Ennis pleads for patience
April 30, 2010When Westmeath took the field for their National Football League Division 2 opener against Donegal on February 7 last, only five of the 2004 Leinster championship winning team were still involved.
The remaining links with that history-making side were Gary Connaughton, Damien Healy, Donal O'Donoghue, Denis Glennon and Michael Ennis. As someone who made his National League debut against Antrim way back in November 1998 and has been involved every year since with the exception of 2000 when a cruciate ligament injury badly hit Westmeath's hopes of winning back-to-back All-Ireland under 21 titles, Ennis owes his county absolutely nothing. But like fellow veteran Healy, whose involvement goes back even further to 1996, the new Westmeath captain feels he has a responsibility to help nurture the next generation of Lake County footballers along.
"This year has seen the biggest change in personnel since I first joined the senior panel, both from a player and management point of view," the Ballinagore publican explains.
"Brendan Lowry gave me my debut in 1998 and I have since played under Luke Dempsey, Paidi O Se, Tomas O Flatharta and more recently Brendan Hackett. Most of the lads who played under Luke stayed on to play under Paidi and Tomas, but there are only a handful of us left now. That team has more or less broken up, so this is very much a new beginning for Westmeath football.
"There are 10 or 12 new players on board this year and one of the reasons why I decided to continue was so that I could help them find their feet at this level. This is a new experience for them and they need all the encouragement they can get," he adds.
Ennis' experience is invaluable to a squad which is still coming to terms with the retirement of double All-Star corner back John Keane and star forwards Denis Glennon and Dessie Dolan's self-imposed exiles. There are also huge question marks over whether Derek Heavin and David O'Shaughnessy will play for the county again, while the county is resigned to being without regular full back Kieran Gavin for the championship as he is committed to spending the summer in San Francisco instead.
"There have been a lot of changes, but hopefully the supporters will be patient and allow the management to get on with the job of rebuilding the team," the 2008 All-Star nominee says.
"The new players on the panel need time to blend in. It's not going to happen overnight. It's the same for the management - they are starting from scratch and are on a learning curve as well."
There is no doubt that the new management - which takes over from Brendan Hackett who was forced to step down after only seven months in charge - is facing a huge task to turn things around after a shockingly poor 2009 which has extended into 2010. It has been a great decade for Westmeath, who secured their first Leinster title in 2004, appeared in three All-Ireland quarter-finals (2001, 2004 and 2006), and won three National League Division 2 titles (2001, 2003 and 2008), but the curtain has now sadly drawn on that memorable era.
After a highly satisfactory 2008 which saw them capture the National League Division 2 title and put both Dublin and Tyrone to the pin of their collars in the championship, Westmeath approached last season with high hopes of winning a Leinster championship. But it quickly turned into a nightmare as Tomas O Flatharta's misfiring charges stumbled to one defeat after another.
After losing all seven of their National League Division 1 games - including some by big margins - Westmeath made an instant return to Division 2. They needed extra-time to get over Wicklow in the Leinster championship quarter-final before suffering a 27-point trouncing by Dublin - the county's heaviest championship defeat since 1891.
And whatever hopes they had of restoring pride were well and truly dashed by Meath, who maintained their remarkable unbeaten championship record against their neighbours with a comfortable 10-point win in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
"Last year was very demoralising. We had a lot of injuries and the new closed season left us behind schedule with our training. I had a few niggling injuries myself and I can safely say the championship defeat to Dublin was the worst day I've ever experienced in football," remembers Ennis, who has been joined on the county panel by fellow Ballinagore clubmen Thomas McDaniel and James Durkan.
"The league set the tone for the year. We never got that win that might have kick-started our season. If we had held on against Tyrone, the year could have turned out differently.
"When you get stuck in a rut, it's very hard to get out of it and that was the case with us last year. It was one of those years you just want to put behind you."
The 31-year-old explains that Westmeath's remaining objective for 2010 after they suffered league relegation for the second successive year is to do well in the championship..
"In the championship, we meet the winners of Wicklow and Carlow and that won't be an easy game. We know from last year how good Wicklow are and Carlow are making steady progress under Luke Dempsey. Kildare will more than likely be waiting for the winners in the Leinster semi-final, but we're in transition at the moment and won't be looking beyond the first round." Tweet
