Saints must get to the pitch of it insists Heslin

Damien Maher

The scoreboard is the only thing that will ultimately matter, but John Heslin knows exactly where St Loman’s will have to be at their best if they are to wrestle the Paddy Flanagan Cup from The Downs on Sunday.

For the experienced St Loman’s star, dealing with The Downs’ well-equipped forward line will be central to the task, with Luke Loughlin, Niall Mitchell, Kevin O’Sullivan and Ian Martin among the attacking threats they must try to curb.

“The scoreboard is number one. You always have to be mindful of that. And with The Downs, obviously they have a star-studded forward line. Luke, just coming back to the peak with powers, and the speed and power that he has, and the strength of that left foot. Niall Mitchell in at full-forward, they can mix it anyway. Kevin O’Sullivan, Ian Martin, for example,” noted Heslin ahead of Sunday's eagerly awaited final.

“So us getting set up structurally for them to deal with their key players is very important. But that’s something that I’m sure the management will have a plan in place for,” he observed.

Heslin is also aware that St Loman’s must impose themselves on the contest.

“From our own perspective, it’s just that we can get to the pitch of it. The Downs are arguably the form team in the county. When you’re going in as favourites, that’s a burden in itself. But the underdog has a duty to provide a good game and provide as much of a challenge as they can to the outfit who are deemed superior. That’s what we’ll be getting our game plan to be able to do,” he remarked.

Few players know the occasion better than Heslin. Sunday will be his 13th county final with St Loman’s, having already collected eight senior football medals. Despite all that experience, though, the 12-time finalist insists the occasion never loses its importance.

“It’s great to be there; great for the club. I would have talked to a lot of the supporters after the last number of games and spoke to them after the semi-final and exchanged lots of text messages since. It’s great for the club to be in the county final and everyone’s delighted. I’ve been in a few of them; been very lucky. But they always stay the same and just even get more important as the years go on, which is great,” he remarked.

“They’re there to be won, of course, and enjoyed as best as possible. But I’m very lucky to have the experience. There’s plenty of lads in the St Loman’s dressing room who have that experience, but whatever support I can give the younger lads that might be playing in their first, it’ll be great,” he continued.

The Saints have grown into the championship after a measured start, and Heslin offers a different perspective on their early-season approach.

With three teams progressing from the group, he feels the structure encouraged teams to avoid defeat rather than necessarily throwing everything at every game.

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“That is one angle you could put on it: the other angle is the way the groups are and with the three teams coming out of the group, it was just probably tilted to not wanting to lose games rather than necessarily going out guns blazing to win every game,” he observed.

“I think with the way the structure was previously, you probably had that little bit of leeway. If you lost one, you weren’t too upset, whereas this year you lose one and your backs are against the wall. So we’d probably have a different outlook on it. We learned a lot during the group stages. Lads got football and we improved as the championship went on. We would say that we leveraged the group stage quite well,” he added.

That learning curve was put to the test in the semi-final against Coralstown/Kinnegad, when Loman’s trailed by six points at half-time before turning the game around to win by 10.

“We had no choice; we had to find our feet or else we would have been out of the championship. And I think that’s the beauty of knockout football. If you don’t get up and at it when the questions are asked of you, then you’re gone,” he noted.

“And we would have been communicating that to the group. We answered the questions and, look, we were well prepared. Fitness coming through at the right time and things like that. I actually spoke to a couple of the Kinnegad lads after and the bounce of the ball just went in our favour. That can happen on certain days. Any day it does, we’ll take it.”

Heslin played a significant role in that comeback, with the new two-point scoring system proving particularly valuable.

“I think it keeps it exciting. As you mentioned, you referenced our Kinnegad game and what we were down. And then the swing that was there. There’s been so many games that have been like that. Not just ourselves involved in ourselves, just games we’ve watched. And I think you’d say the same that you’ve been a spectator for. It’s great. It keeps the game interesting and it keeps the excitement there for the supporters,” he remarked.

