Westmeath v Longford: Tom Humphrieshopes whoever emerges from tomorrow's meeting of Westmeath and Longford can go on to cause a national stir this summer.
LONGFORD AND Westmeath are the Siamese twins of great expectations, counties whose lineouts are periodically sprinkled with players of whom it is said, somewhat patronisingly, that they would get their game in any county. Neighbours who seems forever on the verge of boom but two footsteps ahead of bust, they are up and down the promotion and relegation elevator so often they could claim air miles.
There were a couple of seasons back in the mid-1990s which seemed to sum up the fortunes of either county. One can be headed towards disaster, the other towards the stars, but eventually they will come back into alignment.
In 1994 Westmeath beat the reigning All-Ireland champions, Derry, in a National Football League quarter-final. The following summer Westmeath won an All-Ireland minor title but Longford went into the Leinster championship without a manager having mislaid Tom Donoghue in the later stages of the league.
Westmeath and Longford appeared to be going in different directions but their paths converged always.
Perhaps it is belief. Westmeath found more and more inventive ways to lose to Meath in championship football during the years when they had the genuine talent to be breaking through.
Longford's inhibitions are just as ingrained. Twenty years ago this summer, wins over Westmeath and Wicklow brought Longford to the edge of their first Leinster final after 20 years away.
They played Dublin in the semi-final and played well through the first half to lead by three points at the break.
Within 10 minutes of the second-half throw-in, Dublin had drawn level. Longford imploded and lost by 18 points.
It is fitting they are linked not just by Luke Dempsey's curriculum vitae and electoral boundaries but that their fortunes not only shadow each other but intersect regularly. Tomorrow they meet again in championship action and, not just for the sake of each other but for the sake of Leinster football, it is to be hoped that the winner pushes on to national prominence.
Sadly it is more than likely that when Westmeath and Longford get done with a little more neighbourly skirmishing they will both be showered with some bouquets as they leave the field. Both sides are capable of playing slick, sprightly football, and even if Westmeath have learned to mix that talent with a defensive stringency of late the result is likely to be seen as being of mainly local interest.
Great talents like Brian Kavanagh or Dermot Bannon will be pulled aside for pats on the head and special mention - but there will be no widespread belief that the winner is ready for the great leap forward.
Which is a pity. Their province needs them. Leinster badly needs perpetual revolution along the lines of what Ulster has produced in the years since Peter McGrath's Down team broke so gloriously free back in 1991. Down, Donegal, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone have won All-Ireland titles since then and there have been seasons of heavy lifting from the likes of Monaghan, Cavan and Fermanagh.
As we stand on the cusp of a fresh football summer there is the feeling the Ulster championship will be an exhibition of pyrotechnics which could see any one of six counties coming through. And the Leinster championship? A damp squib most likely to be momentarily enjoyed by a Dublin team who will by Monday morning have begun to fret that a fourth successive Leinster championship does little or nothing to steel them for the All-Ireland series.
Since the introduction in 2001 of All-Ireland quarter-finals at the end of the qualifier series the performance of Leinster teams in battling through to the latter stages of the championships has been quite abysmal. Meath, as Leinster champions in 2001, were the province's last representatives in an All-Ireland final.
Dublin as provincial champions in 2002, '06 and '07 have reached semi-finals but the duration of the county's infamous drought between 1963 and 1974, when no All-Ireland final was reached, has easily been surpassed in terms of duration. A clue to Dublin's limitations might lie in the lack of strength in the province that sends them forth.
No Leinster team that has battled through the qualifying system has made an All-Ireland semi-final. That feat has been achieved in that time by Derry (twice) Donegal (03), Fermanagh (04), Armagh (02) and Tyrone (05). Memories of Monaghan's fine performance in the quarter- final of last year's championship against Kerry further buttress the impression of a divide between the provinces.
Longford and Westmeath are interesting case studies and, depending on one's disposition, are either underachieving or overachieving. Population-wise their resources are limited but football allows 15 players from a county on the field at any one time and generally both sides are able to find 15 good ones.
Getting beyond that has been troublesome, however, and an injury or loss of form has exponential consequences in either county. The back-door/qualifying system suits the bigger counties in that regard.
And yet! Two summers ago now on the day Kieran Donaghy emerged as the real deal as a full- forward Longford were to be found in Killarney playing Kerry. Thanks in no small part to Donaghy's magnetic hands, Kerry scored four goals and the headlines the next day focused on the revival in the Kingdom.
Longford had played some fine football that day, however, just as they had against Dublin in the first round when the Dubs left Pearse Park gratefully clutching a two-point win. Longford had played the more attractive football but hadn't pressed home.
Last summer, still managed by Dempsey, one of the smartest managers in the business, they wrangled Westmeath to the ground in Leinster on a day in Pearse Park when Brian Kavanagh scored 2-6. Longford were nine points down at the break and their win required one of the great and gritty performances of the summer.
It was something of a surprise to see them acquiesce so willingly when Laois chloroformed them a few weeks later. The qualifiers brought them to, of all places, Mullingar, where Westmeath took their time about revenge but wound up nine-point winners.
What has happened since has been mildly disappointing. Longford's league has been pockmarked by injury problems and they wrung just three wins out of a campaign which had promised a lot early on. And they needed to muster a final-day victory over Sligo to avoid the ignominy of relegation.
Given their population (less than half that of Westmeath's) Longford's expectations are generally limited, but a Leinster minor championship win six years ago suggested a right to at least expect more from themselves.
By contrast Westmeath's record over the last decade or so suggests a county on the cusp of punching at a higher weight. All-Ireland minor champions in 1995, they pushed on to an under-21 All-Ireland in 1999 and the following year won the Leinster minor and under-21 football championships. Luke Dempsey, who had done most of the groundwork, was forced to stand aside and see Páidí Ó Sé preside at the topping-out ceremony, the Leinster senior football championship of 2004.
Pushing on has proved problematic as ever though.
This year's NFL Division Two title claimed with some style against Dublin in Navan a short time ago was the third Division Two title Westmeath have won since the turn of the century.
Westmeath seem stalled in that netherworld between being surprise packets and being genuine contenders.
It would be a small but not seismic surprise if Longford were to pull off a win this weekend but the odds and the form favour Westmeath for now. They possess a defence which conceded an average of just 0-9 per game in a league campaign where they overcame Meath, Armagh, Monaghan and Dublin along the way to promotion.
Since taking over from Ó Sé, to whom he was assistant manager, Tomás Ó Flatharta's graph has generally been one of improvement but the old inconsistency still haunts Westmeath. Offaly did a number on them in Leinster two years ago but Westmeath set off through the qualifiers and got back to Croke Park in the end with a memorable win over Galway in Salthill.
Just when it seemed they had the momentum to finally build on 2004 they slumped again. They managed just five points in the All-Ireland quarter-final with Dublin. Last summer they got bumped out of Leinster by Longford and went out of the qualifying series to Donegal.
Tomorrow Westmeath and Longford go at it again. A local rivalry which should by now have implications further down the line. In Ulster there are smart men placing money on Monaghan to win the Ulster title. Yesterday you could get Monaghan at 6-1 to win a tough Ulster championship.
Westmeath, who beat Monaghan and Dublin in recent weeks, were out at 12-1 to take a Leinster title at a time when the province is famously weak. Says more about the past than the present really.
