This time last year, Dublin met Meath in the Leinster football final and no one could avoid spinning out tales of great rivalry. They had met 11 times in the previous decade and neither county needed much reminding about how much it meant to beat the other.

On Sunday, Dublin are back in Croke Park in a Leinster final, facing a Kildare team that has taken a lot more time to be regarded as serious rivals. The statistics of previous Leinster final meetings between Dublin and Kildare fall decisively in Dublin's favour, nine to three in their 12 meetings. And it's as far back as 1928 when Kildare last beat Dublin in a decider.

Indeed, Kildare's first round win over Dublin two years back was their first championship win over the county in 28 years. Seamus Dowling rolled with the good times and bad times of Kildare's championship clashes with Dublin in the last decade and, while he does regard the rivalry more as modern than traditional, it's not difficult for him to trace the turning point.

"The rivalry is fairly deep at the moment," he says. "It wasn't always the case, but now we will always enjoy the challenge of playing Dublin. Most of the media and that will still make Dublin favourites, so there's nothing better than to knock them down. But we've been very close to one another in the last couple of years."

The two Leinster finals in the 1970s fell to Dublin by an average of 12 points: "Yeah, there were times there when we were getting hammered in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. Even when we met them in 1992 and 1993, they were still the better team. They were a very physical side, with the likes of Paul Clarke and Charlie Redmond very much in their prime."

Those four meetings from 1992 to 1994 (including two in '94) were marked by a Kildare team still struggling to find their feet. Dowling was a regular face in the fullback line, but otherwise the team was dogged by inconsistency.

"But we were a young side very much getting into it. I was only 26 at the time, but Dublin were still contesting All-Irelands at that stage, which really put them on a different level."

Interestingly, the two Leinster titles that Dublin won over Kildare in the 1990s subsequently ended without All-Ireland success.

The return of Mick O'Dwyer for his second spell changed things for Kildare. In 1997, Kildare played Laois in the quarterfinal and, despite losing two players to red cards in the first five minutes, they still won by four points. Then they drove Meath - All-Ireland champions at the time - to a second replay before eventually falling by two points.

"I think that year was a huge experience for us," says Dowling. "We so easily could have beaten Meath and who knows what would have happened after that. But we sat down that winter and started to believe in ourselves."

Dublin came out of the hat as their opening championship opponents the following year and Kildare were ready. 1998 was the year when Dublin had found a new rival. "We had been knocked down by disbelief in the past, but all that was dead and buried now. We knew we were a better team and finally beating Dublin just proved it to ourselves."

Kildare battled on to the All-Ireland before eventually falling to Galway, but Dowling believes that was an experience which will make the current team stronger. "Losing that All-Ireland has helped this team, but only in the long run. It definitely had a bad effect last year when I think a lot of heads were down and a lot of players were finding it hard to find the hunger. We went into that final as a lot of people's favourites and it was so disappointing for everyone.

"But now they're over that disappointment and have really got stuck in again. All the players are back to where they should be and I think the team is a fraction better than '98. You can't beat that bit of youth and the likes of Ronan Sweeney and Padraig Brennan have fantastic engines. We probably could have done with them in 1998.

"Of course the supporters are always incredibly positive about everything and are probably thinking about an All-Ireland already. But I know the lads have learned from 1998 and I know Mick O'Dwyer has as well. I suppose we got a bit carried away that summer, but when you win your first Leinster title in 42 years, then it's hard to keep the hype down. I really believe the team are better prepared this year."