Leinster title is the season's test, says Moran

Dublin's story of revival this summer has fallen neatly into two parts. Beating Meath for the first time in seven years completed part one. Beat Kildare in Sunday's Leinster football final and they'll have completed part two.

Ask any of the Dublin players about the joys of beating Meath in the semi-final and they'll tell you it was only half a celebration. The seven years a-waiting won't be truly over until they beat Kildare.

Colin Moran is one of those players who can talk honestly about the pain caused by both counties. As the emerging Dublin forward of 2000, he felt the full impact of the crash against Kildare in the Leinster final replay. A year on he scored 0-4 against Meath but still left Croke Park without any silverware.

So the happy days after beating Meath last month were short-lived. Moran talks freely about the importance of that victory and the confidence it has given the team but a few straight statistics have kept Dublin's feet firmly on the ground.

"We've had a lot of the days over the last few years," he says, "where we walked out of Croke Park with only ourselves to blame. Not the referee. Not the team that had beaten us. Only ourselves. For a lot of this team it's the fourth year in the Leinster final, and I suppose we want to prove something to ourselves first and foremost.

"Obviously beating Meath was a huge weight off our shoulders. Seven years was probably too long, and if someone had said that seven years back when Dublin had just beaten Meath by 10 points then they'd have been laughed at.

"So it was a fantastic feeling to go down to the end of the Hill at the end of the Meath match, and see how much the supporters were enjoying it as well.

"Meath certainly were a bogey team, and the fact that we hadn't beaten the two big guns in Leinster - people were saying that this team couldn't do it on the big day.

"But you know myself and say Peadar Andrews and Jonny Magee have played minor, under-21 and senior for the last few years and don't have a Leinster medal between us. Then there's, say, Ciarán Whelan who come onto the team in 1996 and still has no Leinster medal. Of course beating Meath was a great day but it's yesterday's news and starting to become a distant memory already."

Part two. Kildare have enjoyed an even longer winning stretch against Dublin, last losing out in 1994. But it's the final two years back, when Dublin infamously threw away a significant first-half advantage, which carries the most weight.

"There is still a ghost there," says Moran. "That was a defeat we'll never forget. Whether we win Leinster or not this year that game will stick with us for the rest of our lives.

"And we did fall asleep a little against Meath going, like, 23 minutes without a score. That was scary. They got five on the trot and we just couldn't get our hands on the ball. They were picking up all the breaks at midfield, but uncharacteristically for Meath they missed a few chances, whereas normally they're so economical and take every chance they get.

"But we possibly got the bit of luck that we didn't get the last few years. And we got the all-important goal just when we hadn't scored for a long time. I do think we'll have to up the performance again. We can't go to sleep for another 20 minutes because that won't be good enough to win the Leinster final."

Moran will need no introduction to the man he is set to mark on Sunday, Anthony Rainbow, having played against him in the two games in 2000. Last year they got to know each other ever better as part of the Irish team that travelled Australia on the International Rules tour.

"There's no doubt that Anthony is a top-class player," says Moran. "He's a very dynamic wing back. He loves to attack, and he's well able to defend as well.

"And he's probably been the most consistent player on the Kildare team over the last decade. So you know you are really going to have to be on form to get anything off him."

There is a sub-plot to Moran's season in that injury very nearly ended it. At the first week's training last January his back started to creak and from then to early May he had intensive physiotherapy. "It was a long road back working with the physio, and when I did come back I had to avoid all the physical stuff," he says.

Lyons has brought more to the team than a high state of fitness, Moran says. "He's also a very positive character. He instilled that into team, and you saw the way we started against Meath, with great confidence. That's rubbed off a lot from Tommy who's always in that bubbly and energetic frame of mind."

But Sunday's game brings new pressure. "In Gaelic football," Moran says, "and especially with Dublin, you're only as good as your last game. If I have a bad game or if the team doesn't perform then the knives will be out again quickly. That's the reality and we all know that."

'There's no doubt that Anthony is a top-class player. He's a very dynamic wing back. He loves to attack, and he's well able to defend as well.'