Westmeath’s John Heslin delights in backing from Cork master Eamonn Ryan

Amid the congratulations John Heslin received after UCD’s historic Sigerson Cup win on Saturday, it was a text message from Cork selector Eamonn Ryan that stood out.

The Westmeath man first met the 10-time All-Ireland senior ladies football- winning manager at a talk in Belfield 13 months ago, which had been arranged by the late Dave Billings.

“I got a text from Eamonn Ryan from Cork which meant a lot to me, because I would have great time for him.

"That was his message, just ‘Fair play, it’s a great competition to win and you’ll be delighted to look back in years to come that you were able to win a Sigerson.’

“He was up in UCD one night giving a talk, himself and Brian Cody.

"Everyone was saying ‘Brian Cody’ and everyone knows the record that he has and how good a speaker he is but when Eamonn Ryan got up he had a couple of different speeches wrote out in his pocket and I think he told me he brought the wrong one and he gave a talk anyway and I just thought it was phenomenal.

“I went up to him after and introduced myself and got talking to him.

“I met him at different things along the way and always made a point to go up and say hello to him and talk .

"Just someone with that experience, you can always learn something off them, he’s a great man.”

Heslin was delighted to honour Billings’ memory in contributing to UCD’s first Sigerson Cup title in 20 years but admits part of him is glad the competition is over.

He enjoyed playing four games in two weeks but training with Westmeath between the matches was difficult.

“It’s nearly a relief to be finished it because you don’t have to combine everything. It’s definitely very tough and how does a player get the best out of himself when he is playing so much as well?

"That’s not a decision I’m involved in so whilst I might have opinions on it, it’s a tough one and a lot of thinking has to go into it.”

Heslin returns to county duties this weekend when Westmeath face Tipperary, hoping to pick up their points of their Division 3 campaign.

“We lost the first game to Kildare by three points and the second game to Sligo by a point so those games could have gone either way, and you have to be careful not to be overly critical of yourself because you can lose confidence very quickly.

“I could be having this conversation with two wins on the board and looking forward to playing Tipperary but unfortunately that’s not the way it has gone.

"There’s still plenty of games that we can go on and win, it just puts us under a little bit more pressure if we are going to push for promotion to win the remaining games. We can’t have any more hiccups from here on in.”