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Westmeath’s minor footballers face a major battle this weekend as they face Meath in the Leinster minor football quarter-final. Ger Heavin’s young charges face the added difficulty of having to travel to the lions’ den to take on the reigning provincial champions. Having easily accounted for Carlow in the opening round this will be a much sterner test.

With both club and county championships up and running for the past few weeks, it is an opportune time to cast an eye over the likely winners and losers for the year ahead. Whether you like a small flutter or just a fantasy bet, here are my predictions, for what they’re worth. It’s worth bearing in mind that I’ll probably put the blight on my chosen teams.

Meath 0-18

The question on everybody’s lips ahead of this weekend’s showdown is whether or not Tomas O’Flatharta’s men can rise to the challenge and lower the mighty Dubs. Croke Park is the venue, with a 4pm throw-in for the Leinster semi-final clash. At stake is a place in the Leinster final against the winner of Kildare and Laois, and a crack at winning a second-ever Leinster title.

Both Westmeath and Roscommon Gaelic footballers return to action this weekend in the All-Ireland qualifiers eager to forget their last 70 minutes of championship action. Roscommon and Westmeath are in very similar situations with both teams suffering heavy defeats in their respective provincial semi-finals and having just two weeks to regroup and try to focus on the qualifiers. On Saturday afternoon Roscommon head for the sunny south east to take on Wexford after their 20 point defeat to Mayo, while later that evening Westmeath entertain old rivals Meath in Cusack Park in a bid to get back on the road again after their 27 point defeat to Dublin. Westmeath started out their campaign this year against Meath in early January in the O’Byrne cup. The question is come Saturday evening will Meath be Westmeath’s first and last game of 2009? Both Westmeath players and management have taken some criticism over the last few weeks. There have been many excuses given for the poor performance against Dublin - poor league campaign, constant injury crisis, and the lack of match fitness and sharpness by a number of the 15 that took the field against Dublin.

Westmeath’s All-Ireland campaign came to a premature end on Saturday evening at the hands of Meath in a wet and windswept Cusack Park, on a scoreline of 1-15 to 1-5.

Roscommon advanced to round three of the qualifiers with a victory over Wexford in Dr Hyde Park on Saturday, winning by three points in the end on a score line of 11 points to eight. Roscommon have the freetaking of Donie Shine to thank as he almost single-handedly booted them into the next round with a fabulous display of placekicking. Shine scored nine of Roscommon’s 11 points, eight of which came from placed balls. Roscommon manager Fergal O’Donnell will only know too well that if Roscommon are to progress further in this year’s championship, scoring three points from play will not be enough. Wexford had a number of chances and can blame some wayward shooting for their championship exit. They kicked 10 wides in the second half and if Meath’s forwards get the same amount of possession this weekend they will not be as wasteful.

Roscommon’s championship campaign came to an end on Saturday evening at the hands of Meath on a score line of 2-12 to 0-11. In the end, Meath’s experience, physical strength, belief, and greater scoring power were the main differences between the sides.

The Leaving Cert class of 2009 might have found out their fate on Wednesday of this week but the club footballers of Westmeath are anxiously awaiting, results of this weekends games to know exactly where they stand.

A power-packed display from start to finish propelled Garrycastle into this year’s county decider in impressive fashion. This game had the potential to be the game of the championship but in truth, given its one-sided nature, it failed to live up to its billing.