Ian O'Riordan talks to rival managers Padraig Nolan and Mick O'Dwyer ahead of Sunday's Leinster final

Pressurised and perilous might best describe the job of Kildare football manager after it was left vacant by Mick O'Dwyer, yet for Padraig Nolan it was simply a wealthy inheritance. At least that's how he described it yesterday with O'Dwyer sitting next to him at Dublin's Bank of Ireland Centre ahead of Sunday's Leinster football final.

"Actually when I was first asked I was very interested," says Nolan. "But it wasn't a question of the time being right. I don't think there's ever a right or wrong time. You never know what will happen three or four years down the road.

"But when I stepped down from Offaly, Micko was still with Kildare in the Leinster final. People still thought he would go on forever, and then there was a few months lag before I was approached. But when I got the phone call I didn't need too much time to dwell on it."

So much about Sunday's final is the novelty of it, with Kildare surprisingly back in the hunt again after defeat last year, and Laois in the hunt for their first title since 1946. Riding alongside it all is the story of O'Dwyer out to beat his former county, and Nolan out to maintain some of O'Dwyer's legacy.

For Nolan, though, the step into O'Dwyer's shoes was never viewed as a hazardous one: "You see it as opportunity, and you decide to go for it, or not. I thought why not. First of all I knew I was going in after a top-class manager, and that was the same with Offaly when I came in after Tommy Lyons. So you inherit a very well organised and very well run set-up.

"You also have players who have been working in a set-up like that, and so are very ambitious and very disciplined. On top of all those things, Micko left Kildare with a great legacy. I grew up there and never saw Kildare win a Leinster title. Everybody talked about the 1956 team.

"The young lads I have brought in now have all seen Kildare win in Leinster, and seen them in All-Irelands. So there's a confidence thing there as well, and that's also thanks to Mick O'Dwyer."

While Nolan admits his attitude might have been a little different if, for example, he was asked to manager a county like Wicklow, he also felt he genuinely had something to offer Kildare.

"It being my native county as well made it an honour. I had stepped down from Offaly because I had felt I'd gone as far as I could go with them. I suppose I didn't expect to be involved with Kildare so quickly. But it was very hard to resist the opportunity to work with your county.

"But I certainly view it as a work in progress, and we've still a very long way to go. I've heard it alright about the first year being the best year and it's all downhill after that, but I don't agree. You are always looking for areas to improve, at positions, and what new players are coming through."

Reaching Sunday's final, and taking the scalp of Meath along the way, might have exceeded some expectations in Kildare, yet Nolan doesn't view the season in any way as an over-achievement.

"Kildare were in the Leinster final last year. And there was no real reason why they couldn't get back again this year. The league was disappointing, but we did a lot of chopping and changing and once we settled on a team we started making quick progress. And against Longford and Meath we were definitely competing for the full 70 minutes.

"And I don't think the style of play has been different either. Kildare have sometimes been criticised for their short passing game, but go back to the 1998 final, and Kildare kicked the ball an awful lot more than Galway did. But it's not all about long ball or short ball or whatever, it's about keeping possession and moving the ball quickly, and that's what I am trying to do, and which is what Micko had been doing for many years. And I've had great help as well from the likes of Declan Kerrigan and Willie McCreery, who know Kildare football inside out.

"So it was more a case of building of fitness and things like that. You don't try to fix something that's not broken, so it was more about adding a little, trying to make it a little better."

Quietly nodding through all this is O'Dwyer, whose attitude towards Kildare hasn't changed.

"I said earlier this year that Kildare would make the final, and that's a fact. I said we had a good chance too, so I expect the final to be very close now. But I've been impressed by Kildare's form of late. Sure I always was, and always will be. And they have the best followers in the country, and that includes Dublin.

"But I had made up my mind 12 months in advance of last summer I was going to leave. And you need freshness from time to time, and I think Kildare needed a new management. But this is a new challenge for me and you do get great satisfaction from working with a county team, and trying to get success with them."