All-Ireland SF Qualifier/Leitrim v Dublin: There was symmetry to the qualifying draw last Sunday night when Dublin were fated to travel to Leitrim. This afternoon's game in Carrick holds memories of the last championship meeting between the counties 10 summers ago, when football fervour gripped the quiet county

A combination of a strong team, the charisma of John O'Mahony and the influence of Declan Darcy, a first-generation Dublin boy with strong ties to Leitrim, helped the county to its first Connacht title since 1927 and nothing was ever quite the same afterwards.

"The 10 years since haven't been long going," admitted Mickey Quinn, then a veteran of the team. "It was just an unbelievable time in the county.

"I suppose what I remember most about the Dublin game is the build-up during those few weeks when we were Connacht champions.

"The game itself probably showed up our inexperience at that level - Charlie Redmond got a goal in the first half and then I think Dessie Farrell got one shortly after half-time so we were chasing them. But the atmosphere in Croke Park and running out in front of Leitrim people is something that stayed with me long after I retired."

Quinn had been a Leitrim player for 17 years when that peerless summer unfolded. His experiences up to that point were a constant test of the spirit: four consecutive championship defeats to Roscommon in the early 1990s had convinced him that enough was enough.

Before a local championship game, he was told O'Mahony had arrived to speak with him about the new season. "I didn't want to hear anything about him. I didn't think I had the stomach for another season."

O'Mahony has a way of making men change their mind. Reflecting on the training the Leitrim team undertook in preparation for that year, Declan Darcy identified Quinn as the player he wanted to emulate in terms of effort and drive. For reasons they never stopped to consider, that year the teamed trained with a ferocity that surprised them.

"The O'Mahony factor was definitely a strong part of it. PJ Carolan had built a fairly strong squad so he probably arrived at a time when we were receptive to the methods he used.

"When I began playing in 1978, the lack of success in the county was always something you would be conscious of.

"Even though nothing had changed, we just began playing with belief. It is often forgotten that we had beaten Galway in 1993 as well. The signs were there."

If Quinn has regret, it is Leitrim's one-point loss to Galway in the 1995 semi-final. Galway coasted the subsequent provincial final.

"I would love to have known what we could have done if we got back to Croke Park. Our game against Dublin was a great learning curve really and I don't think we would have been as wide-eyed going back up the following year. But after that we started to slip.

"Then when O'Mahony went to Galway, I knew he would take them places. I figured there wasn't much point for me playing for Leitrim any longer.

"Sure enough, Galway beat us by 15 points in 1998. It's amazing how quickly it changes."

Quinn is looking forward to the arrival of the Dublin team today. He still plays club football and is familiar with the current generation of Leitrim players.

Tom Lyons's team are overwhelming favourites to saunter through this game, just as Dublin were heavily favoured to win the All-Ireland semi-final of a decade ago.

But, at that time, Leitrim were bold enough to entertain the impossible.

"The sense of release in the county after that Connacht championship is hard to explain. It did an awful lot of good in ways beyond football. Dublin had been close to winning All-Irelands for the previous few seasons, they had a bigger squad than us, they had classy forwards and Croke Park was nothing new to them.

"We were aware of all those things. But at the same time we were going up there with no fear and a belief that we could take on anybody."

Comparing the present Leitrim team to the 1994 championship side, he recognises the bloody-minded work ethic in players like Séamus Quinn and Colin Regan.

He was encouraged by the way they held Roscommon in the first half and is full of praise for the work Declan Rowley is doing with the team. But he admits that local people will gather in Carrick this afternoon with no illusions of grandeur.

"There would be a recognition that we have a fair way to travel. Dublin is always going to be a tough draw, but at least it is in Carrick and Leitrim teams always play with pride here. Maybe in 1994, we had a few more forwards that could take scores fairly easily. That cost us the last day against Roscommon.

"The other thing I fear is that there isn't the same mental commitment to Leitrim football as was the case back then. Players are still dedicated, but because we are a small county, always battling against the odds, it takes an unbelievable effort.

"But these lads were unlucky against Roscommon here in Carrick over the last two years and they are not the kind of team you would want to treat lightly. You just wouldn't know with them."

Quinn says he will be on the lookout for any of the Dublin players of a decade ago, but doubts that they will travel so far west. Although he still plays for his county in the over-40s competition, there has been no talk of a reunion of that 1994 semi-final.

"Sure, 10 years is far too soon. We might get around to thinking about something like that after 25 years."