2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship Final

The 2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship Final was the final football match of the 2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship, contested by Laois and Westmeath over two games in Croke Park, Dublin. The first game finished level so a replay occurred. Westmeath won their first ever title at senior level, leaving Wicklow and Fermanagh as the only other counties yet to achieve this. The season also saw the emergence of Denis Glennon.[1]

2004 Leinster Senior Football Final
Event2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship
Laois Westmeath
0-13 0-13
Date18 July 2004
VenueCroke Park, Dublin
RefereePat McEnaney (Monaghan)
2004 Leinster Senior Football Final Replay
Laois Westmeath
0-10 0-12
Date24 July 2004
VenueCroke Park, Dublin
RefereeMick Monahan (Kildare)

Pre-match

Westmeath had only ever appeared in two Leinster Senior Football Championship finals in their history: in 1931 and 1949.[2] They went into the 2004 Leinster Senior Football Championship bidding to win their first ever title at senior level, with the only other counties still to achieve this being Wicklow and Fermanagh.[3]

Westmeath midfielder Rory O'Connell was banned for 12-weeks for stamping on Offaly's Pascal Kellaghan during Westmeath's Leinster Senior Football Championship win on 23 May 2004. This threatened O'Connell's participation in the final. Kellaghan submitted a letter saying the offence had not happened.[4]

Reaction

Commentators hailed Westmeath's win as monumental, with the Irish Independent's Eamonn Sweeney, 'Richard Stakelum famously greeted Tipperary's first Munster title in sixteen years with the words, "The famine is over." What Westmeath have endured makes the famine of other counties look more like minor spells of peckishness. There was a song a few years back which described the failures of the English soccer team as "thirty years of hurt." Thirty years? How about one hundred and twenty years of hurt. And those years never stopped Westmeath dreaming either.'[3] Colm O'Rourke said it was "one of the greatest days ever in Croke Park and must have given rise to the biggest street party ever in [the Westmeath capital] Mullingar last night".[5]

Aftermath

Westmeath player David Mitchell later joined Longford.[6]

See also
  • Marooned, documentary which followed Westmeath in their Championship winning season

References
  1. "Glennon makes his mark". Hogan Stand. 27 May 2005. Retrieved 27 May 2005. A virtual un-known outside his native Tyrrellspass at the start of 2004, Denis Glennon emerged as one of the brightest prospects in Gaelic football during an unforgettable summer for Westmeath football. Despite being overlooked for the Young Player of the Year award last November, most GAA followers would acknowledge that Glennon was the ’Find of 2004’. His performances at full forward belied his tender years and were central to Westmeath’s historic Leinster championship success.
  2. "Both Westmeath and Louth eye great chance to claim Leinster final spot". Westmeath Independent. 23 June 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  3. Sweeney, Eamonn (25 July 2004). "End of 120 years' hurt". Sunday Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 25 July 2004.
  4. "O'Connell to appeal ban tomorrow". BreakingNews.ie. 12 July 2004. Retrieved 12 July 2004.
  5. O'Rourke, Colm (25 July 2004). "Páidí guides midlands army to glory". Sunday Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 25 July 2004.
  6. "Westmeath ace to join Longford". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 28 November 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
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