GAA/Leinster SFC Final: What a difference a year makes. It's days before a provincial football final, and Páidí Ó Sé is talking to the press - not walking some windy beach in west Kerry brooding in isolation. Like a man running for office he's got no time to lose, shaking hands and telling stories. And all in the staged circus he previously dodged like wildfire. Ian O'Riordan reports.

Didn't they say he'd change something in Westmeath football, help give them the belief to contest their first Leinster final since 1949, maybe get them to win it for the first time ever? They didn't say Westmeath football would help change him: embracing the big occasion and the spotlight as if born for it.

So it's lunchtime in Dublin and Ó Sé is sitting pretty at the Bank of Ireland headquarters. For the record he's never attended these gigs during his previous incarnation as Kerry football manager. Straight away he confesses his change of heart and says the main reason he's here is because of the man sitting next to him, a certain Mick O'Dwyer.

"I know in the past I've been invited to these occasions, but I've always chosen not to come, for reasons I'll tell you all again some time. But this is a special occasion for me to renew rivalry with my former boss, and somebody I really admire. And I'll go on admiring no matter what the outcome is on Sunday."

Sunday is primarily about Westmeath and Laois doing battle for the Leinster football title. Yet the occasion has a backdrop of green and gold, two Kerry men with an indefatigable appetite for championship football. If they weren't so likeable they would seem a little out of place.

"You've the two biggest rogues in the country," starts O'Dwyer, "and you'll have to put up with us whether you like it or not."

This time last year O'Dwyer sat in the same building days before leading Laois to their first Leinster title since 1946. No one could have envisaged back then that one year on he would have Ó Sé sitting alongside him, let alone such a relaxed Ó Sé.

"Normally before big games I'd be very uptight," says the man who won eight All-Ireland medals in his 17 years under O'Dwyer's management.

"But I feel very comfortable about this one. I know our opposition are a team of footballers, and all during my 17 years with him there was never any negativity from Mick O'Dwyer, like pulling of jerseys or hitting off the ball, any of that stuff. He didn't entertain it and neither do I entertain it, and I'm very happy about that.

"And I can say without fear of contradiction that he is the best in the business. I suppose I'm not so bad myself, but everything I know about football I got from this man. Hopefully he may have learnt me too much."

Inevitably the two indulge in mutual appraisal, yet Ó Sé continues to reveal new skills in self-assessment. Clearly taking a team like Westmeath into a provincial final doesn't bring anything like the pressure he found with Kerry.

"I wouldn't say I'd be confident about Sunday. It's a big occasion for Westmeath, for the players, and their families. But we're giving ourselves a reasonable 50-50 chance. It's 15 against 15 and if we play to our true potential we're more than capable of giving Laois a hard game."

But what about being there? Didn't he once say he'd never like to lead another county into the championship arena?

"I think in the circumstances, and the way that I left Kerry, I didn't want to be bitter. And if I didn't take up something, and stayed back in Ventry, that probably would have happened.

"But I know under Luke Dempsey we were very unlucky on a couple of occasions not to beat Meath. This year we did get a little rub of the relic, because we did live dangerously against Offaly. Maybe a little of my confidence rubbed off on them, but it was more about guidance."

He says he only fully applied himself to the job when the championships came into view, taking three or four flights a week to Mullingar as against two during the league. The hard slogs during the league helped bring the county to their senses and now he believes there's a healthy level of expectation. With that O'Dwyer offers some further insight.

"I've said before that when the cuckoo arrives Páidí will arrive with it. He's a championship man and has been over the years. He enjoys life over the winter months, and that was always the structure in Kerry. So I knew when the championship came around Westmeath would be playing good football.

"And Páidí is a marvellous motivator of players. I know that because he was captain of our team and he was the life and soul inside a dressing-room. And he has made a difference with Westmeath. A fresh face is always a good thing, and it was the same when I came to Laois. But he's also won eight All-Irelands so he knows what it takes."

And they go on exchanging virtues. O'Dwyer saying Laois are probably a little better than last year but it's all about how they perform on the day. Chances are they'll be back to say it all again somewhere else down the road.

"Sure we're addicted to this game," says O'Dwyer, who first came to Croke Park as a Kerry player 51 years ago. "We're mad Kerrymen. When you live in Kerry, football is your life, and it's been my life from the day I got out of the cradle.

"Football means everything to me. And I'm still enjoying every single moment of it."