By Damien Maher
Westmeath senior footballers will begin their National Football League campaign with a home game against Carlow on Sunday, 5 February. The Lake County, who will be operating from Division Four, will be aiming to win promotion, but there are some tricky away ties for Tom Cribbin’s charges, including Limerick (12 February), Waterford (5 March) and Wexford (26 March).
In recent years Westmeath’s league form has been poor, but they have responded well in the championship, reaching the last two Leinster finals, and the challenge for Cribbin and his management team is to get a better balance going forward.
Meanwhile, Michael Ryan’s senior hurlers will face Carlow in their first round tie in Division 2A on 12 February. They have London at home next year (12 March), but must travel to Antrim for a tough round five clash (26 March). Westmeath won Division 2A this year, but lost to Laois in the promotion playoff and they must do it all again in 2017.
Westmeath’s NFL 2017 fixtures: R1 v Carlow (Home) on 5 February; R2 v Limerick (Away) on 12 February; R3 v Leitrim (H) on 26 February; R4 v Waterford (A) on 5 March; R5 v Wicklow (H) on 19 March; R6 v Wexford (A) on 26 March; R7 v London (H) on 2 April.
Westmeath’s NHL 2017 fixtures: R1 v Carlow (H) on 12 February; R2 v Kildare (A) on 19 February; R3 v Armagh (H) on 5 March; R4 v London (H) on 12 March; R5 v Antrim (A) on 26 March.
(Note: There may be some changes to this provisional list.)
