If last week's scuttle around the remarkably relaxed football finalists demonstrated anything, it was that the hand of history rests relatively lightly on the shoulders of Kildare and Galway as their footballers go about the business of preparing for next Sunday's final.

The statistics of deprivation are well-enough aired: previous All-Irelands in 1928 and 1966 respectively; previous appearances in 1935 and 1983. This adds up to a cumulative gap of 102 and 78 years - unprecedented except in years when first-time winners emerged.

This exception is worth making for more reasons than the convenient propping-up of the above statistics. The return of prodigal counties always prompts more intense celebration than the breakthrough of new winners - or even those bridging gaps which yawn over a chasm of years. Living memory of success weighs down a county and its supporters.

Contrast the reaction of Clare and Wexford after the hurling championships of 1995 and '96. Clare had no real memory of winning an All-Ireland (their only previous win had been in 1914) and consequently, the success was regarded as decoration for the achievement of winning Munster. When they won again last year, the taste was sweeter.

Wexford had waited "only" 28 years, but theirs was a relatively recent tradition of privilege. Consequently their shortcomings had been felt more painfully and their release from those shortcomings was all the more intoxicating.

Kildare bring a little of both experiences to bear on this year's final. In common with Clare three years ago, the county appears to be most substantially sustained by the provincial title and inclined to treat the All-Ireland as dessert.

This is not uncommon. Richie Connor once said that Offaly's 1980 Leinster championship was their most cherished achievement - because the gap from there to an All-Ireland wasn't as vast as the one they had just covered.

But primarily Kildare is a county with a past. Anyone from Kildare who is not in their eighties is unlikely to remember the last All-Ireland success, but the intervening generations were reared to believe in their county's nobility.

The rivalry with Kerry in the early decades of the century helped make the GAA and Kildare people regarded themselves as football aristocracy. Even four weeks ago, the semi-final with Kerry resonated within Kildare as a resumption of blue-blooded dispute: never mind that since they retained the All-Ireland in 1928 for their most recent success, Kerry had won 24 championships. Despite the crazily prohibitive odds on offer and Kildare's distinguished cast of victims this year - including the last three All-Ireland champions - Galway will have more of a winner's attitude in the run-up to the final.

This isn't a negative comment on Kildare's mental resilience, which has been proved more than once this campaign, but rather a reflection on Galway's circumstances. Unlike their opponents Galway don't have too much difficulty stamping their passports within the province.

As a result, the westerners have no particular reason to celebrate the season just yet. Even reaching an All-Ireland for the first time in 15 years means little to a county which suffered back-breaking defeats at the ultimate hurdle in the 1970s and 1980s - including three in four years, 1971-74.

Confidence comes easily enough to a county with Galway's tradition in the game and with its comparatively easy gateway to the All-Ireland, but that confidence ought to have taken a battering in recent years. Confidence in traditional counties is, however, a hardy plant and springs up with relatively little cultivation.

There was a consensus among Galway players that the progress of Mayo over the last two years had had a major impact on their own attitudes. If Mayo could do so well - defeating Munster and Leinster champions in successive All-Ireland semi-finals hadn't been done by a Connacht county since Galway's heyday in the mid-1960s - and go so far, why not Galway?

One of the characteristics of breaking through is a slight sense of anti-climax for the players. In the words of Pat Comer, reserve goalkeeper and the most experienced member of the Galway panel: "You always imagine what it would be like to win an All-Ireland. But now that we're in an All-Ireland, it's not at all what I had imagined. I thought you'd have performed so well and been so good that surely you'd be caught up in the whole emotion of it. But I haven't been. It's exactly the same as I felt in the middle of the League."

This ordinariness is emphasised by the presence of younger players who see no big deal in having reached an All-Ireland. Like Meath two years ago, Galway have a strong under-21 presence on the team and young players are less likely to feel pressure or a sense of awe, particularly if they have been used to success - or at least a measure of it.

Galway minors reached the All-Ireland final four years ago and five of that team will line out on Sunday. A shrewd Cork observer of the underage scene once said that the ideal preparation for any youngster was to lose an All-Ireland minor final - enough success for players to sample the big time, but also enough disappointment to keep them hungry.

Meath reached three All-Ireland minor finals in four years, 1990-93, and won two. But it was the beaten team that provided most players to the successful 1996 seniors.

When the success of Ulster counties in the early 1990s is analysed, a few early indicators can be generally advanced.

Firstly, the province's record-breaking run of victories in the Railway Cup. Secondly, the success of northern teams in the Sigerson Cup and thirdly, the All-Ireland club success of Lavey in 1991.

To some extent Galway have touched all these bases. Connacht haven't won a Railway Cup in years and the province's appearance in last year's final ended up with them being murdered, but it was at least the first time in 11 years that Connacht had reached the final.

Two thirds of the Galway team have played Sigerson and six of them have winners' medals, including Sean de Paor who captained UCG to their last win six years ago. Thirdly - and in a way, most relevantly - Corofin are the reigning All-Ireland champions, a first triumph for the west that broke the dismal run which had seen 11 Connacht clubs lose in the football final since the inauguration of the championship.

The imponderable nature of this year's final is largely due to the lack of reference points between the teams. That includes the common inexperience at this level. Not since 1987 has there been a pair of finalists with no experience of a senior All-Ireland between them.

It will be hard to begrudge the win to either of them.