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John Shaw. ©INPHO/James Crombie
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Leinster SHC: Lake fired up for Tribe

John Shaw says his team is better prepared this season as Brian Hanley gets his first full run at inter-county championship hurling

NOTHING TO LOSE, that’s all Westmeath have been hearing leading into their clash with Galway.

When you have something to gain, there’s always something to lose. A hiding from the Tribal County would be quite costly to a Westmeath side desperately looking to establish itself.

Because for a team that had only just been promoted back to championship having been relegated to the Christy Ring Cup in 2006, pushing the Tribe for so long in 2011 made people sit up and take notice. As did beating Carlow before that, and Antrim most recently.

When you add the wins and carry the losses, the Lake County have triumphed in as many games (two) as they have faltered in since their return.

“Last year we had beaten Carlow, which was a great win for us, but we hadn’t the work done,” says Westmeath veteran John Shaw. “We hadn’t the training done that we have this year.

“With 10 minutes to go against Galway it was a draw game. If we get to that stage this year we will have a great chance because physically we are in much better shape than we were last year.

“There has been a big turnaround in terms of training and the attitude to training this year.

“That’s what we are aiming to try and do – to put ourselves in a position that we can win the game.”

“If we get to these last 10 or 15 minutes and we are in the game anything can happen then.”

That couldn’t have been more evident than in their amazing comeback against Antrim. Six points and a man down in the second half, the Lake County eventually won 0-14 to 0-12 after hitting the final three scores of the game.

“We were annoyed with the way we played in the first half,” says Shaw. “We played quite poorly. It was a home game, we were building up to the game and we played very, very poorly.

“All the players were annoyed at half-time and Brian (Hanley) said: ‘Seize the moment and go out and express yourselves.’

Cyril Donnellan scored a hat-trick against Westmeath last year ©INPHO/James Crombie

“That’s what we did – we got into the Antrim (players’) faces and started to make things happen. When you get a run on a team it’s very hard for them to pull back and that’s what happened.”

For Shaw, it was the extra work paying dividends. A big part of all of this is manager Hanley, himself a Galway native, who took over from Kevin Martin after the side were whitewashed in all seven league games in 2011.

“The manager has brought in professionalism and honesty,” says Shaw. “He’s been straight down the line from the very start. Lads have responded to it.

“He always kept telling us, ‘The hurlers are there, the hurlers are there’ but we needed to prepare ourselves a little bit better. Hopefully that’s what we’ve been doing this year and we will see the fruits of it on Sunday again.

“For example, there are only five or six players there this Sunday that played against Galway last year. That’s an overhaul.

“There are other players that could be there this year and for one reason or another – guys are away or couldn’t commit – couldn’t be there.

“We could be even stronger if we had everybody. There are plenty of players there and Westmeath clubs have shown that they are able to compete in the Leinster Championship with any club team in Ireland. The talent is there.”

As it is with Galway where Joe Canning, Damien Hayes and a raft of household names await. Each one looking to ensure Westmeath get theirs after the almost-ambush of 2011.

“Sunday is a huge game for us,” Shaw feels. “It’s in our own back yard and we have a bit of form going in to this one after beating Antrim as well.

“The second half especially was a real team performance – everyone played out of their skins.

“We will be trying to emulate that against Galway. Against Galway a performance in both halves will be required. One half won’t be good enough; we’ll be out of sight really.

“Antrim’s downfall was that they had chances to put us away in the first half and they allowed us to remain in the game.”

John Shaw was at Croke Park for the launch of the Etihad Skyline.

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