John Heslin Reflects on Westmeath's Historic Year After Mayo's All-Ireland Triumph
John Heslin watched Mayo finally lift Sam Maguire and saw more than a fairytale being completed. He saw a door opening.
For Mayo, it ended 75 years of frustration. For counties like Westmeath, it lit a fuse.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Inside Sport, the 34-year-old forward sounded every inch a man not ready to slip quietly away after a season that brought Westmeath only their second ever Leinster title and a reminder that the established order can be shaken.
“It kind of gives every other county that hope,” he said, sitting alongside Brendan Devenney and Ciarán Whelan as he reflected on Andy Moran’s breakthrough with Mayo. “As a sportsperson you just want to have that hope and that chance. The hunger is still there for sure.”
The hunger, and the boots.
Heslin had already walked away once. An initial inter-county retirement kept him out for almost a year and a half before the pull of the maroon jersey dragged him back. That return coincided with a landmark summer for Westmeath under Mark McHugh, and he has no intention of cutting it short.
“Still a current Westmeath footballer anyway,” he joked. “I was golfing with Mark McHugh a couple of weeks ago and he didn’t tell me to retire yet, so current for now.”
If Mayo’s All-Ireland triumph stole the national spotlight, Westmeath’s year had its own seismic moments. The county’s Leinster success – only the second in their history – came with a gripping win over Dublin at Croke Park in May, a result that felt like a generational weight being shifted.
For Heslin, who had spent 14 seasons watching Dublin collect Leinster titles every single year he played, that afternoon carried a deeply personal charge.
“I had said it would be great for Westmeath to beat Dublin and it would be bittersweet for guys like myself who weren’t involved who played during that era when Dublin dominated,” he admitted. “I was just very lucky to come back and be part of that team.”
Yet when pressed to pick his match of the year, he didn’t go for Croke Park, the silverware or the marquee scalp. He went to Tullamore.
Back to a day when he wasn’t even on the pitch.
Westmeath’s 4-18 to 0-25 quarter-final win over a heavily-fancied Meath was, on paper, an upset. In reality, it felt like a statement. Heslin watched it all from the outside, still retired, feeling less like a former team-mate and more like one of the thousands roaring from the stand.
His recall to the panel afterwards, he said, felt like “they were just taking a fan from the crowd”.
“We haven’t gotten over Meath too many times in the championship,” he said. “Westmeath went down to Tullamore as severe underdogs. Meath, and rightly so at the time, were tipped to be one of the favourites for the Leinster Championship.
“But Westmeath that day, and I think it epitomised this year’s championship and particularly the way Mayo won, the young lads for Westmeath that day were just unreal.”
The scores told one story. The swagger told another.
Shane Corcoran lashed in a wonder goal. Matty Whittaker found the net as well and then used that game as a launchpad, his form across the summer earning him a place on The Sunday Game Team of the Year. Around them, a young Westmeath core played without fear, ripping into a neighbour that had so often loomed large over them.
For Heslin, that afternoon in Tullamore outstripped even the Leinster final as a touchstone.
“Naturally it’d be easy for me to pick Westmeath and Dublin,” he said. “So I put that one aside to give the lads the full credit they deserve. And I actually picked, biased enough, of course, Westmeath versus Meath.
“It was a very special victory in Tullamore for Westmeath that day and there was a sense on that day that this Westmeath team has something special in it.
“So that for me will live long in my memory as a Westmeath fan, but obviously now still as a player as well.”
Mayo have shown that long waits can end, that old stories can be rewritten. Heslin and Westmeath have already started scribbling in the margins. The only question now is how far this group, with its mix of hardened veterans and fearless young guns, can push that story in 2026 and beyond.
