WESTMEATH CAN THANK their Iron Man for making sure that they last the championship pace.
Tom Cribbin’s side produced a remarkable second-half performance as they came from eight points down against Meath to set up a Leinster final showdown against champions Dublin this Sunday.
They have been working with renowned endurance athlete Gerry Duffy since the spring, with the Mullingar native focusing on mental preparation as well as motivation.
Duffy famously won the UK Deca-Ironman Challenge in 2010 — a feat which saw him swim 3.8km, cycle 186km and run 42km every day for 10 consecutive days.
“Some of the stuff he does, I don’t know how he does it,” captain Ger Egan said as he hailed Duffy’s impact.
“He’s 42 or 43 years of age. He did a Deca-Iron Man, was it?
He just says it’s all in the mind, you never know what you can do if you put your mind to it.
“We put our heads together pretty much and we’re mentally strong and we finish games strong and we’re showing that.”
Duffy’s influence certainly seemed evident in last 20 minutes of the Leinster semis as Westmeath outscored Meath by 2-08 to 0-1 to secure a historic first championship win over their rivals.
“He comes to you one-to-one,” Egan continued. “He’s a very friendly lad. He would talk to you about things that you do well and things you do not so well.
“He’s just trying to give his experience, he’s not trying to take over. He’s only trying to do his part in there, he’s a very busy man as well.
“He’s honoured to be in with us. He’s a proud Westmeath man.
“He does motivational stuff — that’s his job, motivational stuff and talks. I suppose his expertise and the levels he’s working off are working off on us.”
Westmeath will need every ounce of that mental resilience when they come up against the Dubs in Croke Park.
Bidding for their 10th Leinster title in 11 years, Jim Gavin’s side are priced as short as 1/500 with some bookmakers.
And Egan knows that they cannot afford to give Dublin the same head-start that they gifted to Meath.
“They’re going to be more ruthless,” he said.
“They’re not going to let you back into the game the same way, I wouldn’t expect they would. That’s why we’re going to have to start an awful lot better, get the intensity up straight away.
“I think the lads will. We’ll relish the occasion.
We’re in bonus territory, we’ve nothing to lose. If they beat us by 30 points on the day well then they’re after proving everyone in the country right. If we go out and cause a shock, like we did the last day, so be it.
He added: “We’ll be hugely disappointed if we don’t win. We’re there to win, simple as that.
“As I said, you don’t go into any final just to compete. They’re the best team in the country and the style of football they’re playing, you can’t be anything but impressed.
“But we’re going out to play our style and all we can do is worry about our performance on the day.
“We know the task that’s ahead of us. I suppose win or lose on Sunday, we still have another game. Our new goal is to hopefully win Leinster and get into an All-Ireland quarter-final.
“It’s bonus territory. The lads are relishing it.”
And Egan insisted that Westmeath will play their own game and won’t be cowed by the free-scoring Dubs.
“You have to get your own performance right.
Our style of football, we’ve gone out and we’ve put big scores on the board. We’d be stupid if we didn’t try and do that again.
“Dublin have a bit of flair and they’re the best football team in the country and the best forwards. Obviously we’ll have to tighten up at the back but we just have to concentrate on our own performance.”
