Westmeath football teams are not accustomed to such praise from such a lofty and discerning source, but Pete McGrath, a father figure to two generations of successful Down footballers, was in obvious awe of a display that overwhelmed his young side in the Division Two semi-final of the National Football League in Navan yesterday.
"Anything they touched turned to gold," said McGrath, "their power, fitness and combined play was too much for us, they had a lot more ideas than we had," added the Down boss.
The chastening experience for McGrath's team, inflicted by a county that is finally reaping the rewards accruing from its splendid under-age teams of recent years, has prompted McGrath to revise his championship plans.
"I will be giving recalls to the panel to some of the older hands. Gregory McCartan is needed to strengthen our midfield. We have a good panel of young players and I will persevere with them but they need a few older and wiser players playing alongside them," McGrath explained.
Luke Dempsey, Westmeath's manager since October, said that the players are now getting the rewards for dedication and hard work. His side's precision play suggests that they are growing in confidence but, while their potential was clearly signposted by last week's victory over Cork, Dempsey believes that the Munster men will be entitled to be favourites for next Sunday's decider in Croke Park.
"But," says Dempsey "we are going to be a match for any team, the ball is in Cork's court now and I am glad we are meeting them."
Dempsey's only regret concerned the manner in which his side conceded two goals to a well subdued Down but in fairness to Down's attack leader Michael Walsh, whom Dempsey regards as an exceptional player, they were two cracking scores coming at the end of attacks of rare quality.
The first goal, netted following a brilliant one-two between Walsh and Brendan Coulter just before half time, seemed destined to have a strong bearing on the outcome for it reduced Down's deficit from six points to three. Walsh's second came in the closing stages and was merely of statistical interest.
Down had nobody to match the accuracy of Joe Fallon and Ger Heavin when it came to poaching points from range. The two corner forwards shared 11 of the points mainly with the placed ball.
The signs looked ominous for Down from an early stage when their attack was well contained and forced into error and back-tracking. Micky Linden had a particularly quiet game and received one of the five yellow cards shown by Galway referee Des Joyce.
When Down forwards finally managed to find reasonably good space with the wind in the second half, their fingers were too often on the self-destruct button, although it took a mighty feet-first save by Westmeath goalkeeper Cathal Mullen to deny Shane Ward.
WESTMEATH: C Mullin; D Murphy, D Mitchell, F Murray; D Gavin (0-1), D Healy, J Keane; D O'Shaughnessy, P Conway (0-2); B Morley, F Wilson (0-3), M Ennis (0-1); J Fallon (0-7 four frees and 45), D Dolan (0-1), G Heavin (0-4 three frees). Subs: R O'Connell for D Gavin 52 mins; B Loughrey for Wilson; C Keane (0-1) for Fallon both 55 mins; D Heavin for Conway 56 mins.
DOWN: M McVeigh; B Kearney, C Byrne, B Grant; P Shiels, M McGill, L Doyle; B Burns A Molloy; S Mulholland (0-1 free), M Walsh (2-2 two pointed frees), B Coulter; M Linden, R Murtagh, S Ward (0-1). Subs: S Poland for Shiels 10 mins; C Daly (0-1) for Mulholland 32 mins; M McMurray for Kearney 40 mins; A O'Prey for Murtagh 48 mins.
Referee: D Joyce (Galway)
