All-Ireland Under-21 HC Final Gavin Cummiskeytalks to Dublin manager Sean Lane about the county's continuing hurling revival

A Dublin footballer was talking recently about having to cope with the media being based primarily in the capital. "Part and parcel," he said. The hurlers may start to experience a similar hindrance over the coming seasons.

Dublin's hurlers take the field on Sunday against Galway in the under-21 All-Ireland final. Already, in hurling circles anyway, they are familiar names.

Many of them were part of the 2005 minor team that won the Leinster championship before losing to Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final. There is also a decent crossover from the Dublin Colleges side that beat St Flannan's to lift the Dr Croke Cup in 2006.

Now, combined with the beaten minor finalists of 2004, they are on the cusp of national recognition.

Sean Lane is the manager. He shuns the limelight but surely he can't deny nurturing this revival since these players were under-14? "It started before that. I think John Murphy took the first development squad about 1997 and they ended up in a minor final in 2000 but since then the development squads have been throwing out a couple of players year after year.

"That's 10 years' work being done with kids at 13 and 14. Conal Keaney and Philly Brennan, that age group, they are all 23, 24. They've come through the structure as well. There are good players there but we have to keep it going and do the same work again for the next 10 years so that when the current crop of senior players retire there is another crop to come through. You have to take your cap off to the Tom Fitzpatricks and the Joe Fortunes. They're after winning two Leinster (minor) titles in 2005 and 2007."

The first question we asked Lane at yesterday's media conference in Croke Park - he was joined by Galway manager Vincent Mullins and the two captains John McCaffrey and Kevin Hynes - was about the availability of chief marksman Peadar Carton. He refused to comment.

We moved on to inquire about the level of satisfaction the Dublin hurling community should derive from what has been achieved. "It depends what your benchmark is. If you regard winning minor and under-21 Leinster titles as successful, well, then we are successful but that's not the benchmark. If Kilkenny won a Leinster minor and under-21, sure they'd throw their head up in the air. The goal long-term . . ."

His phone interrupts the sentence. "That could be the answer to the very first question you asked me so I won't take the call." (That did prove to be news that Carton is free to play. For now at least.)

"The benchmark is to win All-Irelands and that's where we want to start. It would be good to win it on Sunday and we'll be doing our level best to do that."

We push Lane to talk about his father's native land and what it's like to be a Dublin hurling man in 2007. "Yeah, I take great pride in being a Dublin hurling man but like most Dublin hurling men the ancestry comes from somewhere.

"Both my parents are west of Ireland. My Dad was a Galwayman and hurled minor and junior with Galway (his mother played camogie for Roscommon) so certainly something has been passed on there.

"There will be great pride to see Dublin running out on the field for an All-Ireland hurling final.

"I won't be measuring them at 1.50pm it will be at 3.20pm that the real yardstick will be."

Galway won't mind playing Dublin as it means the spotlight remains elsewhere. Still most of the neutrals will turn up on Sunday to see one man.

"Joe Canning is a phenomenal player," continues Lane. "Joe might certainly have missed out this year not playing senior hurling for Galway. There are a couple of competitive games he could have under his belt that he doesn't have.

"He is unquestionably the best under-21 hurler in the county. He is very accurate. He has a good temperament. He's been successful and he is going to be a huge challenge for whoever we decide to play on him." There are others. The spine of Galway's defence are senior hurlers who will be keen to shut down the lively Dublin attack.

"Absolutely. (Ger) Mahon and (John) Lee. I presume they'll pick (Ger) Mahon at full back although he played wing back the last day.

"We've 10 Dublin senior hurlers playing on Sunday that were actually on the team that played championship hurling. Our spine and the ribs attached to the spine ain't too bad either."