Keane hoping Westmeath remember Páidí’s wise words

Within a Páidí Ó Sé-managed team, there was another team — the defenders.

John Keane remembers how he built up the Westmeath back-line to take on Dublin in their famous 2004 Leinster quarter-final. With the cuckoo came the cut, lean version of PÓ but followed by a sniff of Dublin in his nostril appeared a man three inches taller.

“There was a glare in his eye and a determination in his voice,” recalls Keane. “He promised us something special was going to happen and this was an opportunity that wasn’t going to come around very often. He was right on that, it hasn’t come since then.