“It’s like a story you’d hear in the bible or something. A real one you’d tell around Christmas.”
John Heslin might not want to boast about it but he is a bit of a class act.
Last year, when he led UCD to the Sigerson Cup title, his emotional tribute to college legend Dave Billings was beautiful.
When he spoke on The GAA Hour this week, the way he named all the club stalwarts behind the scenes doing the unseen work said a lot about him. He might be one of the best players in the country, he might be a household name and he might well be about to win a Leinster title that his talent so richly deserves but he knows what helped to get him there and he knows what it is that keeps the club going.
There was also a story going around after the Westmeath final when St. Loman’s put Tyrellspass to the sword but, rather than rushing out to celebrate, John Heslin was the last to leave the changing room and he spent his time, instead, cleaning the shed, as they’d say in New Zealand.
He swept the floors and cleared up after his team and, only for the opposition chairman to come back to the changing rooms to spot him, the story would never have gotten out.
Heslin explained why he did that.
“I’m not a big sentimental person or anything like that but we were after winning three-in-a-row, I was lucky enough to be captain of my club to do it. I really, really enjoyed the day and, in my eyes, as soon as I left the dressing room or left Cusack Park, the game was over and the moment was gone for me,” he said.
“So I wanted to stay in the dressing room as long as I could. I was the last one leaving as I usually am after a good game and I just started tidying up a little bit. It wasn’t a big deal, I didn’t expect a big deal to be made of it or anything like that.
“It was his [the chairman’s] club we beat in the final, I didn’t ask him to say anything.”
Life is just a series of fleeting images and you should capture the best ones.
“It was moreso to prolong the moment. Playing GAA gives you some special moments. It gives you tough times too – when you lose against Dublin at Croke Park by 30-odd points, you fairly want to run out of the dressing room, you wouldn’t be cleaning up that day – but it does give you the special moments.
“Once you win a county final, you’re going on to a Leinster campaign and it’s important not to dwell on that win. It would’ve been the same against Simonstown and Mullinalaghta when we won those games, you have to enjoy it in the moment because, when we leave the dressing room, when we leave the ground, you have another job on hand and it’s two weeks away to the next game.
“That was all it was. It wasn’t anything major. And I probably did a half-arsed job of cleaning the dressing room anyway.”
Listen to the full interview below.
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