For A match that is about to satisfy such outsized and long-term yearnings, tomorrow's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland final hangs on very little. The similarities between Kerry and Mayo are striking: the only counties to have retained their provincial titles, both also ended last season in despair.

This disappointment - which has evidently hardened the teams' mental resolve - provides primary motivation for two sides who also have to contend with the weight of expectation after long, barren years of championship endeavour.

It may be true that Mayo's wait of 46 years is considerably longer than their opponents' but in terms of the average respective gap between All-Ireland successes, Kerry's 11-year drought is actually three times worse.

Both teams have also reached this stage after less strenuous campaigns than they might have expected at the start of the year.

The unexpected exits of Cork and Meath opened the way for Kerry and Mayo and to an extent, neither has been fully tested en route. Accordingly, there's hardly ever been an All-Ireland like it for uncertainty affecting selection in both camps.

In these circumstances, conviction can be hard to muster. There is, however, a line of reasoning that points, albeit circuitously, to a Mayo victory.

Two of the most potent assets for any team chasing an All-Ireland are scoring forwards and unity of purpose. A team with an outstanding attack can circumvent weaknesses elsewhere - to an extent that a team with an outstanding defence cannot. The second quality is generally present in teams familiar with their shortcomings. Players realise the importance of supporting each other and of never flagging.

To release the description from the realms of platitude, look at Down in 1991 as an example of the former and Meath last year as an example of the latter.

If Mayo possess greater unity of purpose, tomorrow's final is complicated by Kerry possessing the better forwards. Maurice Fitzgerald is the class act of his generation, never mind this year's final although an almost mystical South Kerry aloofness defines one contrast with the flinty realism of his most obvious rival in the modern game, Tyrone's Peter Canavan.

In the wings waits the standard bearer of the next generation, Michael Francis Russell from Killorglin. Kerry's insistence on keeping the 19-year-old under wraps has triggered a heated debate.

Some feel that given his physical frailty, Russell's best work will be done in the looser closing stages of a match and this is a point of view supported by experiences to date.

Nonetheless, tomorrow is the long term. If a 19-year-old had been kept under wraps in 1986, on Kerry's last visit to a final, he'd be 30 now. Jimmy Barry Murphy scored two goals as a teenager in his first All-Ireland, the football final of 1973. Russell will appear at some stage tomorrow and represents a bigger threat to Mayo than most of the starting forwards.

Elsewhere, Kerry have good forwards but a less than integrated attack. By dropping Brian Clarke, Paidi O Se and Seamus Mac Gearailt have radically changed their tactics.

Clarke provided the physical aggression in the attack and was an archetypal target man. When Kerry won the NFL in May, he was the best player on the full forward line. His replacement Billy O'Shea will play deep but it leaves the inside line a bit light.

Dispensing with Clarke this late in the day is a risk, plunging on the basis that Dara O Cinneide will be too hot to handle for Pat Holmes. Gambling an entire attacking formation on Holmes getting a roasting? You'd want good odds.

Mayo's unity of purpose has seen them through a difficult and often controversial summer, from the brawl at the end of the Leitrim match through the dreadful display against Sligo and on to the Garboesque poses that so frustrated the media corps.

Their focus has been absolute despite being under pressure of mounting intensity. It's one of the strange incidents of the egalitarian 1990s that Mayo can enter an AllIreland final under greater pressure to succeed than Kerry.

Yet Mayo rode out the storm against Offaly and even if the challenge of the Leinster champions was less daunting than expected, they still had players who performed as well if not better than their Kerry counterparts are likely to do tomorrow.

One central influence on tomorrow's proceedings is assumed to be last year's semi-final between the counties which was won comfortably by Mayo. In fact, its significance is likely to be small.

Mayo won't have the advantage of surprise and Kerry have changed five of their personnel from that match. It is sometimes forgotten that Mayo have four changes.

Admittedly, the loss of Kevin Cahill has been a severe depletion but Pat Holmes's adaptability has mitigated the damage and Fergal Costello's arrival on the team has further helped offset the loss.

Other changes have, taken together, improved the team.

One aspect of last year's meeting that may be repeated is Mayo's centrefield supremacy. Pat Fallon's performances have questioned the wisdom of the reluctance to use him in last year's final.

Whereas Dara O Se and William Kirby played very effectively on a highly-rated Cavan pairing, the Kerry unit has still to convince that it is capable of consistent performance.

One question that goes to the heart of the contest is how Kerry's full forwards will get on in competition with their markers. There are reservations about Mayo's full-back line but can Kerry make that count in the suffocating environment of their opponents' overall defence and almost claustrophobic support play? Time after time, Mayo players in trouble at the back find a teammate at their shoulder to relieve pressure.

Whereas it is likely that Kerry will be more economical in attack, Mayo can take a smaller proportion of a greater amount of possession and still finish the match ahead on the scoreboard.

On the evidence to date and that of the Cavan first half in particular, Kerry foul too much at the back and Maurice Sheridan, this season's best place-kicker, will charge them a point for virtually all such transgressions.

Tentative weather forecasts say that tomorrow will be fine which is assumed to benefit Kerry but forwards like John Casey and David Nestor will be far more effective in dry conditions than in the lashing rain. Mayo's best performance of the season was in the heat and dust of Tuam last May.

This is not a flawless Mayo team. Dermot Flanagan's waning powers have been continually overlooked at corner back and Liam McHale's selection at full forward fails to use his talents thoroughly but if the bench has learned from last year, the team can be changed quickly.

You only find out about teams when they are under pressure and Mayo have weathered more of that over the last year. Kerry have the makings of an All-Ireland team but Mayo have it made.