You will forgive Harry Murphy's boys if they don't bring their autograph books to Newbridge tomorrow. They do appreciate the predicament they are in; the seldom seen village team playing the blue and gold splendour of Na Fianna, the great story of this slimmed-down Gaelic winter.

The Rathnew manager has scanned the Na Fianna team-sheet and whistled with incredulity like the rest of us. They, too, have watched the Sunday evening highlights in which the city side were luminescent with effortlessly woven passages of play. Na Fianna's forward line alone is a roll call of Sunday sports matinee idols - Sherlock, Farrell, Connell.

Harry Murphy's lads have also known what it is to shudder at another Kieran McGeeney block and admired the way this steadfast Armagh star has become an integral element of the Dublin club. And they can but shrug at the way fate ushered a fullback of the calibre of Sligo's Nigel Clancy through Na Fianna's gates, proving that life isn't fair.

Rathnew take their hats off to Na Fianna, same as everyone else, it's just that on Sunday, they want to beat them.

"This is the classic case of David and Goliath," admits Murphy, Rathnew bred from his first breath. "What more could you ask for?"

It has taken patience and a lot of silverware for the Wicklow club to arrive at this threshold. To get people to sit up and take notice. Of their 28 county football championships, the most recent have fallen in a deluge. They won three in a row from 1996 and beyond the county, there was not so much as a blink. So they promptly acquired a further three. Even then, the applause was muted.

But Rathnew have never been about attention seeking. An interesting aside to the main thrust of a team that has been developing since Moses Coffey began working on the embryo of a minor team in 1990, has been their recent dramas with Meath champions Dunshaughlin. The teams met last year in the early stages of the Leinster club championship and whatever the chemistry, the got entangled in a series of games that ran for longer than Dynasty.

It took three full games and extra time to separate them last year and when they were paired again this winter, it took a further three ties, with Rathnew finally emerging.

"I feel we grew as a team through those games. There were so many twists to it - we got out of jail the second day with Tommy Gill's goal and a late point but through it all, the spirit of the side seemed to grow."

That Dunshaughlin turned up to cheer their conquerors on in the Leinster semi-final against Edenderry speaks volumes for the class of the Meath side but it also reflects handsomely on Rathnew. The Meath boys' presence was a salute to virtues they obviously respected.

Harry Murphy says that Rathnew's success revolves around the parish principle that has almost become a clichΘ. As a marker on the main Dublin-Wexford artery, it is close enough to the capital to bear the brunt of commuter traffic but separate enough to retain a village obscurity, a private existence.

"We have about 1,800 people or less and we are trapped in a sense in a tight football triangle. Go half a mile in any direction and you have lads playing for Wicklow or Ashford so the base we pick from is very confined. But there has always been a great depth of feeling for the local club and the hunger seems incessant."

But many towns have incessant hunger for a bit of winter glory. Rathnew were fortunate in that a crop of talent took Communion in the same era, from Darren and Ronan Coffey to Trevor Doyle and Eddie White.

From the 1990 minor team, the same players progressed through under 21B, under-21 to a senior title in 1996. Then a new wave gave them a dominant foothold, with Tommy Gill, Barry Mernagh and Stephen Byrne all coming through.

"Stephen is only 19 and he already has three county medals behind him," noted Murphy. "Many lads went all their lives playing without coming anywhere close to that. We don't have a huge squad at our disposal but we do have quality and players get an opportunity at a young age."

This Leinster football final has all the scripted connotations. City versus parish. Big against small. Gel versus Brylcreem. Not that Na Fianna have been swaggering around the province with a bag full of boasts.

The city side have gone about the business of winning football matches but did so in such a manner they couldn't but catch eyes. And their liberal interpretation of the substitute rule didn't exactly help them to arrive here quietly.

"The way they responded to that shows the character they have," says Murphy. "And they have come through a tough few games against Sarsfields now which should help them. I doubt having played last week will cause them any problems, if anything it could bring them on. They are a super team, you know, the attention has been mainly on them and I suppose deservedly so."

Now, however, Rathnew are there with the last of the survivors. Tomorrow, the commuter stop will come close to the original deserted village. Harry Murphy is reluctant to predict how the game might pan out, only pointing out his team always seem to find a way to win. That has been their habit for, oh, half a dozen years now. Nothing they have experienced in that time will even touch upon the scale of tomorrow's meeting. This is what Rathnew have waited for. This is what keeps such villages alive.