Breaking down psychological barriers

Ian O'Riordan talks to Dublin's Peader Andrews who is confident of being fit to play against Kildare in Sunday's Leinster football final

Though the official line from the Dublin management is that Peader Andrews remains doubtful for Sunday's Leinster football final against Kildare, the player himself makes no secret of his intention and desire to play.

A shoulder injury received late in the semi-final win over Meath has troubled the Dublin defender for the last two weeks, but when manager Tommy Lyons finalises his team this evening there won't be much hesitancy over Andrews' participation.

Centre back Jonathon Magee is definitely ruled out because of a knee injury and Andrews looks set to move over, with Paul Curran coming in at right wing back - switching with Paul Casey.

"I've been getting all the medical treatment I need," says Andrews, who trained at full pace on Saturday but avoided unnecessary impacts. "I've no problem with the strength and I'm happy now that the injury is dead and buried."

What helps give Andrews this extra air of confidence is the sort of self-vindication that came with the victory over Meath. It wasn't just that Dublin had gone seven years without a win over their main rivals, but also something to do with the 1999 final. In his first senior start for Dublin, Andrews suffered the quintessential roasting from Meath's Ollie Murphy before finally being called ashore after an hour.

"Sure that game has been written about over and over again," says Andrews. "To be honest though I didn't take any more out of beating Meath than I would any other big team. Of course I learned a lot from that game three years ago, but I've just gone on from there. Things have changed and it was just so satisfying we had finally beaten a top team in Leinster, and that things were starting to go our way."

As for Kildare, a team Dublin are waiting even longer to beat (1994 being their last success), Andrews points to another psychological barrier that must also be broken. "Beating Meath was a big day for us, but it was only a semi-final, and there are still a lot of lads here who haven't won a Leinster title. A lot of lads too were there in 2000 when Kildare beat us.

"And the loss to Kildare in 2000 was hard to get over. There were a lot of psychological problems within the team after that. But Tommy Carr addressed it and Tommy Lyons hasn't even touched on it. The lads know what happened, and you just have to realise it's a game of 70 minutes. It's not won in the first half and it's not won in the second half. It's the two of them together, and you have to be playing for the full 70 minutes."

Whereas Meath were as physically daunting as any team in the country, Andrews highlights a different challenge awaiting with Kildare, mainly the fitness challenge: "You know Kildare are going to be flying fit, and probably are the fittest team in Ireland all the time.

"Plus it's Mick O'Dwyer's last year so there's an awful lot at stake for the Kildare team, and a lot of them feel they owe it to Mick O'Dwyer. So I'd say they'll be well fired up for the game. But we'll all draw a lot from the Meath performance in that we've beaten one of the big teams in Leinster."

This revitalised Dublin, he says, has a lot, but not all to do with the change of management. "I suppose Tommy Lyons did bring in a fresh impetus, and brought out a lot of young players at the start of the year. And as Tommy said himself we got the rub of the green on a few different things.

"But I came in under Tommy Carr and it was always a pleasure to play under him. He did a lot for my game and I owe himself and the selectors an awful lot. But Tommy Lyons has tried to freshen things up a little, and done some different training methods and things like that. And I think that's very important because a team can go stale with the same management, and I know Tommy Lyons was aware of that, and made the changes that are needed to advance the team that extra bit."