The perfect timing of Cavan and Kerry's meeting in Sunday's All-Ireland football semi-final - 50 years after the Polo Grounds final in New York - has given particular satisfaction to the Cavan players. Although the county won two All-Irelands since 1947, the Polo Grounds came to symbolise the tendency of Cavan football to dwell on the past.

The commemorative match scheduled for New York next October, involving present day teams, was weighing down on the Cavan players, whose careers were about to be deluged, albeit unintentionally, in the nostalgia of the jubilee. Midfielder Dermot McCabe recalls how the panel discussed the matter and their determination to resist being marginalised by history.

"We had meetings earlier in the year about this trip and the talk was always that we should try and bring a cup with us. We have the Ulster cup now and it'll be great to bring that with us.

"It was the week before the Ulster final and the quote was `we'll make our own history'. It was also said in the dressingroom beforehand that we should forget about the teams of old and make our own history and maybe we'll be talked about in years to come."

That much has already been assured by the county's first Ulster title in 28 years and McCabe has also staked a personal claim because however much he protested that the NIB personality of the month award, presented earlier this week for the first time to a Cavan man, was recognition for the team, his individual display in eclipsing Anthony Tohill in last month's provincial final was an outstanding contribution.

From the ball he won in the middle and the control he exercised over Tohill, to his point, and a great relieving catch from a dropping 45 in the closing minutes, McCabe was a shoo-in as man of the match.

"I thought I might be marking Anthony, but I didn't know definitely until Friday night's meeting," he says. "I was told a little bit about him, that he likes to do the playmaking and that sort of thing. I like to do it, too, but I had to keep an eye on him. I probably tried to mark him more than concentrate on my own game.

"Things started going my way and the ball started breaking for me and I was lucky to get a lot of possession in the end."

The unexpected defeat of a hotly-tipped Derry side who had overwhelmed reigning champions Tyrone in the semi-final came as less of a surprise to the Cavan team, which had been gradually evolving under two years of Martin McHugh's management. Significantly, they had defeated Tyrone twice in relegation battles at the end of the Division One season last spring and were beginning to believe in their ability to compete.

The Ulster championship draw placed them on the less cut-throat side and gave the county a great chance of reaching the Ulster final for the second time in three years. Taken overall - including having to play the team that came out of the other side - McCabe feels that the championship was a hard grind.

"It wasn't an easy title to win when you had Donegal and Derry on your run-in. I suppose our side of the draw was the easier but when you look at Donegal and Derry, they'd be All-Ireland hopefuls at the start of every year.

"It was looked on as a great opportunity, but Fermanagh - there was a lot of talk that they'd be a pushover - proved to be a very good team. I played in the forwards the first day (the drawn game) and space was at a premium, they were very tight marking. I think Offaly were the only team to beat them this year. A very well organised team, they were very difficult to beat and we were lucky to get away."

When they reached the final on schedule, McCabe noticed that there was a different mood around the county than had been the case in 1995 when Cavan qualified for their first Ulster final in 12 years. "This year the supporters were a bit more calm and realistic than in '95. But there was a feeling that if we got a good game, we could win it. We (the players) never doubted that we could win. I know it's easy to say that now but we couldn't say it beforehand, I suppose."

Cavan had isolated a number of reasons why they stood a good chance against Derry despite the dissenting view of some of the public. "They'd a huge victory against Tyrone and we'd a big victory over Donegal, but all the talk turned to Derry. We thought that we'd had a pretty good victory in the League play-off against Tyrone, which was the same team that played Derry, and maybe we had as good a victory.

"There was a lot of talk about the Derry full-forward line. We thought that we had the full backs to cover them and our aim was to stop the supply. Our half forwards did a lot of tackling and didn't really allow them kick in any sort of decent ball into the full forwards. I think they only scored one point or two from play. Four or five of their points came from their backs and one or two from midfield.

"I think we also thought that if we could get the supply to our forwards, if we could break 50-50 at midfield, that our forwards would get more scores than theirs because there were probably more scoring forwards on our team.

"They were looking only to their full-forward line for scores whereas we had the likes of Ronan (Carolan) on the half-forward line and Peter (Reilly) who'd been getting a lot of scores and we'd full forwards too who could score."

McCabe had alternated between wing forward and midfield since coming on to the senior team and played in the centre for the under21s who reached last year's AllIreland final. His recent performances would appear to have assured his place there for the conceivable future - a prospect that suits his own preferences. "At the moment midfield is my preference because you're free to do what you want. I suppose there's a lot of defending and I wouldn't be the best for that but you're not being tightly marked and you can fend for yourself, whereas in the half-forward line you might be relying more so on other men to get the ball up, on the half backs to come forward if midfield isn't doing well."

At present, with McCabe in his current form, that's not a problem with which the other Cavan players are particularly familiar.