All-Ireland SFC Final Mayo v Kerry: The serial disappointments of the past three years that are said to drive Kerry must act with particular force on Eoin Brosnan. He wasn't around for the two recent All-Ireland triumphs in 1997 and 2000, but he's lived every minute of the bad times.

His intercounty career didn't start until after the county's last championship success when he lined out in the NFL against Louth just a couple of weeks after Kerry's replay success against Galway. By his own account the new champions "had a poor team out" and were beaten.

Championship football began the following summer, which ended in a seismic, 15-point defeat by Meath.This humiliation was complicated for Brosnan by having to take the captaincy from Séamus Moynihan, as his club Dr Croke's decided to exercise their right of appointment as county champions.

Worse came a year later after a good, second season, featuring four goals.

Outsiders Armagh ground Kerry down in the second half of the All-Ireland final to win by a point. As well as blowing a healthy lead, Kerry missed several opportunities to level the match and Brosnan remembers at least one of them well.

"I had a chance, the sort that in the first half when things were going well might have gone over easily enough. But with two minutes to go in an All-Ireland final and you haven't had a shot in the whole second half, I probably snapped at it a bit quickly rather than give it to one of the better kickers on the day.Possibly. It just crept wide. These things happen."

Bad and all as that was he believes the hardest tumble of all came in last year's All-Ireland semi-final when Tyrone hustled Kerry to a defeat that triggered the end of Páidí Ó Sé's eight-year management.

"I got over that (the Armagh final) probably easier than I got over last year. That was three years on the roll and it's harder to lose in a semi-final than in a final.

"We went into the Tyrone game knowing that they were good, but they absolutely ate us for hunger. They seemed to win every 50-50 ball on the field. We were four points down in the second half and had half a chance of a goal, which could have changed it.

"But we'd have robbed them because they were a team on a mission last year, like Armagh when they won and to an extent like Mayo this season."

Brosnan has established himself over the past two years as one of the team's most consistent performers.

Of the 19 matches over the past three seasons, he has started all but two. His game is based on athleticism and penetrative running, plus a good, goal finish.

Blessed - and cursed - with versatility, he has started in three lines for the county in championship football. Mostly selected on the wing, Brosnan is probably happiest at centre forward, but has proved a serviceable option at centrefield - an important consideration given the injury, which keeps Darragh Ó Sé out of next Sunday's final.

He gamely gives the "I play where I'm picked" line, but within Kerry there is a strong belief that he is best deployed in a central position, from where he can launch his trademark punishing runs.

Like the rest of the team, he has responded well to the new management regime of Jack O'Connor and the training of Pat Flanagan, whose physical conditioning work helped Tralee RTC and IT to three successive Sigersons.

"The training under Pat Flanagan is more gradual. He talks you through it and has a scientific approach. At this level that helps and you know exactly what you're doing and how it's going to benefit you. The last few weeks haven't been too bad because the nights have been getting shorter, but back around May you could be out for two and a half hours, but time went quickly."

The team went on a warm-weather training trip at the start of the year and the routine of three sessions a day, while enjoyable as a taste of full-time sports involvement, was demanding.

Brosnan wasn't able to get away with the rest of the team and quickly discovered the downside of his tardiness.

"We went to Lanzarote and I arrived over there late and the bedroom was gone so I got thrown on the couch, just beside the phone. Every morning at 20 to seven someone would ring to announce training outside on the track at eight o'clock.

"You'd be going out trying to clear the sleep from your eyes. But you're out in your shorts in the good weather and getting a glimpse of a professional lifestyle."

Sunday brings all the preparation to its logical conclusion. Of the likely starters, only Brosnan has played through every minute of the bitter defeats of the last three years without an All-Ireland medal to console him.

Redemption time.