National Football League Division One AThere's still nothing like a Dublin-Kerry football match to set the pulse racing: the great rivalry, the old enemy, and so on.

Sunday's Allianz National Football League clash in Killarney has the usual ingredients and more, as both teams still have a semi-final place within their reach.

Kerry are far better poised: a victory will guarantee them another day out. Yet Dublin can still make it if they win by five points or more and Mayo defeat Tyrone by at least four.

For Dublin defender Paul Casey there is also the small matter of bragging rights over his father. Mick Casey was born and raised in the small fishing village of Portmagee, about 10 miles from Cahersiveen. He played minor football for Kerry in the late 1960s before settling in Dublin, and while that now qualifies as home, the family still have strong Kerry connections.

"There'll be a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles shouting for Kerry on Sunday," explains Paul, "but hopefully I can quieten some of them down. I think my dad is probably a converted Dub at this stage, but I spent lots of summers and Easters in Kerry all through my childhood, so I know very well how important football is to Kerry people, and how much pride they take in it.

"I've grown up hearing about those great games in the 1970s. It's such a massive part of the history of the GAA. So anyone who plays football at this level wants to be apart of this."

Casey also knows a bit about pride in the Dublin jersey. A regular on the senior team since 2003, he's now one of their more experienced defenders. He started the last game against Mayo at corner back but on Sunday resumes duties in his familiar right-half-back position.

He knows too that Dublin have a poor away record against Kerry; their last victory there way back in 1982, when they defeated the home side 0-8 to 0-7 in Austin Stack Park, Tralee. So even though their chances of making the semi-finals are much slimmer than Kerry's this is a game of total importance.

"Kerry obviously need to win it to be sure of their semi-final spot, but we know we have an outside chance as well," says Casey. "If we can take the two points you never know what will happen in the other fixtures.

"And we definitely want to finish up the league in the strongest way possible, and there's no stronger way than beating Kerry in Killarney.

"Confidence is high after the good win over Mayo. But the most important thing there was to drag ourselves out of any relegation battle. Every team wants to be playing division-one football, and thankfully we have that again next year. But coming off the disappointments against Fermanagh and Monaghan I think it was important to put in a good performance.

"And I think we knew that performance was there."

Much has been said about the "big three" in football - Kerry, Armagh and the All-Ireland champions Tyrone - and also how Dublin have at times looked like joining them. That's something of which Casey is acutely conscious.

"Even looking at the league," he says, "Kerry and Tyrone are still going for a semi-final. Okay, Armagh have had an indifferent league, but they know what's around the corner. But I think the gap is closing a little too, and hopefully come the summer it will have closed substantially.

"One of the things Pillar (Paul Caffrey) keeps saying is that it's over a number of years that teams develop. We've definitely built on our fitness from last year, we've got another good weights programme behind us, so we'll see come the summer how far up the ladder we've gone."

Of course there were strong hopes Dublin would by now be closer to a semi-final place, especially given their first-round win over the All-Ireland champions. The seven-point loss to Monaghan certainly didn't help, and they were a little unfortunate elsewhere, enduring one-point defeats to Cork and Fermanagh before putting 4-10 past Mayo last Saturday week.

A few more goals against Kerry would be timely.

"Yeah, and goals are such a massive thing in football these days," says Casey. "We know we got two lucky-enough ones against Mayo, but an early goal nearly always sets you up for a good performance.

"We're missing Mossy (Tomás) Quinn and Ciarán Whelan for Sunday, and they're two big losses. But I think we have strength in depth this year, players that can come in and fill the gaps. And I think come the summer there will be serious competition for places within this Dublin team."