Westmeath GAA Notes (28-9-2014)
Championship Round up:
It was yet another intriguing weekend of championship fare in the various grades of the Football and Hurling championships. A bumper crowd saw Caulry and Tang battle it out for a place in this years Intermediate football final at Pairc Chiarian Athlone on Friday night and a really tight encounter ensued. Caulry eventually edged the decision by 0-10 to 0-9 with Alan Fitzpatricks late score ensuring that the Mount Temple based club will contest the final for the third consecutive year.  Crookedwood and Delvin met for the second time in a fortnight on Saturday morning in Cusack Park to decide who would make the drop from Senior Huring to Intermediate for 2015. In a feisty affair Delvin emerged winners by 2-13 to 1-10 to retain their status for next years championship.  Sunday's programme of games saw a quadruple set of fixtures for Cusack Park with the Intermediate Hurling semi finals followed by the senior football semi finals.  The two Intermediate Hurling semi finals were keenly contested with St Brigids and Clonkill overcoming Castletown Geoghegan and Fr Daltons respectively. St Brigids had seven points to spare over their neighbours Castletown winning by 2-18 to 2-11 as they aim to return to senior ranks after a two year absence.  Clonkill won the title last year and are looking to make it back to back titles in this grade as they had five points in hand over Fr Daltons winning by 1-16 to 0-14. The senior football semi finals took centre stage on Sunday afternoon in Cusack Park as all four remaining teams in contention for the Flanagan cup clashed. The opening game was a disappointing affair as Garrycastle took complete control from the start with Conor Cosgroves early goal for the Athlone based side setting the tempo for a 1-14 to 0-6 win. The second semi final involving reigning champions St Lomans Mullingar and 2012 title holders Mullingar Shamrocks finish deadlocked at 1-12 apiece. St Lomans were hotly fancied to progress and indeed they looked the more likely for long periods as they held a 1-9 to 0-7 lead midway through the second half with the goal coming from John heslin. However, when Lorcan Smith rifled home a great goal just into the final quarter, the result became uncertain as the springfield men hauled back their neighbours twice in the final minutes to force a replay.  The replay is likely to be during the course of the coming week but was not confirmed at the time of writing.
Intermediate  and Junior Football Final previews:
Sunday 5th October sees the Junior and Intermediate football finals take place at Cusack Park with two fascinating games in prospect. The Junior final sees Moate All Whites and Multyfarnham take the stage in what is a unique pairing. Both sides finished first and second after the group stages and are certainly in the final on merit.  Moate have been installed as favourites for the Hugh Daniels cup since the start of the year and to date they are unbeaten in their quest to make a return to the Intermediate grade for the first time since 2011. It is only a relatively short number of years since the All whites were one of the top teams at Senior level but they dropped from Senior in 2004 and have endured a torrid time in the past decade. It has been a shock to them but the winning of successive Minor titles in the past two years shows that they are on the right road with their current team built around a cohort of talented young players. They have amassed high scores in all their games bar one and their demolition of St Pauls in the semi final was very impressive. Multyfarnham have taken a number of people by surprise in reaching the final but they shouldn't have as they have been steadily building over the past half dozen years.  Backed by growing player numbers in recent seasons the Maroon & Whites have clawed their way up from the very bottom of the Junior ranks as they hunt for a first title since 1956. Beaten in the quarter finals for the past two seasons, they finally got over the hurdle of the knock out stages and will be genuine contenders next Sunday. They qualified for the final with a deserved four point win over Kilbeggan Shamrocks and will really fancy their chances next Sunday. In the encounter between the sides in early July, Moate came out victors narrowly by 1-10 to 1-7 at Cusack Park. In that particular game, Moate led by a large margin at half time but were put under severe pressure by Multy in a very competitive second half.  So to Sunday's game; who will win?  Moate are hot favourites and they are expected to claim the title but if Multyfarnham don't suffer stage fright, they have the ability to win but they will have to play to their extreme limit to take the title. It should be a fascinating contest and is due to throw in at 2-30pm on Sunday.
The Intermediate final sees neighbouring clubs Caulry and Rosemount take the stage in their most important game of the season or perhaps in many seasons for both clubs. Caulry and Rosemount have long histories with both teams in existence since the 1920's, they have great tradition and will bring many colourful supporters to Cusack Park on Sunday. Both teams have had very similar records to date but Caulry have had the longer route since the group stages with replays against Ballymore and Tang in the quarter and semi finals.  Caulry are in the final for the third successive year and this will be in fact their fourth final in that period. In 2012, they met Castletown Finea Coole Whitehall and lost while in 2013 they drew with St Malachys before losing the replay. To date this season they have worked extremely hard to reach this stage and their semi final victory over Tang certainly shows that they are a resilient lot in the Caulry club. They have had a plethora of injuries but are in the final and that is testament to a good team and good spirit. Their opponents are Rosemount and if tradition counts for anything then you certainly have a very honoured club in Rosemount. Senior Champions nine times and ever present at Senior level for over 70 years, they have not played in the top grade since 2000. Since then, they have contested three Intermediate finals but failed to progress and dropped to Junior for 2007 before bouncing back to their current status in 2008. In recent years, they have built a young team based on a championship winning Minor team and certainly would make a decent team at Senior level.
The question is who will gather the Peter Geraghty Cup come 6-00pm next Sunday, Battle hardened Caulry or youthful Rosemount? Perhaps these are the wrong descriptions but I feel that Caulry are more battle hardened at this stage and they will likely by slight favourites for the title. They have had to work very hard and will be determined to make amends for the past two years so I think they will win but if they do it will be only just. The Rosemount team they face are dangerous and have a penchant for scoring goals having the best record of any team at Intermediate level this year in that regard. They showed against Tubberclair in the semi final that once in front, they can defend in all areas of the field so despite my thoughts it won't be a surprise if they take the title.  Throw in time for the Intermediate final is 4-30pm

Senior Hurling Semi finals:
Saturday 4th October is D Day for the four remaining teams in this years Slevin Coaches Senior Hurling championship.  The opening game next Saturday sees reigning champions Castletown Geoghegan face Castlepollard  which has a throw in time of 3-00pm. Castletown finished top of the league stages of the Senior Championship  with six wins from seven games while Castlepollard won four games from seven to finish in fourth spot. Interesting in their group game it was Castlepollard who trumped Castletown Geoghegan by 1-15 to 0-13 at the end of August in what was seen as a surprise at the time. For next Saturday, the black and ambers will be favoured to progress but they will have that loss in the back of their minds. Castlepollard cant be taken for granted but they will need to be at the top of their game to make it a double over Castletown. The second semi final at 4-45pm sees old rivals Clonkill and Raharney battle it out to make the final. Both sides had a disappointing season in 2013 but they seem to have got their mojo back this year as they qualified comfortably for this stage. Raharney lost their opening game to Castletown Geoghegan but have played well since winning six games on the bounce which included a 1-22 to 0-14 win over Clonkill.  Clonkill en route to this stage won five of their seven games with the two losses being to Raharney as mentioned previously and Castletown Geoghegan. They are not quite the force that they were but are still formidable. I expect Raharney to progress narrowly  but it is a hesitant vote as Clonkill are always difficult to overcome.

I can be contacted at [email protected] or 086 3992403

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