Westmeath star John Heslin expects a difficult afternoon when Westmeath meet Dublin in the Leinster final this weekend and said that teams may only get a handful of chances to beat the All-Ireland champions.
Speaking to Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan ahead of Sunday's final, Heslin insisted his side would not rest on the achievement of becoming the first ever Westmeath side to reach consecutive Leinster finals.
"Getting back to a Leinster final was one of our goals this year," he said, "But you can't just look at one game as your reference point or one game where you didn't fulfil your potential. You have to look at everything and where you did well. We looked at where we went well and what we could improve.
"That's a key attribute, you have to keep going on what you do best. Of course, you have to rectify your mistakes.
"Confidence is high getting back to the final but no one really remembers the finalists. It doesn't make a blind bit of difference to anyone who gets to the final, it's all about who wins. History doesn't mean that much to the lads here. We're trying to create our own history and in doing so we need to win a Leinster final.
Heslin says that the preparation for the game has been good in the run up to the game, but this is something he feels should come as standard.
"If you can't get up the pitch in the 68th minute and kick a point after running for the previous 68 minutes, well then training hasn't been good enough for you and you haven't been training hard enough yourself. We've done a lot of hard training and training is still going well."
In reference to last year's final he continued: "I think Dublin had all the luck on the day last year. We had a few shots and God was on their side that day. The wind just came at the wrong time. Hopefully we've learned to get the ball in good positions this year.
"We're hoping to make the most of our chances because that's what you have to do to beat the Dubs. You get a certain amount of chances, so you have to take them."
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