Indo GAA
Westmeath dreamland, Dublin disarray | Armagh end Ulster drought | Provincial football has its mojo back 🏐
21 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This week on the Indo Daily.
On a cold winter night in December 2000, Sandra Collins went missing from a small fishing village in Mayo.
The knives are out in the race to be the next British Prime Minister and one of the men who wants to occupy Number 10 Downing Street has put Brexit back on the table. Find and follow us at all the usual spots and over on the Irish Independent website.
Hey there, we are Indosport with me, Joe Malloy. We cover sport and we have things like this.
If you ask Arsenal's defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, to play in that PSG team or that Bayern team, they would be exposed as much as those centre-backs were last night. Because effectively, the attackers were on top. Then you ask the question, how many defenders were actually on the pitch last night? Because none of the full-backs have no interest in defending. They're like wingers.
And I've seen Saliba and Gabriel in an open game in that League Cup semi-final doubleheader against Newcastle last season get torn apart by Izak. I won't have anyone convince me that they can defend in that space.
Hey, welcome everyone. So the provincial football finals, eh? The jewel in the GAA crown. Sure, you can have your Munster Hurling, you can have your All-Ireland Series, but come on. For Westmead, a historic day. I think we say historic when it's just a second Leinster football final in their history. For Armagh, it's the first Ulster title since 08. And for Dublin... It is disastrous.
It is a confirmation of all their deepest fears and worries, completely overrun by a far more vibrant team in Maroon. Happy to say Frank Roach, GA writer for the paper, is on the way. Frank is a Westmeath man. He knows the scene. And here in studio at Crow Park yesterday, Conor McKeown, very welcome. Hi, Joe. And of course, at Clonus yesterday, Ronan Mullen. Welcome back. Hi, Joe.
Our GAA podcast coverage is sponsored by AIB. They are proud sponsors of Club and County. AIB proudly celebrating the joy, dedication and support that lies at the heart of Gaelic games in every community and player across the nation. So the provincial championships, the weight around the neck of the GAA season. And suddenly, Roscommon, full house at the Hyde, an extraordinary occasion.
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Chapter 2: What historic achievement did Westmeath accomplish in the Leinster final?
And, you know, you can't, you know, you can't kind of replicate that. And it's an extraordinary thing because it was literally two years ago where we're sitting around saying, like, what can we do? What can anybody do with the Leinster football championship? It is over forever. And two years later, Dublin have been beaten twice. It's extraordinary how quickly that has changed.
Yeah, and this is a sort of tangential point, but the way the waves lap in the stadium in terms of atmosphere is so unique in GAA. Previously, we talked about soccer stadiums on the continent where it's kind of the same din for the entire match, whereas Westmead, a point and then a two-pointer, and then all of a sudden the Westmead chant comes up and that's kind of...
a uniquely provincial thing as well I think that's kind of half the problem with talk of getting rid of them that everybody's too like prematurely prompt to funnel everything into this All-Ireland Championship that a handful of teams or less can win whereas you saw Westmead last year this is something attainable all of a sudden and that's an invaluable commodity I think in any sport so and like Ulster as Conor was alluding to there was the bedrock of
you can't get rid of the provincial champions, but look at Ulster. But then coming into this one, everyone was like, well, it's going to be Armagh or Donegal and then Derry probably on the other side of the draw. And ironically, the result that lit the touch paper for an exciting Ulster campaign was Darren beating Donegal.
And then all of a sudden, the next day, people are like, could be the best thing that ever happened to Donegal. You know, they get a clear run now at the All-Ireland Series. So I think the scenes yesterday in Clonus and Croke Park showed they're worth winning in their own right. And that's generally been my position.
Yeah, and it felt that way, I must say. Some emails just before we get into the particulars of the game. You'll remember last week, Daniel Boland emailed in about the Forgotten County. And to prove the point, I asked Conor, who is the Forgotten County? And he had forgotten Westmeath, so I guess that was borne out.
So Tom wondered, anything to be said for an unfiltered Ronan and Frank Roach stream of consciousness pod in Joe's Shed after Armagh Westmeath? Is Joe's Shed kitted out for multiple in-studio guests in short notice? Is it? Why does it have to be in the shed? Well, that's where we do our emergency podcast. Oh, fair enough. Postmasters, I did it in the shed.
