{"id":446134,"date":"2026-05-13T04:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446134\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T04:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:49:10","slug":"heslin-set-for-dramatic-westmeath-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446134\/","title":{"rendered":"Heslin set for dramatic Westmeath return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>John Heslin has made a dramatic return to the Westmeath panel ahead of Sunday&#8217;s Leinster final against Dublin, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The St Loman\u2019s attacking ace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/football\/2025\/0104\/1489107-westmeaths-heslin-hangs-up-his-inter-county-boots\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">retired from inter-county duty in January 2025<\/a> having made his debut for the Lake County in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, he spoke on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/football\/2026\/0504\/1571702-heslin-beating-dublin-would-be-extra-sweet-for-westmeath\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Inside Sport <\/a>about the final as a pundit, but now could be in line for a more significant role.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westmeathindependent.ie\/2026\/05\/11\/full-steam-ahead-for-leinster-final\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Westmeath Independent<\/a> has reported that Heslin trained with the squad this week as they chase a first Leinster title since 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Heslin have previously featured in two Leinster finals \u2013 both ending in heavy defeats to Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>Watch Dublin v Westmeath in the Leinster Football final (2pm) and Armagh v Monaghan in the Ulster Football final (4.15pm) on Sunday from 1.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n<p>Watch The Saturday Game and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RT\u00c9 News app and on rte.ie\/sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Heslin has made a dramatic return to the Westmeath panel ahead of Sunday&#8217;s Leinster final against Dublin,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-446134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}