Ryan says Kildare must get a balance right
But their stranglehold was broken and not only did O'Dwyer remarkably achieve similar success with Laois, but Páidí Ó Sé (one of his star pupils) worked a bit of magic of his own with Westmeath last season.
The end result is that the Bank of Ireland championship in the province has never been so competitive.
Kildare have been forced to take a back seat since winning their last title in dramatic fashion, in a replay with Dublin in 2000.
Two years ago they were at the receiving end when Laois won the championship for the first time since 1946. And, they were long gone out of the race 12 months ago before Westmeath began their successful run with their first win over Offaly in 55 years.
Tomorrow in Croke Park, Kildare and Westmeath clash for the first time since 1992 - when the Lillywhites won 4-11 to 2-5 in Mullingar.
Glenn Ryan, one of their most outstanding players of the modern era, played that day, having made his debut two years earlier. "Westmeath wouldn't have been going terribly strong at the time, but they had some very good footballers, like Tom Ormsby and 'Spike' Fagan,' he recalls.
While Ryan fills his customary centre-back role tomorrow, he admits that he came close to calling it a day last year, following the loss to Offaly in the qualifier in Newbridge. Kildare's season ended on June 12, just six days after they had been dumped out of the championship by Wexford on a 0-12 to 0-10 scoreline.
They put up some good performances in this year's league, competing in Division 1B with the likes of Galway, Limerick, Armagh and Laois.
They met Armagh in the second-last round and lost by just a point before finishing off with an impressive victory over Sligo, by double scores.
Interestingly however, they didn't bring that type of form through to their opening championship game with Wicklow a fortnight ago. They trailed by six points early in the second half before being rescued by an opportunist goal from Tadhg Fennin and winning with two late points.
"Yes, we struggled against them. Why? It's hard to put your finger on it," he says. "But at the end of the day, Wicklow are training as hard as Kildare are. The difference nowadays is that teams are putting in a similar effort, whereas in the past the 'weaker' teams would not have put in the same effort as the strong counties. They did not see any reason to do so!
"We knew that Wicklow had put in a huge amount of work, but to be honest we probably did not think it was going to be as tough as it was.
"We knew we would have to be 'up' for a big battle and that was how it turned out."
The twin successes of Laois and Westmeath highlight the shift of power in Leinster, he agrees. It's the reality of 'being passed out' in terms of success by these counties, not that he has any difficulty in accepting it.
"You could not begrudge it to any of these teams. I think it's great to see the levelling out that has taken place.
"I don't think it's a 'dip' in football standards, despite that perception."
In Kildare's case, the team has been undergoing a transition. Ryan and the likes of Anthony Rainbow (who also played in the '92 game) are still involved, but some new players have been introduced. It's the old story of trying to get the blend right between youth and experience, he points out. It doesn't happen overnight.
"We have had some huge disappointments. We lost the Leinster final to Laois two years ago and the whole campaign last year was bitterly disappointing. We have had an extra incentive to work even harder this year, knowing that it would be 'backs against the wall stuff' throughout the championship. We are really going to have to pull out all the stops to try and progress." In terms of how they played against Wicklow, he agrees they must step up a gear if they are to have real hopes of dismissing the holders.
"Our performance that day would certainly not be good enough against Westmeath. We are going to have to 'up' our game hugely," he added.
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