2006 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship the winners progressed to Round 2 and the losers were eliminated from the 2006 All-Ireland Football Championship, but could continue in the All-Ireland competition, the Tommy Murphy Cup. Due to a controversial blood substitution by Offaly against Kildare, Kildare decided to appeal the match result and therefore Offaly's continuation in the Leinster Championship. Eventually it was clarified that Offaly hadn't broken the substitution rules, Kildare then faced Cavan in the first round of the qualifiers and subsequently defeated them. Round one saw the exit of Antrim, Down, Waterford, London, Carlow, Louth, Cavan and Wicklow from the 2006 All-Ireland Senior Football
Westmeath GAA week-night fixture in the GAA championship: on 20 June 1935 they played Meath in Kells and lost by 2-7 to 0-9. The footballers won the 1929 junior championship, lost to Dublin by ten points in 1960 and then beat Dublin to reach the 1931 Leinster final. They beat Carlow, Laois and Offaly to go into a 1949 final against Meath, but were well beaten on both occasions. Twenty years later they reached the National Football League semi-final. Westmeath beat Dublin again in the 1967 Championship and the 1984 Centenary Cup campaign and qualified for their second League semi-final in 1994.