The low-point of what was an otherwise successful year for Westmeath hurling was the county under 21 team's dismal display against Kildare in the Leinster 'A' championship. It followed an equally uninspiring effort against Louth in the previous round when five goals were conceded.

For those who have been involved in the Lake County's successful underage hurling coaching drive in recent years, the performances of last year's under 21 team must have been hugely demoralising.
In a year when Westmeath won the Christy Ring Cup as well as the All-Ireland minor and under 16 'B' championships, the under 21 team produced two shockingly poor displays against Louth and Kildare in the Leinster 'A' championship. After leaking five goals against Louth in an unimpressive opening round win, the team suffered a humiliating home defeat to Kildare in the next round.
Some long-time supporters went as far as describing it as the worst performance they have ever seen from a Westmeath hurling team. The lack of interest, effort, commitment and drive was apparent from an early stage as Kildare, who with all due respect to them aren't a hurling power, were allowed to boss proceedings. Westmeath also lacked discipline and this was demonstrated when Shane Power and Conor Slator were given their marching orders in the second half.
The under 21 team's performances must be a worry as Westmeath prepare to make their return to the Liam McCarthy Cup in 2011. In the games against Louth and Kildare, it was very difficult to pick out anyone who could make the transition to senior hurling, although the likes of Barry O'Meara, Stephen Bardon and Andrew Dermody have already broken into Kevin Martin's senior side.
Fortunately, Westmeath has produced two fine minor teams in the last two years, so there are young players coming through who are capable of stepping into the shoes of long-serving stars such as Darren McCormack and Andrew Mitchell when they hang up their hurls.
Last year's under 21 team was managed by Raharney's Nicky Weir, while fellow senior selector Noel Geraghty (Castletown-Geoghegan) and Pat Walsh (Clonkill) were his selectors. The backroom team was completed by coordinator Conleth McCormack from St. Oliver Plunkett's.
The writing was on the wall for Westmeath when they stuttered to a 3-19 to 5-5 victory over Louth in their championship opener at Knockbridge on June 30. Despite travelling with a depleted squad, Westmeath would still have been expected to chalk up an easy win, but it didn't turn out like that.
After Barry O'Meara and Louth's Gavin Kerrigan had traded early points, O'Meara saw his 40-metre free sail all the way to the Wee County net in the third minute. This fortuitous goal should have provided the visitors with the impetus to push on, but neither team managed a score over the next 10 minutes. Eventually, Westmeath found a bit of rhythm as points from Damien Golden (two), Barry O'Meara (three frees) and Cormac Boyle eased them into a 1-7 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes.
But then, in the space of four calamitous minutes, the visitors conceded two goals, both of which followed mistakes by goalkeeper Andrew Doyle. With the margin suddenly down to three points, Westmeath responded by scoring an unanswered 1-3 in the closing stages of the half to take a 2-10 to 2-1 lead into the interval. Firstly, Barry O'Meara converted a free before a fine move involving Neal Rattigan, Mark Keegan and Christopher Flanagan was finished to the net by Damien Golden. O'Meara and Rattigan added points to restore the Lake County's nine-point cushion.
Disaster struck Westmeath again on the restart when Donal Rafferty grabbed a third Louth goal after the visitors' defence had failed to clear the danger and Donal McArdle's follow-up point from a 70-metre free had the margin down to six once again.
To their credit, Westmeath responded by reeling off six points without reply in the next 12 minutes per Christopher Flanagan, Alan McGrath, Shane Power, Barry O'Meara and Darren Kilcoyne (two) to tighten their grip on proceedings.
With a quarter of an hour remaining, Westmeath led by 2-16 to 3-2, but they were guilty of losing concentration thereafter as Louth swooped for a further 2-3. Points from Donal McArdle (two) and Peter Brennan were followed by a brace of goals from Brennan. In between, substitute Eanna Gallagher struck the visitors' third goal and a couple of late points from Christopher Flanagan saw them triumph by eight points in the end.
Given Louth's lowly standing in hurling, a huge improvement was required if Westmeath were to avoid a semi-final exit at the hands of Kildare. Sadly, all the failings that were evident in Knockbridge were once again all too obvious as the Lake County's crashed to an embarrassing 0-4 to 1-13 defeat at Cusack Park.
First to every ball, the Lilywhites were much the better team with five of their six forwards getting on the scoresheet. Full forward Martin Fitzgerald top-scored with 0-8, which was twice the combined total of the home side who could only muster two points from play.
The visitors led by 1-9 to 0-2 at the break with Eoin Doyle scoring the only goal in the 13th minute. Kildare registered the first two points before Westmeath replied with efforts from Shane Power and Barry O'Meara. However, that was the only time the sides were level as Kildare scored an unanswered 1-7 before half-time which effectively ended the game as a contest. Westmeath were struggling all over the field with their striking of the ball being particularly poor. They were also sloppy in the tackle and conceded far too many frees which Fitzgerald usually punished.
There was brief hope of a Westmeath revival when Derek Hourihane got the first score of the second half, but moments later wing back Shane Power was sent off on a second yellow card and he was followed for an early shower by full back Conor Slator, who was also dismissed for a second bookable offence.
All in all, it was a dreadfully disappointing Westmeath performance which was put into context by Kildare's defeat to Meath in the Leinster final. And Kerry's 10-point defeat of the Royals in the All-Ireland final only served to highlight how ill-prepared and how far off the pace this Westmeath team was in 2010.

The Westmeath team which lost to Kildare in the Leinster under 21 'A' hurling championship semi-final was: Andrew Doyle; Jamie Ward, Conor Slator, Mark Conroy; Shane Power, Cormac Boyle, Mark Keegan; Stephen Bardon, Neal Rattigan; Darren Kilcoyne, Christopher Flanagan, Derek Hourihane; Andrew Dermody, Damien Golden, Barry O'Meara. Subs used: James Durkan, Robbie McKeogh, Eanna Gallagher, Alan McGrath and Killian Murphy. Tweet

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