It was a brilliant weekend for our Under-12 footballers as we fielded 3 teams in the MJS Builds 2026 Westmeath U12 Football & Hurling Festival. It was a fantastic opportunity for our underage players to experience a 15-a-side game in the holy ground of TEG Cusack Park (Get fit soon wishes to John Geelon who missed out on the opportunity due to injury). 

It’s mind focussing to think that some of our boys will almost certainly be lining out in the park in 2050 and some might even make it to 2060 if they follow in the footsteps of the dads. 

What will the GAA be like then? Will Westmeath have won an All-Ireland senior title in hurling or football? Where will the Centre of Excellence be located? Will Cork have won another hurling title? Will Cusack Park be still the centre of the Westmeath GAA world? Hopefully it will as it would be shameful if all that tradition and history was to fall under a developer’s spell. 

This Finals Weekend is a wonderful initiative by the Bord na nÓg committee of Westmeath GAA. A special programme produced added to the sense of occasion.   

Mullingar Shamrocks Whites played Ballycomoyle, Mullingar Orange opposed St Pauls and our Green team completed the trilogy on Saturday evening against Cill Óige. Our boys excelled in all three matches with lots of evidence of good quality coaching including good tackling, a lack of selfishness, awareness of space and team colleagues, combined play and good kicking technique that ended with some fine scores all on offer. A fine team goal scored by Mullingar Green team is worthy of note.  It began with a great tackle by Noah Govender who followed this with a superbly accurate kick pass that began a series of moves that ended with a goal scored by Fionn O’Donoghue. 

 And finally, apologies to Fionn Buckley for delivering some misleading information. Fionn stepped off the pitch at the final whistle and asked Who won the Tailteann Cup (there’s a young man in touch with his GAA fixtures)? We told Fionn that Down probably won as they were winning by a cricket score at half-time, 2-10 to 0-4. We should have known better as in the modern football game even a cricket score is not enough of a lead at times. I’m sure, Fionn will forgive us.