JOHN O'LEARY, Dublin's twice-honoured All Star goalkeeper, will be playing in his 15th Leinster senior football final at Croke Park on Sunday. A Dublin win would realise for him a ninth Leinster senior medal and that would be enough to equal the record held by Brian Mullins.
At 35, O'Leary's track record makes him very much a part of the experienced element against old rivals Meath, in a match that he describes as a confrontation between experience and inexperience.
Yet he goes along with the theory that the relevant individual battle between Paul Curran and Graham Geraghty is one of experience versus experience and one on which the whole tenor of the game could hinge.
Curran and Geraghty have experience in the half back and half forward lines in big games. "This is going to be a big individual battle. I think everyone will be watching out for that one," says O'Leary.
"Youth is on Meath's side and because of this, maybe they will generate greater enthusiasm. I repeat `maybe'. We have just got to be sure that we are prepared mentally to deal with this.
"In terms of lines, I think midfield is going to be critical, as in most matches, but the main event will be between our half forwards and their half backs. That's the one everyone is talking about," says O'Leary.
Compared with last year, or 1994, the same intensity may not be in evidence in the Dublin camp, with the ultimate having been attained since, but says O'Leary "the team hunger is still very much there. Players will know themselves whether they are hungry or not. This is a personal thing that varies from player to player, certainly it shows in training and I would be hoping that everybody is tuned in."
O'Leary notes "an awful lot of changes since last year". "Firstly, we were not All-Ireland champions this time last year. The pressure is not as intense as it was, or for that matter the way it was in 1994.
"We also have a new management and new structures. We have a different training regime and there are a couple of changes on the panel.
"Our game hasn't fundamentally changed. We can't afford to overdo the possession-type game as we were prone to do against Louth, putting in so many passes in the first half of the pitch and allowing the opposition to close us down. Cork and Galway created the same problems for themselves last Sunday.
O'Leary sums up Meath's position thus: "I don't feel that defeat for them on Sunday would spell disaster. A lot of them were not around last year. Most of the older members of the side are gone. This is a Meath side of a new era. Whether it stands to them on Sunday is another thing. They are still on a learning course. They have a lot of youth on their side, more so than us, and they have a lot of enthusiasm. No matter how well we are prepared it will be hard to match their plus sides."
He adds: "They are in the same situation as we were in 1983, a young team coming up. Unlike last year, maybe they don't feel they are going to beat us, but anything they get out of Sunday is going to be a huge bonus for them. They have everything to go for."
Meanwhile, Tyrone players and management alike are worried about their supporters' high expectations for Sunday's Ulster football final against Down in Clones.
Peter Canavan says: "Because of this attitude, created largely by the semi-final victory over Derry, it is a tricky situation for us.
"Down are a strong team physically who no longer depend on one or two forwards to see them through. All six are potential match-winners. They are a bigger team than us, whereas Tyrone's strengths will have to be their mobility. We are a small team that has to do a lot of running."
He reckons that the Tyrone attack is a much more settled unit than last year. "We have players in the half forward line who are more of orthodox forwards compared,, with the situation last year.
Canavan, the man around whom Tyrone's attacking strategy is built, particularly welcomes the opportunity of playing alongside Ciaran McBride, "an effective link man". He also approves of the strategy that sees his brother Pascal switched from the 40 back to midfield.
Tyrone have made no changes for the final - not surprising given their convincing win over Derry in the semi-final. The only doubt concerned corner back Paul Devlin, but he has recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained against Derry.
Dave Foran has been reappointed as Wicklow manager, and so moves into a third term. The Wicklow selectors also remain intact, with Peter Clarke (Kilbride), Seamus Kelly (Baltinglass), Pat Lawless (Ash ford) and Tom Keogh (Knockananna) being given another.
Foran was strongly recommended by the county board's position was rubber-stamped by a unanimous vote at Monday's county board meeting.
Brian Mullins's position with Derry and that of his selectors will be finalised within the next couple of weeks. Selector Frank Kearney says that since the defeat by Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final the management committee have not discussed their position. "What with holidays and such like we have not had time to get together."
