Westmeath's breakthroughWestmeath are serious All-Ireland contenders but as selector Tomás Ó Flatharta tells Gavin Cummiskey, complacency is not an issue.

"Trying to beat Westmeath is like trying to beat your fist off an Oak tree." So stated the badge on Páidí Ó Sé's lapel (as Gaeilge) the day the Lakes County won their first Leinster title.

Westmeath's hunger has been frighteningly intense since beating Offaly in their championship opener but three weeks have passed since their finest day and they are only at the stage of their 2001 odyssey. Defeat in Saturday's quarter-final will bring a premature end to a breakthrough year.

None of the managers or selectors involved this weekend, in the second set of quarter-finals, will admit it but Sam Maguire became a realistic goal for all six counties left after last Saturday's bizarre results.

The nucleus of a decent football team has been evident in the midlands for some time but it took the arrival of Ó Sé and his lieutenant, Tomás Ó Flatharta, to gel these components.

"Discipline, a solid source of professionalism", and a "rub of the relic", is what Ó Sé claimed to have brought.

The professionalism and good fortune (both could come under the Rory O'Connell banner, depending on how you viewed that case) have been evident but as Leinster champions they are expected to make the semi-finals. It is ironic that Westmeath are hot favourites against an unknown quantity in Derry. Shows how much the game has evolved. Ó Flatharta does not envisage complacency.

"That's the thing that you always have to guard against," he said. "While Westmeath have been in a quarter-final before we had never won a Leinster championship except up until this year so why should we be complacent? Why should we be thinking we have the game won? Sure we have everything to play for."

If they can defeat Derry a mouth-watering semi-final against either Dublin or Kerry awaits. Either fixture would be an easy script to sell. There's the potential thriller of Dublin searching for revenge or the romantic reunion of Páidí and his beloved Kerry.

Yet, to qualify, Westmeath must avoid the potentially fatal mugging lying in their path.

"You have to approach every game as they come because you might get a right kick in the backside if you have big plans and can't win your first championship game," continued Ó Flatharta. "Westmeath hadn't beaten Offaly in over 50 years and that was the big challenge for them. It was the same with Dublin, so they were games we had to approach one at a time."

This is the scenario as they approach the surprise packages of Derry but what does Ó Flatharta know about Mickey Moran's team? "Well, I suppose we haven't really seen much of them to tell the truth. But again, looking at Derry they are a team with tradition. They have won an All-Ireland and they have won Ulster championships. They are kind of unknown around the country but you can't take anything from that.

"They play very different football from Laois or Wexford so we have to approach and prepare for that. They beat Limerick, who gave Kerry two very good games, so they will not be a cake walk and they will have to be respected."

All week people in Fermanagh and Mayo have been realistically talking about winning the All-Ireland. To beat Westmeath in Leinster was like trying to beat ones head against an old tree but whether that hunger can be sustained will be the team's real mark.