John Heslin Reflects on Westmeath's Journey After Mayo's Historic Win
John Heslin watched Mayo lift Sam Maguire and saw more than history being made. He saw a door swing open for everyone else.
As Andy Moran’s side finally ended 75 years of hurt, the Westmeath talisman was listening, learning and quietly sharpening his own ambitions. Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Inside Sport, Heslin admitted Mayo’s breakthrough has only deepened his hunger to stay in the fight with Westmeath under Mark McHugh.
He knows exactly what that kind of moment can do to a dressing room in every so‑called weaker county.
“It kind of gives every other county that hope and as a sportsperson you just want to have that hope and that chance. The hunger is still there for sure,” said the 34‑year‑old, who has already come back once from inter-county retirement.
And he’s not done yet.
“(I’m) still a current Westmeath footballer anyway. I was golfing with Mark McHugh a couple of weeks ago and he didn’t tell me to retire yet, so current for now,” he joked, half in jest, fully serious about where his heart still lies.
A year that changed Westmeath’s ceiling
Mayo’s All-Ireland triumph will dominate the season’s narrative, but Westmeath quietly tore up a few scripts of their own.
With Heslin back in the fold, they claimed just the second Leinster title in the county’s history, taking down Dublin in a gripping May final at Croke Park. For a player who had spent his entire career living under Dublin’s provincial shadow, the significance was immense.
He had, as he pointed out, watched Dublin win Leinster every single year of his 14-season inter-county career. Then he returned just in time to help end that run.
“I was just very lucky to come back and be part of that team,” he said, conscious that plenty of former team-mates never got that chance.
Yet when asked to name his match of the year, Heslin didn’t reach for the Leinster final. He went somewhere else. Back to a day when he wasn’t even on the pitch.
The day in Tullamore that changed everything
His choice was Westmeath’s stunning quarter-final win over Meath in Tullamore, a wild 4-18 to 0-25 shootout that flipped expectations and, in his eyes, captured the spirit of this year’s championship.
At that stage, Heslin was still watching from the outside, retired and looking on. It felt, he admitted, like being just another supporter on the terrace.
That made what followed all the more surreal.
His recall to the panel came after that result, and he laughed that it almost felt like “they were just taking a fan from the crowd” and handing him a jersey.
The context makes the victory even richer. Westmeath went to Tullamore as “severe underdogs” against a Meath side heavily tipped to challenge for Leinster. The script said one thing. The young Westmeath players tore it up.
“The young lads for Westmeath that day were just unreal,” Heslin recalled, still energised by the memory.
Shane Corcoran smashed in a wonder goal. Matty Whittaker found the net as well and then played his way, on merit, into The Sunday Game Team of the Year as the season unfolded. The scores flew in, the belief grew, and something shifted in how Westmeath saw themselves.
It wasn’t just a big win. It was a statement.
“There was a sense on that day that this Westmeath team has something special in it,” Heslin said.
He could easily have picked the Leinster final against Dublin as his standout game – and he freely admits the temptation. It was only the second provincial title in Westmeath’s history, and he had even spoken publicly before rejoining the panel about how bittersweet it might be to see them finally topple Dublin without him.
Instead, he parked his own story to highlight the breakthrough in Tullamore, and to give “the lads the full credit they deserve.”
For Heslin, that Meath game will “live long in my memory as a Westmeath fan, but obviously now still as a player as well.”
Mayo’s All-Ireland has proved that long waits can end and old orders can fall. In Tullamore and at Croke Park, Westmeath had their own taste of that feeling. The question now is simple: with Heslin still lacing the boots and a new generation rising around him, how far can they push it?
