WE’RE A DIFFERENT TEAM NOW, SAYS DOLAN

WESTMEATH goal hero James Dolan is confident that the Leinster minnows can cash in on last year’s Leinster final experience. The Lakesiders will need something approaching a miracle to have any chance of avenging last year’s provincial final defeat to Dublin. But Dolan (right) is convinced the champions will face a different team to the wide-eyes one that they confronted 12 months ago. ‘That was our first Leinster final for all these players in here, it was a big final,’ revealed Dolan. ‘The occasion is just huge, the pre-match parade around Croke Park, and all of that. ‘We don’t have that problem this year, last year we were all kind of looking around and taking it all in. ‘This year I’m sure we’ll go in a lot more focused and we will take the occasion out of it. But we’ll still go up and enjoy it because they don’t come around too often,’ admitted the Westmeath defender. It will be just the county’s fifth final appearance in their history and the first time that they have appeared in back-to-back deciders. Last year, they defied fears that they would fall victim to a record defeat in the final, losing on a 2-13 to 0-6 scoreline. They avoided a rout by developing a masseddefence game-plan in the fortnight preceding the game, but Dolan hinted they may take a more offensive approach when they face the Dubs again on July 17. ‘Last year we didn’t do too badly in the Leinster final because we had a defensive shape but I don’t know if we are going to go the same away again. We are just trying to go one better. ‘Dublin are unbelievable at the minute so we have to do something to counteract their strengths, and maybe find some weaknesses,’ added Dolan. It is a remarkable transformation in fortunes for Westmeath, who this spring endured the humiliation of becoming the first team to go from Division 1 to Division 4. But despite three relegations on the bounce, they have stormed back to become the third bottom tier county — Roscommon (2010) and Mayo (2013) — to contest a provincial final this decade. Dolan’s second-half goal against Kildare ensured that they followed up their opening round win over Offaly with another success, but he is adamant that confidence was never an issue for the group coming into the Championship. ‘Going into the Offaly game we were very confident and we eked out a one-point win. The first game in the Championship is always going to be nip and tuck and always going to be hard, and from there we had to set our sights on Kildare. ‘We were confident coming in, we knew we had to stick to the plan and we knew the way they would set up as well. ‘We knew we had to counteract it and we did a lot of thinking on our feet there in the second half. We were delighted to put the ball over the bar when it counted.’