I don’t think Paddy Power has as yet offered outright odds on the Westmeath senior football championship but even if he had he would probably be paying out on Garrycastle at this stage. I felt Mullingar Shamrocks were the only side capable of stopping Anthony Cunningham’s men from completing the hat-trick. Last weekend however the reigning champions had little difficulty in seeing off the rather tame challenge of an underwhelming Shamrocks side. That they did this without the services of Dessie Dolan, Paul Dillon, and Shane Mulvihill up front is all the more noteworthy. While the sides could yet contest the decider it is difficult to see how Shamrocks could reverse the result.
Garrycastle and Bunbrosna are the only sides in action this weekend when they meet in round four in Tang on Sunday evening. Bunbrosna lost out to The Downs in their last outing and Garrycastle are unlikely to be in generous mode as they bid to secure an automatic semi-final spot.
St Loman’s put in the most eye-catching performance of round three when they romped to a 12 point win over Tyrrellspass. This sort of performance would put them in the frame for a county final appearance but with question marks hanging over their defence and John Heslin’s imminent departure they are unlikely to lift any silverware this year.
Athlone were probably the biggest losers after round three as we went down by two points to Maryland. We failed to show up in the opening half and to their credit Maryland had built a 2-5 to 0-1 half time lead. A much improved second half showing saw us cut the deficit to the minimum but Maryland held firm and the clock ran out on us. While Maryland now stand a great chance of making the quarter-finals we have a battle on our hands to avoid a relegation play-off. A bit like the economy we are where we are and we have only ourselves to blame.
St Malachy’s got the better of Tubberclair edging Danny Sammon’s men ever closer to relegation worries while Castledaly had three points to spare over Killucan.
There will be some right battles when the remainder of the round four games are played in the first weekend in August.
