John Heslin
By John Harrington
Luke Dempsey’s record in club management over the course of the last five years has been remarkable.
He’s led St. Loman’s, Mullingar to the last three Westmeath titles in a row, and in the two years previous to that achievement won back to back Kildare titles with Moorefield.
From a St. Loman’s point of view it has obviously helped he’s working with the greatest generation of footballers the club has ever produced.
Westmeath county star John Heslin is their ace in the pack, but thinks Dempsey deserves a lot of credit for helping the group realise their potential.
“Luke’s a great old good character, he’s good spirits and always seems to be in good form,” said Heslin.
“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 10-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.”
Dempsey can certainly take some of the credit for his team’s second-half revival against Longford champions Mullinalaghta in the Leinster quarter-final.
St Lomans manager Luke Dempsey.
They looked on the way out of the competition when they trailed by six points, but the introduction of Ciaran Kilmurray, Kieran Lynam, Conradh Reilly, and Garrett Hickey gave the impetus to come from behind and win by a point.
“We showed a good bit of steel, determination and dedication and everything to get back to that position and to avail of that opportunity,” said Heslin.
“I suppose it would be a testament to the panel, how we’ve come on in the last number of years that we were able to go down to Mullinalaghta and Pearse Park and come away with a one-point win after being six down.
“We know it would be a tight game and we just got over the line, it could have gone a point to them either it was literally that close.”
The Leinster Championship looks wide open after the defeats of Dublin champions St. Vincent’s and Laois champions Portlaoise in the quarter-finals.
But Heslin doesn’t think that will make it any easier to win and is wary of the challenge that Meath champions Simonstown will pose in Sunday’s AIB Leinster Club SFC semi-final.
“There is still a lot of strongholds left in Leinster football, look at Rathnew or Moorfield," he said.
“Rathnew have been there a lot of times they’ve obviously got a bit of monument now beating Vincents and with Moorefield beating Portlaoise and Simonstown with back-to-back Meath championships, which isn’t an easy thing to do.
“Look, we just need to keep our focus for the game in hand. If we don’t do that next Monday we'll be disappointed and not in the Leinster championship at all. We have to have our focus ready to beat Simonstown and give it our all.”
