Westmeath county football team
The Westmeath county football team represents Westmeath in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Westmeath GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League. Westmeath's home ground is Cusack Park, Mullingar. The team's manager is Jack Cooney. The team last won the Leinster Senior Championship in 2004, but has never won the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League. History. Westmeath's history is  that of a minor county which only recently rose to the higher ranks of football. Its 2004 Leinster provincial title was presaged by a 1995 All-Ireland Minor title and victory in the 1999 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship. Another generation of Westmeath players took part in the first week-night fixture in the GAA championship: on 20 June 1935 they played Meath in Kells and lost by 2-7 to 0-9. The footballers won the 1929 junior championship, lost to Dublin by ten points in 1960 and then defeated Dublin to reach the 1931 Leinster final. They defeated  Carlow, Laois and Offaly to go into a 1949 final against Meath, but were well beaten on both occasions. Twenty years later they reached the National Football League semi-final. Westmeath defeated Dublin again in the 1967 Championship and the 1984 Centenary Cup campaign and qualified for their second League semi-final in 1994. In 2001, the team went on an All-Ireland journey through an unprecedented nine games including an extra-time win over Mayo in Roscommon. Notable players in this campaign were Ger Heavin, Dessie Dolan, Rory O'Connell, Damien Healy and David Mitchell, with other players to star  occasionally, including Martin Flanaghan, Fergal Wilson, Paul Conway, David O'Shaughnessy and Fergal Murray. Westmeath lost out to Meath in a quarter-final replay. Disappointing 2002 and 2003 seasons followed and Westmeath parted terms with its then manager, Luke Dempsey. Kerry footballing legend Páidí Ó Sé was brought in to manage the senior team some months later, after he had been removed from the Kerry Senior team management. The following year, Westmeath progressed to the 2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship Final and won their first ever Leinster senior football title with a replayed victory over Laois (having previously beaten Wexford, Dublin  and Offaly). However the team tamely exited their second All-Ireland Quarter Final - losing to Derry. The documentary "Marooned" followed Westmeath during their 2004 season. Ó Sé quit Westmeath at the end of a very poor 2005 season and was replaced by his assistant Tomás Ó Flatharta. After a poor league campaign, in which they were nevertheless promoted from Division 2, the team was knocked out of the Leinster Senior Football Championship in the first round by Offaly. However wins over London, Limerick, Sligo and then a historic defeat of Galway in Pearse Park in Salthill set up a third  All-Ireland Quarter Final for the team in six years - this time against Dublin. Westmeath did not live up to expectations in the Quarter Final meeting against Dublin and lost by 10 points. Westmeath staged a strong second half display to capture the 2008 Division 2 National Football League title for the third time, and the first since 2003 following a five-point win over Dublin at Páirc Tailteann, Navan. The score line was Westmeath 0-15, Dublin 0-10. In the Quarter-Finals of the Leinster Championship in 2009 they were beaten by Dublin by 27 points. Ó Flatharta  resigned as Westmeath manager after their defeat to neighbours Meath on 11 July 2009. The county board, searching for a manager after the resignation of Ó Flatharta, appointed Brendan Hackett as manager in September 2009, with the choice of someone who had not managed at that level for many years seen as unexpected. Hackett included Michael Carruth as a masseur and Eoin Rheinisch as part of "physical preparations" on his backroom team. Westmeath embarked on a second successive league campaign without winning a game and were relegated to Division 3 of the National Football League. Hackett resigned in April 2010 . He did not contest a single championship match. Results have improved in recent years and with Manager Tom Cribbin they reached consecutive Leinster Finals in 2015 and 2016. They also won the O' Byrne Cup in 2019, there first win in the competition since 1988. Current squad. Player has since retired from the county team. Players. All Stars. Winners in bold. Nominations in plain text.