Two years with Donegal brought home to Jack Cooney what it takes to be successful at the sharp end of intercounty football.
When he joined up with Rory Gallagher's new coaching team after Jim McGuinness had guided the Tir Chonaill men to the All-Ireland final 2014, Cooney had been a couple of years out of the intercounty scene.
He had previously worked for two years with Paidi O'Se in Cooney's native Westmeath's set up.
"I got good advice from a friend a couple of years ago who said, ‘Make sure you get all your experience on the way up, because when you take that job you can’t go back for the experience', which is very good advice," recalled Cooney.
"And there’s no doubt spending a couple of years in Donegal was a great experience."
What really caught Cooney's attention was the desire that still existed within the disappointed group.
"What amazed me was the levels of commitment," he said. "They were phenomenal. The hunger and drive and commitment was still there to go on again.
"It became pretty obvious then if you don’t have those levels of commitment you're not going to achieve what you realistically set out to achieve. It all comes from that level of drive from the players.
"That group of players they had won it in 2012 and were one of the top teams in the country at the time. But there was a real sense of purpose and drive and hunger.
"And they are very important ingredients in any team you take over - and that became very obvious when I took over Westmeath, that these are important ingredients because if you don’t have those everything else can fall down around it."
Cooney faces his biggest test yet in Tullamore - six months into his tenure as Westmeath manager.
After 26 years of using outside managers, the Lake County has enjoyed O'Byrne Cup success and a return to Division 2 under Cooney - with Division 3 silverware secured, to boot.
That came against Laois and, having beaten them earlier in the league, Westmeath are looking for a third win of the year over their Leinster rivals in tomorrow's showdown.
But Laois put four goals on Westmeath when the sides met at the same ground last summer.
"You could certainly say it’s a realistic objective to go after for any team on this side of the draw, they’d be eyeing up a day out in a Leinster final," admitted Cooney.
"But having said that, we're playing Laois and we don’t look any further than that. But we know that a good performance there could lead to something else down the line".
VERDICT: Westmeath.
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