The amount of spare time given to fishing by Stephen King, Cavan's captain against Derry in Sunday's Ulster football final, can be reliably used as a barometer to judge the progress of Cavan football in any given season. Now in his 18th championship season, King is a bit like the way Jack Charlton used to be in this regard. When the demands of football are great the Cavan captain is never to be seen on the river bank, even when reports of the catch are tempting.

Cavan football is thriving and, significantly, King hasn't taken the rod from underneath the stairs "since we lost to Down last year. I haven't had a chance to go fishing this year, we haven't been beaten yet. Mind you," he adds with a smile, "the weather hasn't been great either."

He hopes to be away from the rivers and lakes for a little longer this year. Until after September and an All-Ireland final success would be fine with him.

Thirty five next month, perhaps he can yet qualify for another "man of the match" award in this championship.

"It would be difficult to imagine a Cavan side without him," wrote Northern journalist Michael McGeary in his programme piece for the Cavan-Donegal Ulster championship semi-final.

King puts the present Cavan set-up into perspective: "The panel is strong and the team has confidence in its ability to win. The strength of the panel is reassuring. In the team itself you're not relying on 10 or 12 players.

"You have 15 guys who know what it's all about. And those 15 fellas are continually trying to keep their places from a panel of 28. We've nine or 10 forwards trying for six positions. This is something that hasn't happened in Cavan football for a while."

It doesn't worry King to learn, in the course of his work travelling around Ulster, that Cavan are regarded as outsiders against Derry on Sunday.

"Yes, there's a great hype within Cavan but outside the county we are not given a chance. I suppose you have to respect the views of these people, especially the way Derry are playing."

He sends out a friendly reminder to the Derry team: "They still have to win the Ulster title before they win the All Ireland".

King compounds manager Martin McHugh's urgings to his players on the best way to address the Derry obstacle.

"You must give them the respect they deserve, especially their half back line, midfield and full forward line. There's nothing like them in Ireland, they are top class players."

King was referring of course to Henry Downey, flanked by Sean Martin Lockhart and Johnny McBride in the half back line, midfielders Anthony Tohill and Dermot Heavey, and forwards Joe Brolly, Seamus Downey and Joe Cassidy.

Concern about Cavan's failure to match territorial advantage, something they seem to create with such panache, with scores on the board is frequently expressed at training sessions.

"We are finding it difficult to score. We are working the ball well but we are finding it difficult to get the ball over the bar with anything like the regularity we would wish. Maybe some day it will happen," he says.

Is there anything special being done in training to correct this fault that has repeatedly frustrated the team's supporters in league and championship football this season?

"No, not really, you can't really change your sense of direction because of one little thing, You'd hope that it will come good and hope to avoid the wayward stuff the next day," he says.

"Most of the country has Cavan written off mainly because of the strength and physique of the Derry team but it is all down to form on the day."

Being regarded as underdogs does not have the slightest affect on the positive thinking currently prevailing within King's team.

"We don't mind, people expected us to be beaten by Donegal as well but we got over that."

King's philosophy, as a competitor, makes him an ideal captain. Sunday's game is no different to any other big game he has played in. This will be his third Ulster final. "When you get to an Ulster final they are all important." He figured on the losing teams against Tyrone, in 1995, and against Donegal in 1983.

"1995 and '83 are over. You don't remember much about them, you try not to anyway," he says.

The captain is happy the way his team faced up to relegation problems this year. They beat Tyrone twice, in Dungannon and in Clones, within a couple of weeks to keep their division one status intact. "We should have had more points on the board before we got ourselves into relegation trouble. We dug deep subsequently. The win over Tryone in Dungannon was a particularly good result for us."

The last time Derry and Cavan met in the Ulster championship was 10 years ago. It went to a replay with Derry winning by 2-11 to 2-8. Of the scoring forwards on that occasion only Cavan's Ronan Carolan remains in the present teams.

Cavan are in front, 8-7, in the head to head of the 15 meetings between the teams over the past 50 years. Cavan had won 34 of their 38 Ulster titles to date by the time Derry won their first in 1958.