It’s Castletown Geoghegan vs Clonkill in the Westmeath Senior Hurling Final this Sunday. In a repeat of last year’s final, Clonkill are aiming to retain the title. Whereas, Castletown are out to right a wrong from last year.
Castletown were relatively comfortable winners in their semi-final outing against Castlepollard. In a 4-16 to 3-10 win, manager Pat O’Brien still sees room for improvement. Two of Castlepollard’s goals came in injury time when Castletown defenders were switched off. O’Brien was critical of this saying “we need to be more ruthless”.
However, he was delighted that his side played positively and were strong at the other end of the pitch. Goals win games and O’Brien knows this ahead of the final: “Hopefully, if the opportunities present themselves in the final, we’ll be able to take them”.
On the other hand, Clonkill had to fight hard to win a place in the final. This year, Pat O’Toole is the man tasked with guiding Clonkill to three-in-a-row. Speaking after the semi-final, O’Toole was appreciative of the battle with Lough Lene Gaels’. “It was anyone’s game with time almost up. We were just lucky we got a couple of scores to pull away”.
With the semi-final conquered, O’Toole is ready for the challenge Castletown Geoghegan will bring in the final: “Castletown-Geoghegan are a very good hurling team. They’ll take beating. There’s no doubt about that. They’ll be mad gunning to beat us now, but we’ll try and give them a good rattle”.
Clonkill had just a goal to spare in the final last year. Castletown-Geoghegan know they could have won that game and will be out to prove it this time around. Both managers are aware of what it will take to win. Yet, it will take a fine performance to claim this Hurling Championship.
Castletown Geoghegan are slightly preferred by Paddy Power at 5/6. But, at 6/5 Clonkill are no underdogs. A draw is 8/1 and is far from unlikely. Iarmhí TV are showing the game live.
Westmeath Hurling Final: Castletown Geoghegan vs Clonkill, Sunday 4th October, 4pm (TEG Cusack Park).
Big weekend of action on Iarmhí TV as we stream our county hurling finals from TEG Cusack Park.#westmeathgaa #iarmhítv pic.twitter.com/qI1WCaydPp
— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) September 30, 2020
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