Pearses trying to write their own chapter in Connacht's All-Ireland club story

Dublin's recent dominance of Gaelic football has never quite permeated the club championship in the same way.

While the county's footballers managed eight All-Irelands in an unrelenting period between 2011 and 2020, the Andy Merrigan Cup has spent the off season in the capital just twice since 2009.

Connacht football has been to the fore for the last half decade, and Corofin's defeat in the Galway final, having done three in a row at All-Ireland level between 2017 and 2019, must have given other clubs in the western province a bounce.

So it seems peculiar that this year's Connacht winners, Roscommon champions Pádraig Pearses, are coming in as the underdogs for Saturday's AIB All-Ireland semi-final with Kilmacud Crokes.

"Maybe some lads are aware of it, but it's never something we'd speak about or focus on," says Pearses' defender David Murray.

"You try to approach every game in a similar manner; whether you're underdogs or not it's irrelevant."

Crokes' last foray out of Dublin in 2018 brought about one of the most famous modern upsets in Gaelic football. The tiny Longford club Mullinalaghta performed a late snatch and grab to claim a Leinster title back in 2018.

Back then the side from the midlands kept it tight against the Dublin giants, and teams took a similar approach against Crokes in Leinster this year, with both Portarlington and Naas keeping things tight in the first half of their respective meetings with the Stillorgan side.

So can Pearses take something from what Mullinalaghta managed, and what others have tried to do this year?

"There's certainly bits and pieces that you can take from those games," Murray admits.

"What might have worked for teams in certain spells, and what might have put Kilmacud under pressure - we