It's a proud afternoon for the lake county.
Westmeath will play Leinster Championship hurling in 2022.
They've finally captured the Joe McDonagh Cup at the third attempt with a 2-28 to 1-24 win over Kerry at Croke Park.
Two first half goals set the tone as Niall Mitchell and Ciaran Doyle raised green flags in the opening and closing minutes of the period.
Kerry had recovered well from the early concession of the goal and the sides spent much of the half trading points until the lake county managed to rattle off 1-3 without reply after the 29th minute.
Congrats to Shane O Brien @CualaCLG and @westmeath_gaa on their great win. With big bro Fintan O'Brien, great stuff Shane ๐๐๐๐๐ pic.twitter.com/cab1hUMlfh
— Harry Roberts (@HarryRobertsi) July 17, 2021
Points from Robbie Greville, Mitchell and Davy Glennon adding to Doyle's goal.
Two further scores by Greville and Killian Doyle to start the second half opened up a ten point gap and all but killed the contest.
2021 Joe McDonagh Cup Champions!!!!!
— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) July 17, 2021
๐ ๐ ๐
๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฆ#iarmhiabu#westmeathgaa#maroonandwhitearmy pic.twitter.com/pdoq8tCby9
Mikey Boyle briefly gave the Kingdom hope of a comeback when he found the back of Noel Conaty's net with nine minutes left on the clock but Shane O'Brien's side have enough experience at this point not to panic and tacked over a couple of insurance scores to win the day.
A proud day for the small ball in Westmeath.
Westmeath scorers:
Killian Doyle 0-6, Niall Mitchell 1-4, Ciaran Doyle 1-2, Davy Glennon 0-5, Robbie Greville 0-4, Niall O'Brien/Aonghus Clarke/Derek McNicholas all 0-2, Joey Boyle/Aaron Craig both 0-1.
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