the semi. Wexford play KK in the other semi

moomoocow

Kojak wrote: »

Who will get to wear the Maroon jerseys the next day seeing as both Galway and Westmeath wear that colour?

Will there be a toss of a coin, or more likely, the home team (i.e. Westmeath) get to wear maroon and the away team (Galway) have to wear a different colour.

Normaly both teams change. A few years ago the two played eachother in football and from what i remember Galway had green jeresys and Westmeath white