ST LOMAN’S FACE Simonstown Gaels in the Leinster club football semi-final on Sunday and it’ll be the third meeting between the clubs this year.
They’ve met twice already in challenge games with the score standing at 1-1, but the stakes are far higher this weekend with a provincial final on offer.
“Challenges are irrelevant really,” says Loman’s captain John Heslin. “We played them twice, but I wouldn’t read into that at all. We’re playing them next weekend in a Leinster semi-final. I think challenges go out the window then.”
St Loman’s are three-in-a-row Westmeath champions, but it was only after their quarter-final defeat of Mullinalaghta that they began to dream of provincial glory.
They found themselves in a six-point hole with 11 minutes left, but goals from Heslin and Ciaran Lynam and a winning point from Paddy Dowdall sealed an unlikely win. Mullinalaghta’s defeat of Loman’s in the corresponding fixture 12 months earlier made the fightback even sweeter.
“They were six points ahead of us but we prepared all week to keep going until the final whistle and we did that,” he says. “We just got through in the end by a single point.
“Of course any team that beats ye, you want a bit of revenge on them. That was obviously a bit of focus a bit of revenge there as well.
“Mullinalaghta came in after and said they were fully backing themselves to win a Leinster championship this year, so that gave us a little bit of belief then. We said, ‘Hold on here, maybe we can get a bit more focus and prepare for Simonstown and you never know what can happen then.’”
On the same day, Rathnew dumped defending champions St Vincent’s out to blow the provincial competition wide open. Did their exit give Loman’s a boost?
“Of course, without a doubt,” says Heslin. “You couldn’t say otherwise. It has no real effect on us because it is the other side of the draw if we were to focus on that or be delighted Vincent’s are gone or Portlaoise are gone, we might be finding ourselves out of the Leinster championship and out of contention so it realty has no effect on us.
“Winning a Leinster championship would be fantastic and I guarantee the other three teams in the championship are thinking the exact same thing.”
Loman’s boss Luke Dempsey has won three successive titles with the Westmeath club and he arrived on the back of two straight Kildare titles with Moorefield, meaning he’s won five championships in the last five years.
“Depends who you ask, if you ask Luke himself he’d say if only for him we wouldn’t have won the championships at all,” Heslin laughs.
“Luke’s a great old good character, he’s good spirits and always seems to be in good form, I’ve tried my best to annoy him and it hasn’t worked yet but maybe I might before the year is over, I might annoy him that little bit.
“He makes you feel ten feet tall as you’re going out to a game, his record stands for itself. Still within the Irish psyche and things like that there will be people questioning him even though he has the record to beat anyone I’d say. He’s a great fella, hopefully his success continues with us as well.”
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