There's no getting away from it, yesterday was a bit of a nightmare for anyone from Meath. Ten points to the good at one stage, thoughts were already turning to a prospective Leinster final with Dublin.
Then, things took an unlikely turn. Westmeath began to bypass the half forward line where Kevin Reilly had been sweeping things up with little or no trouble and, point by point, they began to chip away at Meath's lead. With ten minutes remaining, there seemed like there'd only be one winner.
Westmeath looked like the first half had just been a warm-up, while Meath were dead on their feet. When John Heslin fired past Paddy O'Rourke to put Westmeath four points in front with moments to go, not even Westmeath fans should have been surprised.
Things were to get worse for O'Rourke however. The Skryne man soon saw red for a nasty challenge on Kieran Martin. While there was some debate about whether it was deserving of a sending off, the vast majority were quick to vilify O'Rourke and he took the unusual step of retweeting some of the abuse that was levelled at him on Twitter.
Many of the more severe tweets have since been deleted, including ones comparing him to Stephen Hawking and another threatening to 'knife' him. However, some of those O'Rourke chose to retweet remain (even if some of those remaining are on the very slight side of 'abuse')
Also Paddy O'Rourke is an absolute coward. Runs in the family obviously #meath
— Patrick Thornton (@Patrick_Thorn) June 28, 2015
In O'Rourke's defence, it must be said that he was the last Meath player to leave the pitch yesterday and only did so after he had congratulated the vast majority of the Westmeath panel. He's had quite a bit of support on Twitter also. Most of it has been of the rather tribal with Meath fans unsurprisingly pointing out some of the flaws in the abuse.
However, one message of support stood out above all others. Tensions were obviously running high in the Royal county but O'Rourke's teammate, Graham Reilly, managed to diffuse some of that tension in a manner only teenagers on Facebook usually can.
@PaORourke89 I think your great xxx
— graham reilly (@ReillyGraham) June 28, 2015
We'd suggest Reilly is being slightly facetious but nonetheless it's a nice sentiment after a tough day.
