Leinster Club SF final: Ian O'Riordan on how the Kildare champions will be looking to their old hands on Sunday.

With Glenn Ryan and Karl O'Dwyer playing central roles, Round Towers head into Sunday's Leinster club football final led by a couple of old stagers. Or so it would appear. But on closer inspection their best years aren't necessarily that far behind them.

In fact, in Ryan's case, these may still be his best years. Though he first made his presence felt in Kildare as a minor in 1989 and joined the senior panel two years later, he still has that ability to ambush possession and turn a game in his side's favour.

Much of the St Brigid's game plan in Navan on Sunday will be around trying to mark Ryan out of it. "I think there's a major misconception out there about Glenn Ryan," says Round Towers manager John Crofton, himself a former Kildare player and defender alongside Ryan. And few people are more authorised to speak about Ryan than Crofton.

"People think that Glenn has a huge amount of mileage on the clock," he adds. "But it's quite the contrary. The fact is he has just turned 31 and still has a great hunger for the game.

"What Glenn has endured is a huge amount of injury, especially in the last few years, and that has interrupted a lot of his football. But if you compare him to someone like Kieran McGeeney or Ja Fallon, who have a lot more matches played between league and championship, then there's no question Glen still has an awful lot to offer.

"Even this year he hasn't been able to do the full amount of quality training but he does bring a great aura to the team. And he's still a powerful player and a total natural on the field."

O'Dwyer has drifted from the Kildare county panel in recent years but his value to Round Towers remains undiminished. A recurring back injury did rule him out of the entire county championship, but he quickly resumed full training and started against both Rathnew and Arles-Kilcruise. Like Ryan his experience can't be overstated.

It's the sort of experience that allowed Crofton to think big when the club started out in the county championship several months ago.

"Well I'd be telling a lie if I said I didn't think we could win in Kildare this year. I always felt the senior football title was within our reach. Around 10 members of this team already have county medals from 1998 and a few more have double medals from two years before. And we had some very good young players come in this year and that made a big difference.

"But I can't say we were fancied. I mean we were quoted at 8-1 for the Kildare quarter-final. But having said that, I didn't give one second's thought to the Leinster championship. When we won in Kildare I had no idea who we were playing next."

First up were Rathnew, the Wicklow champions, with a reputation for killing off bigger clubs: "I was very concerned about that game," admits Crofton. "Especially coming in from a long break. We had seven weeks after our county final before our first game in Leinster, and that's a long break towards the end of the season."

Yet that game ended in a comprehensive victory for the Kildare champions, as did the semi-final against Arles-Kilcruise of Laois - despite some disappointing shooting in the second half. Now comes the first Leinster club final for the club, and the chance to improve on what Crofton believes has been a remarkably poor show from Kildare clubs in the championship. Raheens, in 1982 were the last Kildare team to win out in Leinster.

"Some very fine club sides have come out of Kildare over the last decade or so. But for a variety of reasons none of them were successful in Leinster. Part of it was bad luck or just not playing to form but 21 years without winning is an incredible statistic."

Crofton himself captained one of the better Kildare club sides of the last decade, Sarsfields, to county success in 1993. During that time he was also a regular in the Kildare defence, and acted as a player-selector under Mick O'Dwyer during his final year in 1994. He was back acting as a selector with O'Dwyer when Kildare captured the Leinster title in 1998.

So how did he end up with rival club Round Towers? "In a way I was married into Round Towers," he says. "My brother-in-law is the sub goalie and a nephew is playing at full forward. I had always resisted the temptation to actually switch clubs but I suppose I just ran out of excuses in the end."

Meanwhile, Round Towers opponents, St Brigid's, have called on all their supporters to have their hair dyed red, the club colours, by calling to the Russell Park clubhouse between 10.30 and 12.0. prior to departure for Navan on Sunday.