It mightn't either make up for the drudgery of the other pairings or seriously threaten the memories of 25 years ago but this afternoon's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland quarter-final is an appetising prospect in its own right.

In terms of footballing ability and achievement there's not much contest between the teams. Kerry are All-Ireland champions and well equipped around the field. Dublin have been rocky under pressure and have key players suffering from loss of form. Not surprisingly it's unlikely to be as easily decided as all that.

For a start Dublin have got the ideal draw. It's the one everyone else would have wanted to avoid but for Tom Carr's team it makes sense. Had they drawn any other opposition, the pressure to win would have been debilitating. The team has attracted plaudits for the manner in which it responded to the Leinster final defeat and emerged six days later to give Sligo a second-half pummelling. But the win has excited unreasonable expectations and the best way of damping them down was to draw the All-Ireland favourites.

Of course no team wants to lose simply to discourage hype. Yet Dublin can now relax a little in footballing terms and that may well benefit their performance, particularly when you remember the wrought-up panic that afflicted them in the last quarter of the Meath match.

Secondly the venue is a factor. A couple of assumptions have been made about it: that taking Dublin out of Croke Park is placing them at a disadvantage and that the pitch will suit Kerry. Both assumptions are refutable. Headquarters is no longer Dublin's home venue in the strict sense that they don't play league matches there and the more psychological sense that it hasn't been a happy ground for them for a while.

Practical advantages include having to travel a long journey as a team and the sense of atmosphere that Dublin supporters will create - far more potent than anything that takes place in the diffused meeting points of the city. Dublin also have a powerful record away from home in the championship. It's 20 years since the county was beaten outside of Croke Park.

And that's not a statistic rendered meaningless by their constant presence in the city. Dublin have played 16 times away from the city since losing to Laois in Tullamore, the county's only defeat in its last 31 championship trips.

The size of the Semple Stadium field will give Kerry's forwards a lot of room to work in but will also allow Dublin's more athletic players an opportunity to stretch their legs.

On given form Dublin's defence should give a decent account of themselves. A problem the team has in contrast to Cork, who ran Kerry quite close in the Munster final, is that the half backs are not that adventurous. Paul Curran will get forward but not at the rate he managed in his heyday. Jonny Magee and Peadar Andrews are first principles men and will hold their own but may not exert the pressure the Kerry half forwards struggled to resist against Cork.

The battle a line back will be fascinating. Coman Goggins, Paddy Christie and Shane Ryan have been effective this year, never more so than when covering the threat of Geraghty and Murphy, but the modus operandi of Johnny Crowley, Dara ╙ CinnΘide and Mike Russell is less integrated and more individualistic. One on one in the wide open spaces of Thurles, the Dublin full backs will be tested.

Centrefield has been mixed for Dublin. Darren Homan has had his moments but Ciarβn Whelan hasn't been able to let it rip for 70 minutes. Ironically Kerry's pairing of Donal Daly and Darragh ╙ SΘ is performing more consistently than previously and will pose a hefty challenge.

One of the better football matches of recent times was the Meath-Kerry National league semi-final on Easter Sunday last year.

Kerry's attacking display that day was at times breathtaking. They used the space cleverly, threw the ball around and ran at a variety of threatening angles. It was the first inkling that the team had recovered the zest of an All-Ireland winning team.

That they lost was a reflection on difficulties at the back and four goals was the price charged by Meath.

Michael McCarthy's (slightly unlucky) problems with Graham Geraghty persuaded the Kerry management that SΘamus Moynihan (who only played eight minutes as a sub that day) should move to full back for the championship - a platform for an outstanding year. His display there in the Munster final, however, reopened the old argument about his lack of full-back instinct. Most people expect him to bounce back today but even that won't disguise the fact that if at all possible, Moynihan would be better deployed in the half backs.

Have Dublin the wherewithal to dent Kerry's defence? Co-incidentally in the league match between the teams in Killarney four months ago, Vinny Murphy played well on Moynihan but otherwise Dublin were unimpressive. The team need more from Ian Robertson and Colin Moran and will hope that Des Farrell can maintain his fine form. The space offers possibilities for Jason Sherlock's pace and Declan Darcy's free taking stabilised that aspect of things for Dublin against Sligo.

But for all the possibilities, potential and the underdogs' sense of liberation, the match will be played in the real world where Kerry have the experience and the talent, emphasised by the suspicion that they haven't been flat out yet this season.