'Definitely a but' - Louth form makes Dublin retaining Leinster no foregone conclusion, says Enda McGinley

While Dublin are clear favourites to win the Leinster football title once again, former Tyrone midfielder Enda McGinley feels Louth cannot be totally written off in Sunday's provincial decider.

The three-time All-Ireland winner's former manager Mickey Harte has taken Louth back to their first Leinster final since they lost controversially to Meath in 2010.

That game 13 years ago was the last time any county other than Dublin got hold of the Delaney Cup and the expectation would be that Dessie Farrell's team will prevail once again at Croke Park.

However, the Dubs' form, as well as the belief within the Louth camp should tighten the gap slightly according to McGinley.

"It's one of those games, you look at it, immediate reaction is Dublin win, possibly comfortable enough," he told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.

"But then you look at Louth, you look at how well they'll be set up, how much resilience they've shown throughout the campaign and the progress over the last couple of years and you look at the man on the sideline.

"Then you start to get a wee bit less cocky about your prediction. You start to hedge your bets. There is definitely a 'but.'

The reason for that being less certainty around how Dublin have been performing in recent times, although the fact that their semi-final win over Kildare was as tight as it was could be a blessing in disguise for the provincial holders according to the RTÉ GAA analyst.

"There is definitely a 'but' to this game because Dublin, unlike Derry, have not been the models of consistency," he said.

"Their performance against Kildare has been critiqued in that everyone expected them to blow Kildare away but that was more because everyone thought Kildare were a mess.

"Kildare played brilliantly the last day