The meeting followed their two-point loss to Down last month.
A behind closed doors meeting of the Westmeath senior hurling panel is being credited with turning their league season around.
It took place following defeat to Down in TEG Cusack Park on March 6th.
The Lake County would go on to beat Kildare, Kerry and Down to lift the Division 2A title and earn promotion.
Speaking after the match, manager Joe Fortune had some very strong words about the narrative surrounding his side, Down and Antrim as the game approached:
We spoke about it all week and I suppose the narrative all week, you know it was going to be so special if other teams got back to Division One and how special it would be for other teams to be brought up to Down or to Antrim and I tell you what, it means an awful lot to the people in the Midlands as well for other teams to be coming up there next year.
There was a massive sense of pride in that group, and you could see that you know, no panic. Four points to one down. Look maybe we panicked a bit in Cusack Park when we had Down there. Down are a very good team and deserve to be in a division final today, but we had a lot of lot of straight talk after that and I’ll never forget the day that we came in and it was an emotional day because for me as a manager, you want the best for the group of players, but there were no panic stations today.
We probably saved the best performance of the league that we had to the final, which is sometimes no harm, but I’m very proud of them and very proud as I said from day one to be Westmeath manager and the lads really paid me back today two-fold.
Davy Glennon sparked back to life scoring a hat-trick on the day. Fortune had high praise for the impact he has on the team:
It's not just even on the pitch. It's off the pitch. He's been there on the big days. We spoke during the week again about the fact that you know, he came to Westmeath last year. He's a proud Galway man and he’ll happily say that you know, but we spoke about how special he could be on the big days.
We've Niall O’Brien coming back to fitness, he’s been out with long term injuries so please God, he'll be ready for two weeks' time. Davy had a massive impact today; he got two goals and probably should have gotten another one himself.
Davy is all about team, you know. It's not just about Davy Glennon and I have to say since you know he's come into my path along with all of them like look at the performance jogger put in there today, fullback, like when we really needed him to. Darragh Egerton, Robbie Greville all amazing performances.
As we've mentioned, a defeat to the Mourne-men appears to have been a turning point for this group of players and Fortune was refreshingly honest on what occurred in the aftermath of that loss and the soul searching done by both himself and the lake county panel:
I think even some of our own doubted us then. What is Westmeath doing? Who is this fella up managing them. It hurt me personally I stopped that day in Kinnegad, I’ll be honest, and I questioned if I had the backing of the county board, if I had the backing of the players.
The players met together that day and it really hurt me but maybe that’s what we needed. A kick up the arse to get us back on track and it was the players that led it. It was nothing to do with me. They looked for those higher standards themselves.
They locked the doors in Cusack Park that day and they addressed themselves and said we need to push this thing ourselves. The coaching is fine, the management is fine, the fitness itself is fine, but we just didn't perform.
When asked about the impact of winning silverware heading into the Leinster Championship round-robin:
We've been in two competitions, the Kehoe Cup and now Division Two for the league.
It's a boost, but let's be realistic about it as well. The task ahead now is a colossal one, but those lads demand high standards of themselves, and we'll give it all we have over the next number of weeks for Westmeath people and for Westmeath hurling.
That's a genuine promise that we do all we can for this.
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