Dublin's greater range of weapons gives them a narrow edge

Three days out from the biggest day of the football summer. The 2023 championship has struggled to catch fire in many respects but the final has all the ingredients to provide a classic.

There's been many gripes aired about the speeded up inter-county season, which has its pros and cons, though it certainly doesn't aid the early week build-up to the All-Ireland finals. By Tuesday, we were still digesting what went down in the hurling final and there's not enough space to confront what's coming.

We're at Thursday now and the build-up is bubbling nicely ahead of what has the potential to be one of those iconic All-Ireland finals, one that lives long in the memory.

There's so much at stake for the two teams. It's a proper battle for supremacy.

Can the Dubs reclaim their spot as top dogs, with James McCarthy, Stephen Cluxton and Mick Fitzsimons usurping the Kerry legends to win nine titles? Or will Kerry beat a locked and loaded Dublin to win two-in-a-row and signal a complete power shift in the game?

Dublin and Kerry have managed the new format best in timing their run to peak for the knockouts. The system probably suits them in that their provincial championships are, with respect, a waste of time. So they're more than likely going through a 'loading' phase, training really heavily with a view to hitting full tilt by July. Hence we saw some leggy and lethargic displays by the two finalists early in the season.

Mayo did Kerry a further favour by malfunctioning horribly in the round robin against Cork, shunting them into a do-or-die clash with Galway, who had also sabotaged their own season by losing late on against Armagh. For Kevin and the Mayo lads, we saw the full cost of this in their flatness in the second half of the