Westmeath footballer John Heslin said a host of counties can take inspiration from Mayo’s famous All-Ireland SFC win as he revelled in his own team’s successful 2026.<\/p>\n
Mayo ended 75 years of hurt on Sunday by clinching Sam Maguire<\/a> and speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s Inside Sport on a panel alongside Brendan Devenney and Ciar\u00e1n Whelan, Heslin said the achievement of Andy Moran’s side had whetted his appetite to come back and keep battling with Westmeath under Mark McHugh.<\/p>\n “Yeah, of course, and I think that’s probably one thing that’s gone under the radar a little bit with Mayo winning is that, I think Mark might have said it himself on The Sunday Game, that it kind of gives every other county that hope and as a sportsperson you just want to have that hope and that chance. The hunger is still there for sure,” he said.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old also confirmed that he is not planning to step away from Westmeath duty just yet after returning from an initial inter-county retirement<\/a> that lasted almost a year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n “(I’m) still a current Westmeath footballer anyway. I was golfing with Mark McHugh a couple of weeks ago and he didn’t tell me to retire yet, so current for now,” he said.<\/p>\n While Mayo’s All-Ireland win is the main headline from the year, Westmeath also put their heads above the parapet earlier in the championship.<\/p>\n The returning Heslin played his part as the county won just a second ever Leinster title<\/a>, beating Dublin in a gripping final at Croke Park in May.<\/p>\n But when asked to pick his match of the year, the Mullingar man went a little further back in time to Westmeath’s stunning quarter-final victory over a heavily-fancied Meath in Tullamore.<\/p>\n