Ian O'Riordan listens to the Kildare and Dublin managers box clever about Sunday's showdown

In case Sunday's Leinster football final wasn't already hyped enough, sponsors Bank Of Ireland yesterday wheeled out Dublin manager Tommy Lyons and Kildare's Mick O'Dwyer for a little more plugging. If their sort of talk can't get a capacity attendance of 72,000 into Croke Park, then the GAA may need to get Elvis for the half-time show.

"I know it's going to be a cracking game of football," said Micko, perfectly at ease in the grand surroundings of the House of Lords in the Bank of Ireland on College Green in Dublin. "There's always something special about playing Dublin, and you know they're the old enemy in both Kerry and Kildare."

Lyons doesn't hold back on the promo either. "We're definitely talking about a massive spectacle on Sunday," he said. "The pitch is unbelievable, and the noise of the crowd. It's just going to be a phenomenal place to be."

On a personal level, the two managers have different reasons to cherish the occasion set to unfold in Croke Park. Now 66, and 45 years on the football road, Micko is standing by his promise that 2002 is the endgame.

"I didn't expect to be around this long, I can assure you. I remember I packed up the playing game in 1974 and took over the under-21 team straight away. But I didn't intend taking over the Kerry senior team.

"That year I bought a boat and lobster pots and the nets and all that kind of stuff. I was going to go into a life-long ambition I had to go fishing into the sea. But the chairman of the Kerry board then, Ger McKenna, said I was the man to take over the Kerry team. So I said I'd do it for 12 months and it boomeranged from there."

For Lyons, though, it's all about new experiences: "Well, I certainly didn't think I'd be Dublin manager last October. And of course I had reservations about taking over, first of all whether I should even let my name go into the hat. I was enjoying the media gig because you could say what you wanted and it didn't matter if you were right or wrong.

"But I decided I'd put my head on the block and straight away I enjoyed the crack and dealing with the 30 players. That's the most important thing, because it's an exceptional feeling when you're around that sort of group, people who are committed to the cause."

The sweet talk is all very well, but who is going to win on Sunday? Micko is a little more cautious with his words this time. "Dublin are an exceptionally good team at the moment. They were bloody good against Meath for the first 35 minutes. They're freshened up as a team and I think they'll be very hard to beat."

Lyons deflects the hype. "The Meath rivalry is different to the Kildare rivalry. It's a different sort of tribal warfare. We have eight or nine players involved in the 2000 game (when Dublin lost) and they would still talk about it. It's a hurdle we have to get over.

"But as Micko says it's about getting the breaks on the day. I often feel the difference between a good manager and a bad manager is a bit of luck. We got a goal from Roy Cosgrove the last day and the thing just took off. If we didn't I could be looking down the barrel of a gun right now."