Happy to be following hard acts

Leinster SFC Interview with Padraig Nolan: Seán Moran finds the new Kildare manager philosophical about having to inherit the Mick O'Dwyer legacy

Follow that. The Rolling Stones are said to have once refused to go on stage after James Brown, fearing they might appear a little anaemic by comparison with the Godfather of Soul. Think then of Padraig Nolan, destined to follow two very big acts in football management. But he thoughtfully saw the advantages and got on up.

"One of the benefits of going in after Tommy Lyons and Mick O'Dwyer was that there was an inherently disciplined structure, a very good set-up and a top-class culture of preparation and training."

So back in the autumn of 1999 Nolan secured the job as Offaly manager in succession to Lyons, whose messianic tenure had landed the county's first Leinster title in 15 years and a first ever league. He recalls that he hadn't a great deal on his CV beyond some pioneering work in helping to establish St Patrick's, Navan, as a force in colleges football and a few years' club involvement.

His first summer task was to dethrone Meath as Leinster and All-Ireland champions, which his Offaly side duly did before going within a whisker of beating eventual provincial champions Kildare. A dramatic finale to the drawn match saw goalkeeper Padraig Kelly go close with a 60-metres free but Kildare won the replay.

A first season then kicking over the traces of previous associations: Meath, where he had taught in St Pat's, and Kildare, his own county. From Kilcock, Nolan's intercounty playing career was short and spectacular, one appearance in the O'Byrne Cup against Kilkenny, which ended in seismic defeat.

The Offaly job didn't get any less frustrating. Tight defeats by Dublin and Kildare - again after a replay - were followed by bitterly disappointing qualifier displays against Louth and Limerick.

By the time he left, his native county was looking for a successor to Mick O'Dwyer. Again the low-key arrival suited the circumstances. Like Offaly, Kildare were in need of an overhaul. Players were retiring and of those game enough to continue, injury was besieging quite a few. The one player possessed of quality, experience and comparative youth, Dermot Earley, broke a leg.

"Injuries are factors outside your control so you have to take them on the chin and put out your strongest team. But it's the same for everyone. Ollie Murphy, Darren Fay and Nigel Crawford were all doubtful for Meath this week and they have to get on with it.

"I feel sorry for the individual player. Dermot would be on any team in the country, he's a tremendous player, a tremendous guy. All he wants to do is play football so it's hard for him to be missing."

The team of 1998, which had reached the county's first All-Ireland final in 63 years, had broken up slowly but by Nolan's first championship match last month against Longford, only two - Brian Lacey and Anthony Rainbow - were there to bridge the gap. Some others remain involved but time takes its toll. Glenn Ryan, who drove the team for so long, constantly struggles with injury in search of availability, never mind mobility.

It wasn't all downbeat. Kildare had a heightened profile after the success of the O'Dwyer years, a footballing self-esteem that had previously been evident only in history books.

"Mick O'Dwyer's legacy is that there are young kids in the county who have seen Kildare win Leinster titles. That gives an inherent confidence and it's up to us to build on that," says Nolan.

The county is at the crossroads. If it can build on the recent achievements Kildare has the demographic advantages to ensure that it remains, with Dublin and Meath, a big player in Leinster. The sizeable population and current interest levels mean that the county has plentiful resources, even if the absence of a major football college means it lacks a centre of excellence.

The search for new players began with this year's league, an unfortunate amalgam of injuries, narrow defeats and controversy. A technical error gave Sligo the opportunity to challenge Kildare's win, which was duly overturned in a rematch leading to Kildare's relegation.

So subdued had the whole season become that by the time the championship arrived opponents Longford had passed them on the way up from Division Two and were favourites going into the match in Mullingar.

Nolan was as aware as anyone else of that unflattering environment. In the event Kildare held their nerve and eventually overhauled a long-lasting deficit put together by a couple of early goals from an otherwise flat Longford. He says that there was no need to use the writing-up of the opposition to motivate his players.

"Not really. That didn't become relevant. I was conscious that we didn't have a good league run. The team was disrupted through players calling it a day and injuries so I played young fellas all through the league. I was confident in their abilities but it's a matter of when they establish themselves at senior level."

The litmus test is this evening in Croke Park. A win over Longford would be too slender a file for any sense of achievement, whereas the qualifiers, as Nolan knows, guarantee nothing.

He naturally won't detail the season's targets - "that's the sort of thing you tell people in January when there's plenty of time for it be forgotten" - but a good display in Croke Park against one of the blue-chip counties would go a long way to validating the work to date. He acknowledges as much.

"Saturday will tell how well things are going. Playing Meath teaches you something, win or lose. We can gauge how far we've come."