All-Ireland SFC Final Countdown: Keith Duggan talks to Ryan McMenamin, who will stick like glue to Colm Cooper.

"I think I'm getting too old for that sort of stuff. I think I'll leave that for the forwards this time," promises Ryan McMenamin, addressing his fondness for picking off scores on broiling championship days.

The stickiest defender in the country was in high form at the Tyrone press night, happy to reflect upon an eventful summer and the likelihood of shadowing Colm Cooper, Kerry's elusive and seemingly unstoppable corner forward. It is probably the most tantalising duel of the day: the most punishing and versatile attacking player in the game against the archetypal nightmarish defender.

Since breaking into Mickey Harte's team, McMenamin has established himself as cult figure in Tyrone, a vocal, lightning-fast and incredibly busy presence, generally at the heart of the best moments and the most controversial. Standing in jeans and hooded sweater, McMenamin is surprisingly slender and soft-spoken, talking agreeably about the All-Ireland final with a slight stammer.

The last time he was detailed to mark Cooper was in the All-Ireland semi-final two summers ago, when Tyrone played like men possessed and really established the notion that there was a northern brand of football.

"Ah, I don't mind that much about it," McMenamin says now.

"It was an intense day and it was well documented that we were up for the game. But that day, Gooch got two good points on me. But the boys were working so hard out the field that I would say not much good ball got in as far as the Gooch.

"And I would say it will be a different story this time. They will be looking to get good ball in early to him. And any time I have seen him recently he has been unbelievable.

"So I'd say he will be keeping me far too busy for me to be worrying about going upfield. I'm just hoping he doesn't get that supply or we will be in trouble like."

Like most of Tyrone's players, he is accustomed to fielding questions about the perceived northern style. As a fast, aggressive and maddeningly diligent defender who simply never gives his man a moment's peace, McMenamin is regarded as typical of the new breed. He has the fitness and work rate to close down opposition space and in possession he is a natural and gifted ball player who, like many of this Tyrone team, looks like he could play anywhere.

The meeting of Tyrone and Kerry has been depicted as the ultimate contrast in styles, despite the fact that some observers feel the Kingdom have adapted to the Ulster model since that infamous encounter two years ago. And Jack O'Connor has acknowledged that consecutive defeats to Armagh and Tyrone have had the effect of driving this Kerry team on - to the point that their own work ethic bears resemblance to the Ulster template.

"So they say. But who am I to comment? I am not a pundit. Aye, Jack says it is going to be hard against the northern style. But they looked at it, they take their half forwards back and we take our forwards back but if Jack thinks that's the southern style, sure fine. Who am I to say? We just know that we are going to meet 15 good men and some good subs to go with it. So it doesn't matter."

In the trinity of games against Armagh this summer, McMenamin was superb but spoiled a brilliant display in the Ulster final replay with a lazy and ultimately foolish foul on John McEntee which enabled Oisín McConville to kick the definitive free.

That foul also threatened to compromise McMenamin's summer and he has gone to pains to acknowledge the support Mickey Harte gave him during the period when he was threatened with suspension.

"Yeah, you don't know if you are going to be playing from one Sunday to the next. The first game against Monaghan, it kind of messed my head up. Mickey said he had confidence that I would get off and I kept preparing for the Dublin game and luckily I got off. But when your manager gives you that sort of boost and backs you 100 per cent, it makes you want to repay that on the field. There has always been a high level of respect there.

"Against Armagh, when we go out on the field, like, we do kind of verbally kill each other. But off the field we get on all right. You have to be on the top of your game to play against them and that is where the respect comes from. We just kept on battling.

"We knew ourselves that we did play the football and what we were capable of. We knew even if we lost the Ulster final we were still right where we wanted to be. And it did take us a while to get into the Monaghan game. But I think the Dublin game was perfect for us. If we had maybe a smaller team it would have been harder but it totally lifted us and we knew if we won it would give us another crack at Armagh.

"There is a bunch of battlers on this team and the boys knew after that Ulster final there was unfinished business. So it was easy to keep the thing going."

After that flirtation with disaster, McMenamin returned and has enjoyed such a storming championship that he must be considered a front runner for Footballer of the Year. He has endless spirit, as most memorably demonstrated at half-time against Dublin, when the city team hit Tyrone with a spellbinding half hour of football. McMenamin was seen at the mouth of the tunnel, harrying and worrying his colleagues into the dressingroom, rounding them up like a terrier.

"Ah, I just wanted to get the boys in to get a roar at them," he admits.

"There was no point trudging off the field with the heads down because we had the 35 minutes and we were just five points down.

"Ah, I would speak my mind. But, you know most of the time I would be quieter than you'd think."