Wallace feels growing belief will drive Westmeath on

Belief is the word Ronan Wallace keeps coming back to as Westmeath prepare for Sunday’s Leinster senior football final against Dublin at Croke Park.

The Westmeath captain knows the scale of the challenge facing his side against an experienced Dublin outfit which has dominated the province for so long, but he also believes this is not a county travelling to headquarters simply to make up the numbers.

After victories over Longford, Meath and Kildare, Westmeath have already carved out their own slice of provincial history this summer and Wallace insists the confidence within the camp is genuine.

“Definitely,” he said when asked if the belief is different this time around compared to previous Leinster final appearances against Dublin.

“We chatted at the Leinster launch and you could pick a handful of teams that were able to win Leinster, and we’re definitely amongst that. We’re in a position to go and win Leinster and that’s where we’re going,” he enthused.

“We’re not just going to make up numbers on Sunday. We’re going to give our top performance and bring the Delaney Cup back, hopefully, to Mullingar. Louth winning Leinster last year really created a buzz around the province, that it is capable of being won, so I don’t see why we can’t.”

At the outset of the championship, simply reaching a Leinster final was the ambition for a Westmeath squad determined to respond after a frustrating 2025 campaign which saw too many promising displays end in narrow defeats.

The dawning of that reality is “unbelievable” Wallace admits.

“We set our target just to get over Longford. That was the first goal. We knew we had the difficult task of facing Meath, but we knew the capabilities within this team that we could get that performance and that result,” he remarked.

“Going into that week after the confidence of the Longford game, I think it gave us something to bring to training during the week and we really felt that we were going to turn over Meath, and that was the case. We turned up, we performed so well and then we just had to regroup and go for two hard weeks of training.

“Kildare was tough. We probably performed well and performed poorly in some aspects of the game, but just to grind out that result, I think it showed the real character of the group. We’re just buzzing to be heading to Croke Park to play the Dubs in the Leinster final,” he added.

Wallace says the panel has not become distracted by statistics surrounding previous meetings with Meath and Kildare, even though both wins represented significant results: Westmeath have beaten Meath just twice in Leinster senior football, for example, and there have been just three wins against Kildare

“I don’t think we look too much at the history, I suppose that’s more for the supporters than ourselves,” remarked Wallace.

“We just look at the next team in front of us. We see what their strengths and weaknesses are, we look at the game videos, we look at where we can exploit them. I think we just have to set out a game plan that’s going to work for us against the Dubs.

“I suppose they haven’t been their usual dominant selves this year, but they’re still churning out results and what they did to Louth in the semi-final was impressive. They were so ruthless, they used their experience so well with Niall Scully and Ciaran Kilkenny, the likes of them, so we know it’s going to be difficult, but we know we’ll put serious work into the next couple of weeks in training and we’ll have a game plan ready to go,” he said.

The sense of momentum surrounding Westmeath has been hard-earned. Wallace pointed to the painful league defeat to Wexford earlier in the season as a turning point for the squad.

“The disappointment in the dressing room after Wexford was something I hadn’t felt in a while. It was gut-wrenching going down there and putting in a performance we thought was good and just not seeing out the game,” he said.

“We just had to regroup. We took a few days off, we went to the (Mullingar) Park Hotel on the Wednesday and we just said we can’t let one defeat define our season. We knew we had to target that Longford game and target every game after that. We just took one game at a time and we knew we had to get to a Leinster final if we wanted to play All-Ireland football,” he added.

There has also been a noticeable mental shift within the group after the disappointments of last season.

“You look at our season last year, it went from defeat to defeat to defeat, so close, and I think we’ve nearly learned from that as a group because a lot of the lads were involved last year. You don’t follow up a bad result with another bad result,” he observed.

“Over the years, Westmeath have been up and down, up and down. We’re just trying to get consistent at a high level so we can compete with the top teams.

“I think that’s something Mark has really instilled in us over the last few weeks. Since we were in Killybegs that day, he’s really set a work rate into us and a togetherness that we just know we’re going out there and performing for each other,” he added.

The captain acknowledged the growing connection between the team and the county support, with huge numbers backing Westmeath in recent weeks.

“You’ve seen probably 10,000 Westmeath supporters at the game last week. It’s just immense. Some days you’d come out and there wouldn’t be much of a crowd or support, but they’ve really got behind us the last number of weeks,” he noted.

“Probably this season, we’ve felt a good bond with the supporters. We’re just going out and giving them good days. They sacrifice their time and money to come support us, so we want to give them good days out.”

Now 30, Wallace is one of the senior figures within a squad rejuvenated by emerging young talent such as Brandon Kelly, Shane Corcoran and Matty Whittaker.

“Ray (Connellan), myself, Jason (Daly) and Luke (Loughlin) probably are the elder statesmen of the team now,” he smiled.

“We’re just trying to impart as much knowledge on the younger lads as we can and let them express themselves. They have no fear, they’ve nothing to lose and they’re so talented. It’s brilliant. They’re infectious. They just bring so much to the table. You see them on the pitch, they play with such freedom. We just have to row in behind them and give them the ball,” he said.

For Wallace, who attended the 2004 Leinster finals as an eight-year-old and even managed to sneak onto the pitch afterwards, Sunday represents another chance to create lasting memories for a new generation of Westmeath supporters.

“The buzz they created around the county in 2015 and 2016 was great and, for the first time in 10 years, we have that around the county now,” he enthused.

Hailing from Multyfarnham means it’s a huge occasion for all concerned, a proud day for the parish. For many years it looked like they might not grow into the club they have become, but there was a spirit of determination to develop.

“It's great for the parish, it's great for the club,” said Wallace, proudly. “We were the whipping boys of Westmeath for a number of years. We've managed to work underage and that kind of transitioned with us.

“As a group in 2014 and ‘15, when we got to the Junior finals - we obviously lost - but then in 2017 we got over the line. And then went on that run to the All-Ireland Junior Final. It's great for the club, there's a great buzz around there. The facilities out there are fantastic,” he remarked.

Crucially, this Westmeath side believes it can develop also and become much more than just a nice story about how they bounced back from league disappointment to championship joy. They are keen to write their own chapter in a history often ridiculed but ready to be changed.