Dublin versus Mayo - the defining rivalry of today?

Dublin and Mayo will clash in the All-Ireland football final on Saturday. It will be an eighth championship meeting of the counties in nine seasons, with the Dubs having won four of the previous seven.

Is this the rivalry that has defined the modern era?

Kerry and Donegal, the only two other counties to have won the title in the last ten years, might disagree with the premise.

But for closeness, quality, colour, and an undoubted tetchiness, you'd do well to beat Dublin versus Mayo since 2012.

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But to truly understand the bit of animosity that exists, you have to go back a little further to the famous (or infamous, depending on your own perspective) All-Ireland semi-final of 2006 and the 'Mill at the Hill.'

Before that, the counties had met just twice (both in 1985) in the previous 51 years of championship football.

Where did the modern rivalry begin?

The city had last looked forward to An-Ireland final Sunday with their own team involved for the first tine since 1995, and early on in the second half of the game against Mayo it seemed as though Dublin were well on their way to the decider against Kerry.

Before a ball had been kicked, Mickey Moran sent his Mayo players to warm up in front of Hill 16. When the Dublin players arrived they seemed unduly offended by the move.

They marched down towards the Hill, arms entwined "like the Roman Army" as Michael Lyster put it on the live Sunday Game broadcast, and Ciarán Whelan looked like he was going to burst.

Both squads took shots into the