Search

22 Oct 2025

Offaly open Leinster camogie campaign with home game against Westmeath

Offaly open Leinster camogie campaign with home game against Westmeath

FOLLOWING the disappointment of their relegation from Division 1B of the Very Camogie League, Offaly now turn their attention to the Leinster senior championship this weekend and the forthcoming All-Ireland Championships, which start the first weekend of June.

Offaly will open their Leinster Championships campaign when they face Westmeath at home on Saturday next in the quarter final and it is a game they will be targeting for a win. The winners will face Kilkenny at home in the semi-final the following weekend.

Offaly's league campaign ultimately ended up in disappointment but there was encouragement in some of their performances towards the end of the campaign and they will be looking to continue that progress in the weeks ahead.

They suffered a heavy defeat to eventual champions Waterford in their opening game and after a narrow loss to Down then drew with Antrim in a game they were unlucky not to win. They lost away to Wexford to leave them in a winner takes all clash away to Limerick in their final game with the winner staying up and loser being relegated. Offaly were very competitive for most of the game and led late on but Limerick got the last six points of the game to win by three and send Offaly down.

Now they have a chance to get back on track with this quarter final against Westmeath. Westmeath played in Division 2 of the league and while they drew with eventual champions Kerry in their opening game, they then lost to Derry and Meath, before finishing their campaign with wins over Laois and Cavan.

With an eye to the All-Ireland championships in June, Offaly will be hoping for a confidence boosting win, which would give them another competitive game in preparation for the championship. They have got a favourable draw in the championship in a group with Waterford, Limerick and Antrim. Waterford will be hot favourites to top the group but judging on league form, the other three teams are evenly matched and will all be looking to finish second in the group, which would secure a place in the All-Ireland quarter final.

That is the carrot that dangles in front of Offaly now, and progress in the Leinster Championship would set them up nicely for that challenge. Westmeath have been operating at a lower level in the league but their draw away to Kerry is an indication that they are capable of posing problems.

However with home advantage and the need to drive on now ahead of the All-Ireland Championship, Offaly should be up for this contest and a morale boosting win would lift everyone for the important battles ahead.

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.