Andrew Mitchell has started 2010 by captaining the Westmeath hurlers to their second successive Kehoe Cup victory. But there is only one trophy he's interested in winning this year and that's the Christy Ring Cup, which is expected to come with the guarantee of at least two years in the All-Ireland and Leinster senior championships.

Westmeath hurling captain Andrew Mitchell puts the Lake County's disastrous showing in last year's Christy Ring Cup down to a lack of interest among the players who have been the victims of changes to the hurling championship format in recent years.
When Westmeath last won the second tier championship in 2007, they were denied promotion to the Liam McCarthy Cup and the decision at Special Congress in October 2008 to admit Galway and Antrim to the Leinster championship, at their expense, has only added to their sense of disgust. Westmeath even applied to play in last year's Ulster championship, but it was to no avail, leaving the players and county board feeling both disillusioned and aggrieved.
But with the prospect of at least two years in the All-Ireland senior championship awaiting the winners of this year's Christy Ring Cup, Westmeath have something tangible to aim for and Mitchell is excited about the campaign ahead.
"There was a lot of apathy shown towards the Ring Cup last year because of all the chopping and changing the GAA had done over the last few years. There were times when you'd be just going through the motions. We found it difficult to motivate ourselves," the Clonkill clubman says.
"As it turned out, Carlow were promoted on the back of winning it, but that was only decided towards the end of the year. There was no promotion in the previous two years, which left teams with very little to play for. But with the carrot of two years in the Liam McCarthy Cup for this year's winners, we have everything to play for and we will be going all out to win it."
While a final decision on the matter won't be made until Congress in April, Westmeath have already been given assurances by Croke Park bosses that the 2010 Ring Cup winners will get a two-year stint in the top tier.
"There has been a lot of confusion and uncertainty regarding promotion and relegation over the past few years, but at least we know where we stand this year," Mitchell adds.
The prolific scorer, who has played his recent hurling at centre back, doesn't have happy memories of last season. After winning the Kehoe Cup and finishing their National League Division 2 campaign on a high with a fine win over Laois, the 2005 and 2007 Christy Ring Cup winners found themselves fighting for their survival in the second tier championship.
Thankfully, the unthinkable prospect of relegation to the Nicky Rackard Cup was avoided courtesy of a landslide victory over Wicklow, but it was certainly not a position Westmeath expected to be in after the progress of previous years. Had they gone down, it would have been a huge embarrassment for a county that has designs of playing in the top tier.
Eamonn Gallagher's charges were installed as joint-favourites along with Carlow to win the Ring Cup, but shocking back-to-back defeats to Kildare and Mayo saw them bow out with a whimper. They lost to Andy Comerford's Kildare by 2-21 to 3-19 after extra-time and this was followed by an appalling 0-15 to 2-20 defeat to Mayo in Westport. Ironically, on the same day, the Westmeath minor hurlers recorded a famous win over Offaly to set up a Leinster semi-final date with reigning All-Ireland champions Kilkenny.
Westmeath redeemed themselves somewhat with an emphatic 3-36 to 1-6 victory over Wicklow in a relegation playoff at Clane, but there was still no getting away from the fact that 2009 was a very poor year for the Lake County.
"We played some good hurling in the league, but the Christy Ring Cup was a disaster," the Westmeath captain remembers.
"We got a good draw up in Belfast against Antrim, beat Laois well in Cusack Park and ran both Offaly and Wexford close in the league. But it's hard to put your finger on why we were so poor in the championship. The interest didn't seem to be there and we probably took our opponents for granted. A lot of the lads were sour at the fact that we barred from playing in the Leinster championship, but maybe we weren't good enough for it. I don't know?"
Last year's poor campaign ultimately cost Eamonn Gallagher his job, and former Offaly star Kevin Martin was duly named as his replacement. An All-Ireland winner in 1994 and '98, Martin was player/manager of the Tullamore team which won a first Offaly SHC title in 45 years last October and which narrowly defeated Mitchell's Clonkill en route to an historic Leinster club final appearance against Ballyhale Shamrocks.
"I've been very impressed with Kevin so far," says the plumbing contractor, who is in his 14th season with the Lake County.
"He's a young, ambitious and professional manager who is also a good player's man. He isn't afraid to pull a lad aside and tell him what he's doing right or wrong. He obviously achieved a lot during his playing days with Offaly and hopefully he'll bring that same winning mentality to Westmeath.
"Kevin has kept on the same three selectors from last year (Nicky Weir, Sean Loughlin and Noel Geraghty) and training has been going well. His aim for the year is to win the Ring Cup and he has already achieved his first objective which was to keep us in Division 2 of the National League. If we could win the Ring Cup, it would be a good year."
Mitchell takes great encouragement from the huge strides that are being made in Westmeath underage hurling. The performances of the minor, under 16, under 15 and under 14 teams, as well as the combined Westmeath Colleges side in this year's Leinster Colleges SH 'A' championship, certainly bode well for the future.
"There are excellent structures now in place at underage level and this can only improve hurling in Westmeath. The likes of Johnny Hardiman, Damien Golden and Alan Dowdall have broken into the senior squad this year, but at the same time, we've lost Brian Smyth, who's moved to England, and Conor Jordan and Paul Greville, who are with the footballers. But hopefully we'll have them back for the Ring Cup campaign."
Mitchell has been a mainstay of the Westmeath team since he was given his debut by Offaly legend Pat Delaney in 1997. In fact, he is the longest serving member of the squad after Darren McCormack. His medals haul includes two Christy Ring Cups, two Kehoe Cups and a National League Division 2. He was a Christy Ring Cup 'Champion 15' winner in 2005 along with fellow Clonkill man Enda Loughlin and Lough Lene Gaels' Killian Cosgrave. Recently, he captained Westmeath to a Kehoe Cup final victory over Kildare in Newbridge.
With Clonkill, Mitchell has won three senior hurling championships (2001, 2007 and '09) and was to the forefront in their famous All-Ireland club intermediate championship success two years ago. Tweet

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