“I think the beauty of it all is where the person knows when not to kick it. But, look, we’ll tempt people into kicking them whenever they think they can.”

Heslin was certainly willing to take that chance against Coralstown/Kinnegad.

“You have to give it a swing anyway!” he laughed. “If it goes over, you’re great. And if it doesn’t go over, the lads are looking at you. There are a lot of lads on the St Loman’s team that are capable of kicking points. And if I don’t kick the ball over the bar, they’ll let me know. They put the pressure on,” he added.

Standing between Loman’s and another county title are a Downs team Heslin knows extremely well from his involvement with Westmeath and from their meetings at club level.

He has no hesitation in acknowledging the quality of the holders.

“They’re rightly favourites,” he insisted.

“Look at Luke Loughlin, for example, he’s a superstar there. Charlie Drumm has had a wonderful year with Westmeath. And he’s even scoring goals for The Downs. He can do it all. Johnny Lynam, I don’t know what he’s made of, after coming back from a cruciate injury after five months; I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world that has done that. And then obviously Kevin O’Sullivan had a wonderful year with Westmeath. One of their best players; probably unlucky to not get nominated for an All-Star,” he opined.

“And that’s without mentioning Niall Mitchell and the rest of them. We could go on talking about The Downs. And rightly so, they deserve all the applause they can get.”

For Heslin, now deep into his career, the build-up to a county final has taken on a different meaning.

“I suppose as you get older, you get to nearly appreciate it and enjoy the build-up a little bit more,” he said. “In years gone by, you nearly let it bypass you in ways, the build-up. I suppose I was very, very lucky to experience it with Westmeath this year, with the Leinster final, that I got to really enjoy the build-up. And it is only a game of football,” he said.

“But a game of football means a lot to me personally. And I know there are lads in that dressing room it means a lot to. And my family and the community in St Loman’s. And I’m really getting to enjoy that at this stage of my career.”

His successful year with Westmeath has also given him a renewed energy for the game. Heslin returned to the county set-up with a different perspective and ultimately played a much bigger role than initially expected, as Westmeath enjoyed Leinster success.

“Definitely to try and get back up to some sort of level of it with the Westmeath guys,” he admitted.

“But I think that when I went back in, I got a huge energy boost off going in with Westmeath; not just winning the Leinster. Being part of that environment again. Not that I was away from it for too long. But being part of it, as I said, with a different perspective on things.

“I wasn’t going in there necessarily putting a whole lot of pressure on myself. Just going in there to enjoy it. And as I would have said at the time, if a word or two or a sentence or two could benefit one of the lads or the team, then it would benefit Westmeath.

“Wouldn’t it be great? And that was a great position for me to be in. Just as it happened, I ended up playing. And playing more than probably anyone thought when the conversation happened with Mark McHugh, which is great. Good and bad in ways. Because people would say, we would have preferred maybe some of the lads who were injured in that position. But that’s just the way sport goes,” he continued.

“But no, it definitely would have given me a bit of a renewed focus on football. Which is great.”

And there is one more piece of history that Heslin may have to revisit on Sunday.

He scored the winning penalty when St Loman’s defeated The Downs in the 2024 county final, and the prospect of practising penalties has crossed his mind this week.

“That only crossed my mind recently,” he revealed.

“I’m very lucky to be in that position. I don’t take anything for granted. The positions that you’re in, I probably don’t reflect back much. Because you’re still in the moment. You’re still in the GAA moment. But in that time, you let the brain wander. And I did go back there this week.

“What a lucky position I was in at the time to be asked to step up to take the winner penalty. It’s brilliant. Imagine as a kid, you kind of dream of those things. And I was asked, it’s unreal.

“So I think that’s why that idea came into my mind, would have been in preparation for this game. Not to go practice penalties per se, but I might know that you mentioned it.

“More so that the club have done so much for me. And I’ve been put in these positions by other people. The opportunity has been put there in front of me.

“And it’s up to me to try and execute when I’m given the opportunity. And that’s just the approach I’ll take next week,” he added.