'Dogs' ready for the hard road

YOU know you're in trouble when the five-year-olds start to question your chances. Underdogs captain Mairtin Ó Cinnéide was accepting a presentation from the under-fives he coaches in St Brigid's, Castleknock.

Then one of them piped up: "There's no way you're going to beat Kerry. Who's going to mark Gooch?"

Ó Cinnéide laughs at the memory. As full back in tonight's game against the All-Ireland champions, his precinct is likely to have to answer some emergency calls, but there's no point in ducking the inevitable.

"We're under no illusions. We're playing the All-Ireland champions in their own back yard and they're a very proud county. The last thing they want is to lose to a bunch of players who've been training together for five months. It's a big challenge but we're very excited by the prospect."

Ó Cinnéide is used to challenges. He got his schooling in Belvedere College rather than one of the capital's traditional GAA nurseries, and he learned his trade as a flanker rather than a full-forward.

The appreciation of open spaces stood to him as a GAA player, however, and he was good enough to play midfield for the Dublin minors in 1998. Three years later he was vice-captain with Collie Moran for the U21s. On both occasions he lost a Leinster Final, but the future looked bright. He drifted off the senior selectors' radar, so this year he decided to do something about it.

"Credit for entering has to go to a good friend of mine, Donal O'Flynn.

"He knows how keen I am on playing senior inter-county and he said I should put my name forward. I'd been thinking about it but until he suggested it I hadn't decided."

It still wasn't straightforward: Ó Cinnéide had missed the Leinster trials in Dublin so he had to head down to the Roscommon trial in Dr Hyde Park, but he did enough to make it through to the GAA equivalent of Big Brother. Instead of a disembodied voice in a diary room, the contestants dealt with three GAA legends.

"The three lads, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Jarlath Burns and Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, all have their own angle on things, and you'd learn an awful lot listening to them. They spoke to players individually, which was a huge help, and they were always very approachable.

"Pat Stephens was also very good to us, stressing the importance of being fit specifically for Gaelic football and for your position."

Having that kind of backroom savvy had to help, but the sideline could also get pretty crowded. The training and the trials make for great television, but how hard was it to focus on what you're doing with cameras everywhere?

"At the start it was difficult, but everyone got used to having the cameras around.

"What you see on TV is only a tiny part of what they shot - when we were in the Curragh they'd be shooting us from eight in the morning to 11 at night, so you'd get used to having them around all the time, as part of the background.

"Anyway, everyone was concentrating so much on getting themselves right that they were ignored."

Mention of the Curragh brings to mind those training camps, which Ó Cinnéide describes as a great bonding exercise.

"We were put through our paces for four or five days, but on top of that you had maybe 40 guys there who were going to be whittled down to 24 or 25.

"Obviously lads who didn't make it were disappointed afterwards, but a lot of them are coming down to support us tonight, which is great."

Tonight, as in Kerry. The Underdogs' learning curve wasn't solely a matter of drills and training. They had to take on some big names in their preparation for the Kingdom.

"We've played six inter-county sides, so that's been great experience for us. Obviously those counties weren't putting out full championship sides, but the lads they were trying out are doing their best to get into their own county sides, so it was pretty high intensity.

"Against Meath I was marking Ollie Murphy for a while and in the game against Limerick I was on Stephen Kelly, so there were a lot of players with inter-county championship experience."

When it comes to inter-county championship experience there was no beating Kerry this year. Ó Cinnéide knew all along his side would be facing the Kingdom and there was plenty of banter when he watched the All-Ireland final with friends.

"We were delighted they won, because we were thinking it'd be great to play the All-Ireland champions. They deserved their win too; they were on fire that day.

"Still, the lads were asking what I was going to do to stop the likes of Johnny Crowley and Declan O'Sullivan. We hope to give a good account of ourselves, to play well as a team.

"Most of us probably won't get a chance to play at this level again, in front of a big crowd, so we want to make the most of it.

"We've got friends and family coming down, it's for a great cause, and we won't have failed if we go out and do the best we can."

THE UNDERDOGS (SF v Kerry): H Murphy (Kerry); L Kiely (Cork), M Ó Cinnéide (Dublin capt), E Bradley (Tyrone); G Britton (Donegal), M Murphy (Armagh), M Horgan (Kerry); K Donaghy (Kerry), P O'Neill (Cork); D O'Connell (Cork), B Ó Muiri (Armagh), P Ó Conchúir (Dublin); P Brady (Cavan), S Wallace (Kerry), D McCabe (Down).

Subs: R Mac Niallais (Donegal), A Lavin (Roscommon), M Greene (Cork), M Herbert (Kildare), B Rafferty (Armagh), E O'Donoghue (Kerry), H Coughlan (Tipperary), R O'Hanlon (Cork), J Fegan (Down), C Oates (Cavan), G Quinn (Westmeath), S O'Loughlin (Kildare), E Nealon (Cork).

Charity boost

PROCEEDS from tonight's match will go to the Kerry Branch of Muscular Dystrophy.

The cash raised will be used to raise awareness about the condition. It will also pay for physiotherapy sessions for local sufferers.

Tickets for the game are available from the ground, from local clubs in Tralee and from members of the Kerry Branch of Muscular Dystrophy.

Tickets cost €10 for adults and €5 for students and OAPs.