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10. Sean Hayes Rating: 6/10 Hayes was a man that needed to catch the eye of management here due to his lack of playing time in recent weeks and all told, he had a fairly mixed bag. He got about the pitch well and got onto a lot of possession but the result wasn’t always of the standard required. He scored a good point in the first half but left another two points behind him which were guilt-edged and he just has to be taking those at this level. Still, his pace caused trouble at times for Westmeath and he was involved in the aforementioned build up to the second Kehoe goal.
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11. Jason Forde Rating: 6/10 Back in action for the first time this year after finger surgery, Forde looks to be eager for action and he gave some flashes of his usual quality in Saturday’s win. He scored a fine first-half point over the shoulder after being picked out by Rhys Shelly and got around the pitch really well, but he will be disappointed with some of his free-taking as he hit three wides from placed balls. With Gearoid O’Connor unerring over the frees, Forde will be under pressure to keep hold of them but he has missed a lot of action and you would expect him to settle down on them again soon.
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12. Conor Stakelum Rating: 8/10 An unheralded player in this Tipperary team, Stakelum delivered a timely reminder of the influence he can have on the team. He hit a beefy total of 0-6 from play and while he won’t want to look back at his missed goal chance at the start of the second half, he didn’t let it faze him and hit another three points afterwards. He looks to have shaken off the injury that hampered him in recent months and seems to be close to full flight with the latter stages of the league and the start of the championship.
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13. Andrew Ormond Rating: 5/10 Ormond has produced flashes of the danger he can cause in his appearances to date but with this - the final audition for him - he would have been eager to impress again but it didn’t materialise for the Templemore man. He did well to set Mark Kehoe free for his opening goal in the first half but other than that, he was very quiet as the Westmeath defence was packed for the majority of the game. He will be hoping he has enough of an impression made to date when the axe comes down on the extended panel this week.