So for any weekend, I mean, we couldn't come to the office on a weekend. Oh, God, no. No, but you can come to my house. So, Tom, no, sorry. It's not to kill it out for multiple studio guests. Dear Joan friends, I ride as an emotional Westmead man living abroad this morning. What a day we've just had. A man in his 40s following Westmead in the late 80s and early 90s. We were shite.
And I mean really, really shite. I remember Wicklow beating us in the Leinster Championship in Athlone in the mid-90s. And we scored a grand tally of three points against Wicklow in the whole game. Oh, God. Wicklow beat them last year in the Talton Cup as well. They score more than three points, I hope.
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Chapter 3: What impact did the provincial championships have on the GAA season?
To witness in person, let alone in a Leinster final against Dublin, might be the highlight of my GA life. Kind regards, Alan. Shout out to the Parkers there. It's good stuff. Yeah. First time I've ever heard them mention football to me. And then, oh, this was interesting. Larry Stanley. I'm just shoehorning a Kildare mention in here. It's all I have.
Larry Stanley.
What a win for Westmeath. But a huge, if not unprecedented call in bringing back John Heslin. Kildare first pulled the exact same trick off in the 1930 Leinster final, also against the Dubs. The famous Larry Stanley, Kildare's greatest ever player, had not played for the county for a few seasons at that point. And on the day of the final, Larry's name wasn't on the official team sheet.
He didn't even take part in the pre-match parade. And then he was sprung in and started and worked. It worked like a charm for the Lily Whites. Stanley scored 1-2 and Kildare took home the Delaney Cup. We walk in the footsteps of giants. Congrats to all in Westmeath, says Brian.
We would have a situation where two pundits... John Heslin and Liam Rush who started the season on the punditry ended up with Leinster medals it's a fair tournament just on Westmead though I'm a great believer like in the Like capacity of any county. Sorry, not the capacity, but the potential of any county. You know, like Westmead were unlucky last year.
They lost a lot of games by very, very tight margins. So, like, very kind of surface level, it looks like. They got relegated to Division 3, didn't shake a leg in Leinster and got beaten in a Talton quarterfinal. They weren't that far away. But, like, I am a great believer that if you get the best guys in the county...
they're managing the right way they're inspired you get a small bit of momentum you can put it all together that there's no county that's really in the doldrums that doesn't at least have the raw materials if it all comes together to make a big leap and I think in the Leinster Championship at the moment with Dublin gone there's so much capacity to kind of go upwards you know like I don't know how SME are going to go in the All-Ireland Series
But that doesn't really matter. And that's kind of the beauty of the Leinster Championship.
No, it's a fair point in its current form. So Dublin 26 points, Westmead 228 after extra time from a point down with about a minute and a half on the clock to an eight point win. And even within the 70 minutes, Dublin had a five point lead just after the start of the second half. That was their best period of the game.
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Chapter 4: How did Armagh end their Ulster drought against Monaghan?
Amazing how Dublin are both in transition and looking incredibly old at the same time. Dean Rock, what a line from him here. Westmead just ran us into the ground.
it's a mad thing to be saying about your own team yeah but it was the eventual damnation of Desi Farrell who lest we forget won in All-Ireland but they were saying he's still playing the old rules you know Dublin need to move with the times and they got Gerard Brennan in who obviously had won Leinster and hasn't had a chance to implement it probably his full vision considering he's been banned but same can be leveled at them yesterday the kick out was one dimensional they have no two point threat at all
How is this still continuing into this year? No two-point threat?
It's not even that they're... So they don't have tactics to manoeuvre themselves into two-point shooting positions, but they also don't have two-point shooters.
But I don't think that that's true. I think Dublin do have two-point shooters. Desi Farrell said last year, we don't have two-point shooters. Yeah, well, those guys are out to kick two-pointers for their clubs and other places, and the two-point arc is in the same position.
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Chapter 5: How did the atmosphere at the finals influence the teams' performances?
