Monday, February 17, 2025

Violent incident mars Westmeath victory

A shocking incident that left Westmeath senior football star, Kieran Martin with a badly injured nose moments after the final whistle in last Sunday’s Leinster senior football championship game at TEG Cusack Pak has been condemned by Westmeath GAA.
County Board Chairman, Sean Sheridan (pictured inset) informed Topic on Monday that pending the referee’s report, he is hoping the GAA takes action.
“Westmeath GAA are very angry over what happened and to see one of our players bleeding profusely having been struck after the final whistle is unacceptable. No county would stand for it and I am very disappointed with what happened. I spoke to a staunch Offaly supporter today who told me he was appalled at what happened. It’s not good enough,” he said.
Martin was felled by the blow and with blood streaming from his nose, had to be taken immediately to the dressing room for medical assistance. Family members were outraged at what happened and speaking to Topic afterwards, Martin himself suggested the GAA will now deal with the incident.
“Look, things happen during and after the game. What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. I think he got caught for it afterwards so justice will be done. It would be a lot worse if we lost,” he told Topic.
At the time Martin hadn’t received a definite diagnosis on the extent of the injury.
“Probably. I will have to find out,” he replied, when asked if his nose was broken.
While the adrenaline was still flowing after such a great win, Martin clearly wasn’t impressed at being struck after the final whistle.
“I’m not feeling the pain now, but may be when I get home and sit down . It may be a different story and I may be saying a few different things, so for the moment we will just enjoy this victory,” he said.
News from the Westmeath camp on Monday was that the injury to Martin will not be serious enough to keep him out of the Leinster semi-final on Sunday week against Kildare.
Martin did get the opportunity to return to the pitch after some time and share the victory with Westmeath fans. He said Westmeath had been expecting a big test from neighbours, Offaly.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. We were six points up at half-time but we knew Offaly were going to go for it in the second half. They had a strong wind behind them. We had a defensive plan in place and it was working in the first half, but when you are playing against the wind, it is different because they can score from that bit further out,” he said.
“Every time they got close to us, we got a point to kind of take a small bit of pressure off. Near the end we had a few chances to kill them off, and we didn’t, so we have to learn from that, but we just held on in the end. We won’t get away with those things in the bigger games but it was always going to be a battle out here against Offaly. The defence is the start of your attack and our back line was immense out there today,” he added.
The former All Star nominee, who was immense last year as Westmeath defeated Meath for the first time ever in championship football, said last Sunday’s victory is another boost to a developing Westmeath side.
“We had a game plan and we stuck to it and it paid off. Maybe we should have got a few more scores out there, but we will work on that too. So we have some positives to take out of it going forward and I think the tight game will benefit us even more,” he remarked.
“We wanted to get back to Croke Park this year. I don’t think a Westmeath team have ever contested two Leinster finals in a row and we want to do that. This is a stepping stone for us. We have Kildare next so we want to focus on them for the next two weeks and we are delighted to be back in Croke Park. Who doesn’t want to be playing there in this great weather? It is one of the best pitches in the world, so we are delighted we are back there,” he added.
Martin had great praise for his colleagues, both in defence and attack.
“We have some of the best forwards in Leinster, so why not use them? On his day, John Heslin can score from anywhere and he won the ball that went in to him and scored off that; he is a sensational footballer, but he works very hard at the game and I’m delighted for him because he is such a fanatic about GAA and he is so precise about the game. It is great to see it work out for him, like all the lads,” he said.
“Jamie Gonoud is another player who gives it everything and he was sensational today, as was James Dolan, and the lads got three or four great blocks in there today, and they are nearly better than scores,” he added.
BIGGEST CROWD
Meanwhile, Westmeath GAA are very grateful to all the volunteers who assisted last Sunday as they catered for their biggest crowd in recent years (8,123 supporters) at TEG Cusack Park. There was no delay to the scheduled starting time of 3.30pm.
“We are delighted with how the day panned out and Leinster Council contacted me today (Monday) to compliment us. We had over 50 stewards on duty and they all played a role in ensuring everything ran smoothly and I want to thank them and all the clubs for their support,” said Mr Sheridan.

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