Holders St Loman’s, aiming for a four in a row of titles, proved too strong for The Downs on Sunday evening emerging 3-17 to 0-17 victors. TJ Cox, Ken Casey, and Paddy Dowdall all blasted goals for Luke Dempsey’s charges, who made an assured opening. The Downs, trailing by 0-12 to 0-6 at the interval, showed some improvement in the third quarter with Luke Loughlin a threat, but Loman’s responded with three goals.
Killucan produced a brave display, but it wasn’t enough to defeat last year’s beaten Westmeath SFC finalists, Tyrrellspass, who earned the spoils on a 0-14 to 0-9 scoreline.
Rosemount enjoyed a fine 1-15 to 1-9 victory over Maryland. Theo Watts netted a goal for Rosemount, while David Tone and Sean Petit clipped important second half points.
An impressive Mullingar Shamrocks beat Castledaly by 0-18 to 2-7. Kevin Stone and MJ Kelly bagged goals for Castledaly, but Shamrocks were never seriously troubled late on. Denis Corroon was excellent for Shamrocks as Efe Siode, Dean Moore, Simon Quinn, and Darren Keena also made an impact.
Roscommon exit All Ireland series
Roscommon suffered another disappointing 0-20 to 0-13 All Ireland SFC Quarter-Final Group Phase loss against Donegal at Dr Hyde Park on Saturday evening. Donegal did most of the damage in the opening period edging 0-10 to 0-5 ahead against Roscommon, who just couldn’t recover after the interval.
Michael Murphy caused Roscommon significant problems throughout the match with the Donegal captain landing nine points, including five from play. The home team just couldn’t deal with Donegal’s pace and physicality with Murphy and Odhran MacNiallais in excellent scoring form.
At half-time Roscommon manager Kevin McStay, aggrieved by some decisions, was an animated figure leaving the field following a disagreement with a sideline official.
“We are all under pressure, maybe I was more aggressive than I should be,” McStay remarked following the game.
“Fine, if they do something with me, it’s no big deal, but why don’t they do something with the officials? Why don’t they tidy that up and see how they are performing? There were two dreadful calls at the end of the first-half. Michael Murphy pushes one of our lads on the solo and kicks it over. It should have been a free-out for a barge.
“And then the one before half-time. Everyone in the stadium knew that was a free. Ciarán was apparently blind-sided and I totally accept that. But the linesman wasn’t blind-sided, he had a perfect view of it, for me. I asked him to relay the free, but he just blanked me and essentially told me, ‘get out of my space.’
“You are fighting for your life here and we are all trying to get a win. To be just dismissed like that isn’t very pleasant. We are all doing the best we can for our teams. Just to be dismissed. That was the bit that annoyed me the most,” McStay noted.
McStay sat for the second half explaining the reason behind that.
“I was obviously a bit aggressive to him, he felt, I threw a ball, I had no intention of hitting him and apparently it landed on his shoulder or head.
“That was noted to me and I came in and apologised at half-time, and it was accepted as far as I know. But then the referee said, ‘I am going to have to go with my linesman that you were overly aggressive,’ and he asked me to sit down for the second half, which was disappointing,” McStay remarked.
It is expected that McStay will accept a proposed three month suspension meaning he won’t be on the sideline for the August 5 Croke Park match against Dublin.
Search for county managers in both codes commences
Westmeath GAA have started the search for new Gaelic Football and hurling managers. Committees have been formed with some former inter-county players joining County Board representatives.
Colin Kelly and Michael Ryan both recently stepped down from their positions as Westmeath Gaelic Football and hurling bosses.
The football selection committee comprises of Billy Foley (County Board Chairman ), Pat Reilly (County Board Secretary ), Des McGuire (Football Committee Chairman ), Niall O’Brien (Football Committee Secretary ), Dessie Dolan (former Westmeath footballer ), and Joe Fallon (former Westmeath footballer ).
The hurling selection committee includes Billy Foley (County Board Chairman ), Pat Reilly (County Board Secretary ), Matty Conaty (Hurling Committee Chairman ), Willie Murphy (Hurling Committee Secretary ), Brendan Murtagh (former Westmeath hurler ), and Cristo Murtagh (former Westmeath hurler ).