Good, because it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have two-point kickers. Yeah, because they... Inter-county Dublin footballers. Before they were two-pointers, they used to kick one-pointers from the two-point zone.
So who are you referring to there? Brian Howard? Well... Because he doesn't even attempt them for double.
Paddy Small, Cormac Costolo, Cillian McGuinness, Sean Bugler. It might be Ciarán Kilkenny's forte, but he could definitely kick them. He doesn't like doing it. My point is that Dublin moved... And again, it comes back to the slow thing. Dublin's transition is incredibly slow. Unless there's a one-on-one inside, they don't kick the ball in quickly.
And by the time they get to the opposition's sort of set-up defence... You look at guys like Dara Heenan and Oisín Conaty who can just line up a man one-on-one, take a little sidestep and then make space. Dublin are a very deliberate team in everything they do. And I think that's got to do with maybe the age profile and the way they're trying to calmly win games.
But it's just energy and pace at the moment rule all.
There was something desperate as well about them
a half time of extra time where admittedly the game felt almost gone they had just lost that half 1-4 to no score but the absence of Ger Brennan suddenly felt very apparent I guess because you're seeing them on the pitch you're seeing the huddle and really it was in the shots that we saw I'm not saying it was the full half time of extra time but in the shots that we saw it was Costolo
Just like berating everyone. I mean, just angry. You know, what is going on? Because obviously he's watched decimation at midfield, probably no ball up to the forwards. And it's just like trying to just gee everybody up. You had Khan in his jacket. I mean, it was kind of poignant almost that he's not there.
Saying a few words, but almost in kind of like wide eyed and like, come on, not believing anything's going to happen, I don't think. And you've Dean Rock in the shots that we see either saying nothing or sipping on his purple energy drink. And just like, I'm sure even thinking to himself, I'm not the manager. I just didn't seem to not ruin the situation at all.
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Chapter 6: What factors contributed to Dublin's disappointing performance?
Now you have it, yeah. If I was in an early house, I don't think I'd have been able to take this call. But anyway, I survived.
Dean Rock was saying afterwards that actually he was just kind of...
happy that Dublin had managed even to take it to extra time he said the best team should have won in normal time we did really well to claw it back and then on reflections the best team did win so I mean there you have the Dublin manager effectively saying Westmead were the best team in normal time and it's fairly obvious to everyone they were the best team in extra time they just blew Dublin away Totally and utterly and there was a 15 minute period from early enough in the second half Dublin had actually gone 5 clear and
And for a few fleeting minutes, you thought this is game over. They're just going to kind of ease into the distance. And Westmead outscored Dublin by, I think it was 12 points to three within a 15 minute period. And you could see the belief in the team soar in that period. And Dublin literally had no answer.
And it was all predicated really on the kick-out, how Westmead went after Evan Comerford's kick-outs. It wasn't just the hunger of it, but it was how they set up for it. And they had extra men at the breaks every time. More often than not, they didn't even look to catch the ball. They just knocked it down because they knew there was going to be a maroon jersey when to pick it up.
And for that 15-minute period, Dublin were shell-shocked. And as Dean said, referencing how Westmeath had been the better team, what often happens in games like this is the underdog... do everything right until they literally see the finishing line in sight. And they blinked and they very nearly lost the final.
And if they did, they'd have, I think, a lifetime of regrets if they had but for Senn and Breaker's wonderful equaliser there with a minute to go. But part of me wasn't that surprised that they took off an extra time again because I was at the Kildare game when something similar happened where they should have won the game in normal time and didn't.
And they looked as if they were hanging on physically a little bit in the last few minutes of normal time. And then they took off again. But in extra time, their legs were incredible. I mean, Mark McHugh has got so many things right, but one of the standout features has been their fitness. As a Division 3 team, they have outlasted teams from Divisions 1 and Division 2.
Yeah, it's phenomenal. A word on McHugh. You know, I mean, Conor in his piece in the paper today was just making the point that Martin McHugh was 36 when he managed Cavan to that first Ulster title in 28 years in 97. And now here's Mark at 25 managing Westmead to just their second Leinster title. So, I mean, the McHugh dynasty is amazing here. I saw him interviewed.
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