Leinster Championship 2013.

The Leinster campaign opens on Sunday in Cusack Park where the natives entertain Carlow. I fear only 1 outcome here, as Westmeath have comfortably reached the dizzy heights of Division 1 after a tidy league campaign, whereas the Barrowsiders finished 31st. out of the "counties" that contested the league.

Westmeath have made great strides since the successful minor days of 1995 or thereabouts, they have remained focused and seem to have a crop of, while not outstanding footballers, a bunch of lads who are showing great enthusiasm and commitment to the development and progression of the game in the county. The Leinster success garnered under the late Paidi appears to have given them an ingredient the may have lacked heretofore,
belief....Dessie Dolan, while waning slightly is an able and astute forward, able to provide the incisive ball or knock over the score off either foot.
Denis Glennon is a pacy and potent finisher and the return of John Heslin gives them presence, power and ball-winning abilities at m/f.
Garrycastles appearance in last years club final, while facing the might of Cross, hasn't diminished the appetite for success whatsoever in the county.

Carlow, on the other hand, are, or appear to be, in a bit of a dark place. Eire Og brought colour, passion and no little quality to the club championship in the mid 90's with the likes of Anthony Keating, Joe Hayden and Jody Morrissey among others proving themselves a match for any opponent. Another Carlow town team, O'Hanrahans, emulated Eire Og by annexing a Leinster trophy in the following years only to succumb to possibly Nemo in the semi.
It all went downhill for the county's fortunes after that unfortunately. Herself (A Carlovian) can sometimes be heard warbling a ballad that starts:

"In the year forty four in the month of July,
A great Leinster final was played in Athy,
Dublin, they said, were a wonderful team
But they hadn't encountered the Carlow fifteen"

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In the past 2 Leinster campaigns Carlow have overcome Louth (2011) and forced a replay with Meath (2012).
Sunday the head says Westmeath while the heart hopes for Carlow.

Dublin are still the team to beat here.

Enjoyable match in a blustry Aughrim this evening.  Wicklow were the better side for the first half hour, controlling possession and fashioning close range chances against a very strong wind.  They seemed to be targeting the right side of Meath's defence, and young Keoghan and Lenehan were both struggling.

The decision to award the penalty was a shocker, and it turned the game.  A goal would have put Wicklow a point ahead with half time approaching, but instead Meath went down the field and got their wonder fluke goal, and the Royal lead was out to 5 points.

Wicklow started the 2nd half very brightly and cut the lead to 2, but Meath's substitutions began to tell, with young Harnan in particular catching the eye. As Wicklow poured forward, Meath's Graham Reilly and Eamon Wallace were thriving on the spaces that were open to them.  I thought the final key moment was Paddy O'Rourke's great save with 10-15 minutes to go.  Id've taken a point at that stage to leave 2 between them but, just like after the penalty save, Meath went back down the field and got a score, and the gap was out to 4.  It was as close at Wicklow got.  

Overall, Meath were better when it really mattered, getting crucial scores/saves/catches just when they needed them.  They were also tactically better in terms of defending into the wind.  Wexford should provide a sterner challenge in the semi final, but my worry for Meath would be that they still don't really seem to know their best side.

Hi guys,

Tactical analysis of Meath's 1-17 to 1-12 win over Wicklow is now up
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Emmet

This was a really interesting game for the most part although it was obvious at HT Meath were going to win it. Wicklow dropped their heads after the penalty miss.

GAA-Fan wrote:This was a really interesting game for the most part although it was obvious at HT Meath were going to win it. Wicklow dropped their heads after the penalty miss.

Funny, even though they were on the ropes going into half time, I still felt that Wicklow had a decent chance (given the strong wind). They cut the lead to 2 points early in the 2nd half, and if they had scored their goal chance late on that would have left the game level. However, Meath's stronger bench seemed to tell, and it's also likely that Wicklow expended too much energy playing against the breeze early on, which really told in the last 10 minutes.

The way Wicklow came back into the game was fantastic but there was no way they could have kept that up. Now if they paced themselves a little, in my opinion it would have been a much tighter game. However, as Wicklow tired Meath could throw on some strong players to see them off.

I wouldn't want Armagh to meet Wicklow in the qualifiers anyway.