One change for Westmeath and Heslin on the bench
The Westmeath team has been named for Sunday's Leinster football final showdown against Dublin with John Heslin included on the bench, paving the way for a sensational return to the maroon and white jersey.
Heslin, Westmeath’s leading all-time scorer, took part in an in-house practice match last weekend, and the St Loman's, Mullingar player has now been included in the match-day squad of 26 for the Croke Park clash.
There is one change to the starting team with Milltown's Jack Duncan selected to start in place of Caulry's Senan Baker. Duncan featured in extra-time during the Leinster semi-final win over Kildare.
Senan and Tadhg Baker make up one of two sets of brothers in the squad, alongside Sam and Danny McCartan.
Tubberclair's Matthew Whittaker, who was forced off early against the Lilywhites, before reappearing in the closing stages, is named to start at left half-back.
It comes as a surprise that Shane Ormsby has not been chosen to start considering the positive impact he made when introduced early in the Kildare game.
Athlone’s Ray Connellan is set to become the first Westmeath player to feature in Leinster finals in three different years, having been involved in the 2015 and 2016 deciders.
An interesting inclusion in the extended panel is James Mitchell (Moate All Whites), who was the goalkeeper on this year's Westmeath U20 team.
Meanwhile, the Dublin team has also been named with attacking ace Con O'Callaghan a conspicuous absentee from the match-day squad of 26.
It's an unchanged Dublin team from the side which defeated 2025 Leinster champions Louth with relative ease (0-20 to 0-10) in their semi-final.
Cormac Costello (0-10) and Paddy Small scored 14 points between them in that victory and the Westmeath defence will need to pull out all the stops to curb their threat.
Sunday's Leinster final at Croke Park has a throw-in time of 2pm and the eagerly awaited match will be refereed by David Coldrick (Meath).
Westmeath team (Leinster SFC final vs Dublin): Jason Daly; Danny Scahill; Charlie Drumm; Tadhg Baker; Ronan Wallace (captain), Shane Allen, Matthew Whittaker; Brían Cooney, Ray Connellan; Kevin O'Sullivan, Sam McCartan, Conor Dillon; Shane Corcoran, Jack Duncan, Brandon Kelly. Subs: Jack Connaughton, Adam Treanor, Tom Molloy, Robbie Forde, Ian Martin, TJ Cox, Shane Ormsby, Danny McCartan, Eoghan McCabe, Senan Baker, John Heslin.
Extended panel: Devin Hill, Stephen McGonagle, Harry Niall, James Mitchell, Darragh O'Keeffe, Dillon Matthews, Eoghan Hogan, Ciaran Daly, Luke Loughlin, Jonathan Lynam, Conor McCormack, Boidu Sayeh.
Dublin team (vs Westmeath): Evan Comerford; Theo Clancy, Nathan Doran, David Byrne; Seán MacMahon, Charlie McMorrow, Eoin Kennedy; Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, Brian Howard; Seán Bugler, Niall Scully, Ciarán Kilkenny; Paddy Small, Killian McGinnis, Cormac Costello. Subs: Hugh O'Sullivan, Tom Lahiff, Liam Smith, Cian O'Connor, Cian Murphy, Sean Guiden, Ethan Dunne, Páidí White, Niall O'Callaghan, Luke Breathnach, Greg McEneaney.