Ken Doyle has been at the heart of the Kildare defence for nine years and although as energetic as ever, he admits his veteran status is now well confirmed. Kildare go into Sunday's Leinster semi-final against Meath as favourites, but experience has taught Doyle to distance his side from such tags: "We will have it all to do on Sunday with the injuries (to Anthony Rainbow and Glen Ryan). We've being playing in the lower divisions of the league and we haven't played any team the calibre of Meath in a long time, so it will be a big step up for us."

Kildare's fans have great expectations, but Doyle shrugs off any suggestion that he feels under pressure: "I found more pressure when we hadn't won anything, you know there was always that pressure - `Kildare will flop again, now they're going up to Croke Park and they will get beaten again' . . . you know, that kind of attitude. I think over the last four or five years we've washed that away and got more confident as a team and I think we believe in ourselves." Doyle was drafted on to the panel in April 1993 after Mick O'Dwyer's much-trumpeted arrival in the county.

His championship debut followed that summer, and the struggles of that period are still etched in his memory. "Most of the lads wondered would we ever make the breakthrough . . . we used to look at Meath or Dublin winning Leinsters and we wondered would we ever see that day," he explains.

They did, and there were important turning points on the road to provincial success. Beating Laois with 13 men and the three-game, ultimately losing battle with Meath in '97 gave the team confidence and a belief they could compete with Leinster's best. Two Leinster titles have followed - in '98 and last year - but the hunger is there for more and another crack at the All-Ireland.

Should Kildare fell Meath, Dublin lie in wait. Doyle believes too much shouldn't be read into Dublin's less-than-impressive win over Offaly. "I'm sure they are thinking to themselves that they can save a bigger performance for later in the summer," he says.

However, all thoughts are on Meath for now. "I'd say we now have the strongest panel of players we ever had. We are going to have a good few injuries for Sunday. Glen looks like he won't be playing and one or two others are carrying knocks, so we are going to need all the back-up and we have it there - none of the lads will look out of place on Sunday if they are brought in to play."

Even if Kildare lose, they could face Sunday's opponents at a later stage thanks to the revamped draw. So is Doyle in favour of the new back-door system? He simply shrugs and smiles: "I'll tell you after Sunday."