By John Harrington

Ronan O’Toole was only seven years of age when Westmeath defeated Laois in the 2004 Leinster SFC Final replay, but the memories of the day still dance in his mind’s eye.

He was lucky enough to watch the match from a corporate box with his father and can vividly remember slugging from milk cartons while Dessie Dolan, Alan Mangan, and Denis Glennon kicked points below him.

That day made him believe that some day he could lift some silverware in Croke Park, and 18 years later the opportunity has finally come around.

When he walks onto the pitch with his Westmeath team-mates for Saturday’s Tailteann Cup Final against Cavan it’ll be a circular moment, because you can be sure there will be plenty of 7-year-old Westmeath supporters in the crowd wishing they were Ronan O’Toole.

“I know myself, when I was a young lad in ’04 for our last Leinster win, looking down at the likes of Dessie Dolan and John Keane, that was always an incentive to me as a young lad, that I wanted to play in Croke Park in front of crowds,” says O’Toole.

“So I think, definitely, the fact that we’re going to get so many young supporters there looking on at Westmeath, cheering on their county to play in Croke Park, it will definitely be an incentive for younger kids, like it did myself back when I was a child.

“I think this is the beauty of the competition, that it’s creating such an excitement around the county. When you’re walking down the street, you get someone stopping you, wishing you the best of luck.

“And there’s bunting up, there’s flags up; people asking you is everyone fit, trying to get some inside ‘goss’, and there’s a real sense of excitement. And even at training, there’s a buzz around the camp and everyone is looking forward to it, so yeah, I think it’s been a huge success.”

This inaugural Tailteann Cup was always going to be a journey into the unknown.

It made perfect sense as a competition, but the variable was the extent to which both players and supporters would buy into the concept.

It has been an immediate success because from the very start the players of every county involved were clearly fully committed to giving their all, and the buzz in Westmeath and Cavan ahead of Saturday’s game proves that the supporters are now fully on board too.

“I think my Mum is even looking for a ticket there for the game, and she’d stay well away from the games usually,” says O’Toole with a smile.

“She usually stays in the church and prays! So now I think even she’s looking for a ticket, so that will show you what the Tailteann Cup has done.

“I think they key thing is that everyone in both competitions now, whether it be Tailteann Cup or Sam Maguire, had a realistic chance of winning it and had a realistic goal of saying, ‘Whoever comes out of the hat, we’ve a good chance of beating the team that comes out against us.'

“And I think that’s why it’s been such a good success. You’ve seen a different array of games against teams from different provinces. It’s Cavan/Westmeath, Ulster and Leinster competing; I think that’s why it’s been such a good success.

“It’s a huge carrot to have a realistic chance of lifting silverware. Every inter-county footballer’s dream or ambition is to be playing on the big stage, and hopefully we’ll be lifting silverware in Croke Park.”

When you look at how Westmeath have grown visibly as a team throughout this competition, the benefit of playing meaningful championship matches at the height of the summer is very apparent.

It has accelerated the development of young footballers like Sam McCartan, Robbie Forde, Nigel Harte, and TJ Cox, and brought the whole panel as a collective much closer together.

“I think we’re really bonding and there’s an excitement in the group with the length we’ve come,” says O’Toole.

“We’ve training since December till now and because we’re winning games, it creates a buzz in itself.

“And playing more championship games, seeing more crowds coming to games; more fans, more supporters, I think that all builds in and has a snowball effect on the whole thing.

“I think I got asked a question recently, ‘What’s your favourite thing about playing as an inter-county footballer?’ I think, number one, it would have to be nearly the camaraderie you have with the group and enjoying actually playing football.

“I think sometimes we get caught up in the occasion of a game and the pressures it has to win. But you have to remember, this is an amateur sport.

“We do this by choice. Like, we want to be playing in this Headquarters, to be expressing what we love to do.

“So that, I would say, is something that I enjoy so much and we kind of have to peel back sometimes and remember when we actually do play the sport.”

Westmeath have improved with every match they’ve played in the competition, culminating in a very impressive semi-final win over Offaly.

The question now is whether they can maintain that rate of progression against a very good Cavan team that come into the match as warm favourites?

Playing for silverware in Croke Park might be what all of these players dreamed of as youngsters, but the occasion will bring its own pressure.

O’Toole knows this, but as part of a Westmeath attack that scored 3-22 in that win over Offaly he’s entitled to feel quietly confident they’re in a very good place coming into this match.

“I think we’ve tuned in a bit on our forward play,” he says. “Ourselves, as forwards, we always want to score. I think we’ve progressively got better in the Tailteann Cup, from the Laois game to the Carlow game and probably against Offaly, which was our best performance of the year, especially from a forward unit.

“It’s big green grass out there in Croke Park, so we’re just trying to isolate that as much as we can and work better as a forward unit.”

“I think there’s always a bit of pressure, but we’ll take each game the same and go in and try and express ourselves and not play the occasion.”

“There was a lot of pressure on us, probably to perform in the Tailteann Cup, in the first two-three games. And we kind of rose to the occasion each time, so hopefully we can do it again.”