PREVIEW AND PICTURES: Heywood Captains grace Croke Park ahead of All Ireland Schools football final
Heywood Community School's day of destiny arrives on Saturday as they line up in the All Ireland Post Primary Senior 'C' football final.
Captains Alan McWey and Conor McWey recently got the chance to go to Croke Park for a media day promoting the finals but unlike the All Ireland 'A' and 'B' final, Heywood's final won't be at GAA headquarters.
Clare school Ennistymon CBS will be their opponents with the game throwing in at 2pm in Duggan Park in Ballinasloe. It has been a magical year so far for the Laois school and with both the South Leinster and full Leinster titles secured, they are now looking to complete the hat-trick and land the big one.
With that title in the bag, they defeated Meath side O'Carolan College from Nobber and advanced to a full Leinster final against Dublin school - St Mac Dara’s where they won comfortably.
Now in dreamland and an All Ireland semi final, they stood just 60 minutes from the the big one - the All Ireland final.
St Paul’s of Oughterard in Galway were their opponents but they couldn't stop the Heywood juggernaut as they got the job done and booked their place in the All Ireland decider.
With players from Laois clubs including Ballyroan-Abbey, St Joseph’s, Timahoe, Spink, The Harps and Park-Ratheniska, they have a nice mix of players and certainly have a lot of football under their belt at this stage.