BEFORE THE FIRST game of the Championship summer, Paralympic gold medallist Mark Rohan spoke and the Westmeath footballers listened.
Then they went out and hammered Carlow by 11 points.
“It reminded me of the Páidí days,” full-forward Denis Glennon says. “You’d be leaving the dressing room about to go through the wall.”
Since joining Pat Flanagan’s backroom team Rohan — a native of Ballinahown and an inter-county footballer before the accident which left him paralysed from the chest down — has been tasked with mentally preparing the county’s senior panel. Now, with Dublin waiting in Croke Park in Saturday’s Leinster SFC quarter-final, that self-belief is more important than ever.
It’s nine years since Westmeath got one over on the Dubs in the Championship, a two-point win in the 2004 Leinster quarter-finals. Glennon, along with Dessie Dolan and Gary Connaughton, is one of just three veterans still remaining from the side which went on to top the province that summer.
When Rohan speaks, Glennon says, it reminds him of the man who masterminded that magic season in maroon: the late, great Páidí Ó Sé.
When you hear someone like that speaking you’re obviously going to listen. It was the same sort of thing when Páidí Ó Sé was around. Páidí had won eight All-Irelands and he told us he won eight All-Irelands. When Páidí spoke, you listened. You would hear a pin drop in the room because you’d be saying this man knows what he’s talking about.It’s the same thing for Mark Rohan. He has tasted success at the very highest level and when he speaks, we do it. I think having someone like that is very, very special to have in the dressing room.
(©INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan)
In the two weeks since that win against Carlow, Rohan’s motivational role has become even more important. Jim Gavin’s Dubs won seven of their nine games this spring, culminating in the Division 1 league title, and already they are being talked up as prohibitive favourites for an eighth Leinster crown in nine seasons.
“The passion he’s bringing there, you can see the drive on him,” Glennon says when asked to explain Rohan’s role. “He knows what it takes to be successful and he’s trying to influence everyone to get the attitude right, that we shouldn’t fear anyone and that we need to have serious belief that we can beat these boys and go out and perform to the best of our ability on the day.
“If that’s not good enough, it’s not good enough, but if it is we could win the game.”
On top of that, they will also have to contend with the perennial bugbear that is Dublin’s ‘home’ advantage in Headquarters. Westmeath have only played there once since the turn of the year, in the Division 2 final defeat against Derry, while Dublin used it as their base throughout the league.
It’s just another layer in the challenge, Glennon says.
I’ve often said that if we got them outside of Croke Park, we’d beat them, and I know the last couple of times we did play them outside we beat them. But it’s a different kettle of fish when you’re playing them out there. It’s a far more open pitch and they’ve got a bigger crowd supporting them so it’s very daunting. At the same time it’s a challenge that we’re looking forward to. It’s one of the reasons we do play Gaelic football, to play in front of 60-odd or 40-odd thousand against Dublin.
“It’s a huge advantage. They know that pitch like we do Cusack Park, like the back of our hand, where to shoot from, where not to shoot from. That is a huge advantage.
“Kicking into the Hill as well can be daunting, especially for younger players who don’t know what to expect. It’s nerve-wracking.”
