“What an opportunity.” That is how Pete McGrath has described this Saturday’s clash with Westmeath. The Down native has forecasted that Cork will beat Kildare thus leaving the winners of Fermanagh and Westmeath a date with Kerry in the All Ireland Quarter Final.

“The prize at stake here is enormous. And I have told the players that. A chance to reach an All Ireland quarter final and I think play Kerry if results go as expected. The opportunity to play the All Ireland Champions Kerry in an All Ireland quarter final and beat them. What an opportunity. But before that we have Westmeath and it is a critical game and it is well within the ability of this group of players to get the result on Saturday.” It is a mouth watering prospect for any player and while McGrath acknowledges that there is no room for complacency he says he has every faith that his team will approach this game in the right frame of mind.

“Westmeath are going to be formidable and dangerous in that there is no doubt. We will need a big, big performance from people individually and collectively but that is our target in every game. We have to retain the same focus and that is the challenge the vast majority of teams face in the championship, particularly coming towards the later stages. Maybe Dublin or Kerry can play below par and win but for everyone else they have to be right on it.” McGrath spoke to the Impartial Reporter earlier this week and was able to report that the management team will be picking from a full deck when they sit down to decide on the starting 15.

“Barry Mulrone took a slight ankle knock but he is okay. Tomás Corrigan did some long straight line running on Sunday and will be playing a full part in training this week while Ruairi Corrigan has taken full part in all sessions since the Roscommon game so we really can’t complain.” The Down man has been delighted with how his team have been preparing for games to date in this year’s championship and despite the defeat to Monaghan, McGrath explained that the players were bang on the money mentally for that game too and says this will need to be maintained.

“The team approached the Roscommon game and indeed the Monaghan game in the right frame of mind and there was an energy and a hard edge about them. If that in any way becomes diluted or diminished against Westmeath then you are on a slippery slope and we will not win the game.

“Quite frankly we don’t have any right to be complacent.” In what is good news for Fermanagh fans though McGrath says that what he has been seeing so far since the Roscommon victory has really been pleasing him; “I see that edge in the training, in the build up to games, in team meetings, in what the players are saying and how they are responding to what we the management are saying and then the final evidence comes on the day of the game itself.” The two time All Ireland winning manager believes something special is fermenting in this group of Fermanagh players, seeing it slowly build up since the start of the year.

“When a group comes together and we decide on what way we want to go forward you can see things happening if everyone buys in. And you can see over the course of pre-season, the McKenna Cup and the league you can see things coming together. Something is being created. All the molecules are attracting and becoming something very much stronger than the individual parts,” he explained before continuing, “As a manager you become aware of that. In the body language of the players in how they are interacting and the whole dynamic within the group and you know that this is a group that has ambition and heart and courage, and you know that whatever might happen on a given day they will not lack in these other things. That raw courage and raw refusal for defeat came to the surface against Roscommon.” What also came to the surface was plenty of ability. Something that McGrath has long argued has been present in abundance in this Fermanagh team. And he explained that when the passion and courage combines with that skill that truly special things can happen.

“When you have those boxes ticked, the individual skills, Tomás Corrigan’s sideline, Sean Quigley’s last point, the pass from Richie O’Callaghan for Sean’s point. They were all brilliantly executed. All those individual pieces of skill can only blossom when then the courage and heart and desire is there.” Courage, heart and desire. Fermanagh have shown it in abundance to date. And it might just get them to Croke Park for a crack at the Kingdom.