Allianz Football League Division Two, round three: Westmeath v Fermanagh (Mullingar, 2pm tomorrow)
Teams are often moulded in the image of their manager. Fermanagh boss Ryan McMenamin was a man-marker, but also a player who liked to get forward as often as possible.
Following their dramatic comeback victory over Roscommon last weekend, ‘Ricey’ insisted that he wants to combine both those aspects in the Ernemen’s approach.
Fermanagh have been categorised as a defensive, negative team in recent years, especially under previous boss Rory Gallagher, whom McMenamin assisted for two seasons before stepping up.
The first half last Sunday even seemed like a step backwards – the Ernemen certainly weren’t going forward much, and trailed by nine points to three at half-time.
Yet McMenamin stressed that dropping deep hadn’t been the plan: “I think we let them play. The boys know, probably, the way I want to play, you have to have a lot of faith in the men at the back.
“We showed them far too much respect, we were retreating to the ‘45’. Look, if you want to play Gaelic football you have to play it on out the field.
“That [sitting too deep] meant we didn’t really get our kicking game into motion and the boys know that I like to kick, like to play on the front foot. The second half kind of proved that.
“Once we made the battlefield further up the field we were happy enough.”
Indeed Fermanagh turned the match around in tremendous fashion, outscoring the Rossies by 10 points to three, including the last two scores in the fourth minute of added time.
There was a certain contrast with Westmeath’s weekend; the midlanders twice led by five points in Cavan, at half-time and again well into the second half, but ended up losing by four.
Following on from their performance away to Kildare, where they really should have found the net, Fermanagh will feel capable of beating Westmeath too.
They have done so twice recently in the Championship, in 2013 and 2015, although Westmeath won the last meeting two years ago, also in Mullingar, in Division Three.
That was one of those rare seasons when Westmeath didn’t go either up or down, having plummeted through three divisions in consecutive campaigns in the middle of the decade before getting out of Division Four in 2017, then going up again last year.
The man in charge then, and now, was/is Jack Cooney, who also worked with/ under Rory Gallagher, for two seasons in the latter’s time as Donegal manager, before becoming the first Westmeath native to take charge of the Lake County for 26 years in 2018.
Fermanagh have a ‘yo-yo’ element about them too, with two promotions and one relegation over the past five seasons, including elevation from Division Three despite that 2018 defeat.
The primary focus for all teams in this division, obviously, is not to drop down to a secondary championship, the enticingly-titled ‘Tier Two’.
The hosts again seem likely to be without Kieran Martin, who missed the first two matches due to a foot injury, while Fermanagh may be without some younger options due to their involvement in the Ulster U20 FC preliminary round away to Derry today.
A win would be huge for the visitors, with three of their remaining four matches at ‘Fortress Brewster’, albeit two of those against Ulster rivals Armagh and Cavan – but they may need to end their goal drought to see off the Lakemen.
