HISTORY collides with the present. Cross the bridge in Killorglin, and look up the narrow main street. It's an atmospheric view, rising from the corner of Coffey's bar where Laune Rangers were founded in 1888 and up and under the message of goodwill from AIB, the sponsors of the All Ireland club championships.

After some threatened controversy, AIB sensibly allowed the team to wear the club sponsors name on their jerseys even though this promotes the services of a competing financial institution - the Killorglin Credit Union.

Tomorrow's All Ireland football final is a match of contrasts, some of them not that obvious. Laune are the strongest club in football's greatest county whereas Eire Og represent Carlow, one of the units less favoured by tradition.

Furthermore, Eire Og have been tugging at the nation's heart strings over the last few years, being deprived of the 1993 All Ireland by a poor refereeing decision and having plugged away since.

Theirs is a story begging for a romantic ending, a fact which makes Killorglin both uneasy and a bit irascible. They deserve a lot of sympathy," says Laune coach John Evans. "But they won't get any from us."

Selector Patsy Joy is even blunter in a local interview: "I have seen Eire Og play only on television but what I would say is they have 11 of the Carlow panel and they have been trying to win the title for the last four years. But if they were that good why are they not climbing the ladder?"

As ever the stereotyping doesn't give the full picture. Killorglin is a picturesque village with a small population of around 2,000 whereas Carlow town has a catchment area of over 10,000. Under the astute and forceful guidance of Bobby Miller, Eire Og have won three of the last four Leinster titles. In the eyes of some they can be a bit sure of themselves.

Although they are attempting to become the county's fifth club champions, Laune's credentials stretch back into the history of Kerry football. In 1892, in the days when the All Ireland was contested by champion clubs rather than county selections, Laune became the first Kerry team to reach an All Ireland football final.

That final, against Dublin's Young Irelands, was marked by controversy as the Dublin crowd were said to have intimidated a strangely fragile sounding Kerry team, a charge bitterly upheld by a contemporary account from the Kerry Sentinel, reprinted by The Kerryman.

To the indelible disgrace of the Dublin crowd which lined the park, they acted towards the Kerrymen in a scandalous and utterly un Irish fashion. In the midst of play, they did not content themselves with cheering for the Dublin men but actually indulged in vigorous hooting and groaning of the Kerrymen, the inevitable result of which was of course to take the spirit out of them."

Particularly affected was the Kerry goalkeeper who had his spirit drained to the extent of conceding a soft goal at a time when one goal outweighed any number of points.

"He didn't," says Jimmy Coffey, come home for three years after." Coffey, joint treasurer of both the club and Kerry County Board, is proprietor of the bar where Laune Rangers was founded. Seamus Coffey was the first secretary and two locals, Patsy Begley and Mikey Doyle, were dispatched to Cork with seven shillings and six pence to purchase a ball.

Two local teachers, Jack Murphy and Tom Cronin, who had played in Dublin while at St Patrick's Teacher Training College in Drumcondra, became the club coaches in its early years. But it was JP O'Sullivan who was the most famous name associated with the club in those years when it reached the 1892 final.

A brilliant athlete, he was the father of Dr Eamonn O'Sullivan who coached Kerry to All Irelands in five decades, between 1925 and 1962, and who wrote a seminal coaching manual, advocating traditional fixed position football - The Art and Science of Gaelic Football (Kerryman 1958).

"JP," says Jimmy Coffey, "was known all over the country as The Champion. It was very seldom they'd mention his name as JP O'Sullivan. He was unbeatable in high jump, long jump and sprint. He had money when a lot of fellas hadn't because he'd a farm and he issued a personal challenge to Young Irelands following 1892 to play anywhere in Ireland, except Dublin. A cash challenge.

It wasn't accepted.

Further county championships followed in 1893, 1900 and 1911 but the club waited 78 years before adding to their total. Those intervening years were marked by the impact of the Troubles, emigration and an inexorable decline in Laune's fortunes.

A few prominent players featured until the 1940s. Teddy O'Connor was probably the last of that era but they included some who were successful with other counties, which triggers a typically modest Kerry recollection.

There's Jim Jay up in Dublin, says Jimmy Cotley. "He won his All Ireland with Dublin (1942). It was said he wasn't good enough to play with Kerry at all and sure he probably knew that.

Rugby had always been strong in the town and the club originally included a rugby team, before the Ban which by the 1940s worked to the detriment of the football team, according to Jimmy Coffey.

The rugby team was able to beat the Laune Rangers gaelic team. Most of them were off at college and weren't playing gaelic because of the ban," he says.

Oddly enough, it was an upsurge in interest in hurling during the 1940s and 50s, brought about by the presence of some well known hurlers stationed in the area, which helped revive football. By the mid 1960s the club was on its way back.

The Kerry club championship (contested when a divisional side wins the county title) was won in 1966 and despite strong feelings that the club should go its own way, it remained part of the MidKerry division until 1970.

Among the milestones that mark out Laune's history, the return to senior championship ranks is less significant than the measured emphasis on under age development that was spear headed by current club chairman Jerome Conway, Pat O'Shea and Liam Shannon.

This was rewarded with the 1977 minor championship and the start of a modern era which is on the verge of being as fruitful as the pioneering years of JP O'Sullivan.

Since taking their first county title of contemporary years in 1989, two more have followed, in 93 and last year. In addition the team has been sweeping the boards both in Mid Kerry and the county at large. This year Laune have won everything they entered.

John Evans, who finished playing with Laune in 1988, cut his coaching teeth with successful minor teams in 1988 and 89, part of the minor three in a row from 1987. The club were also finalists in 1986 and 90, and this era signposted the current well being of the club.

Evans was positive about the season from a long way out. There was a player going to transfer to us this year he didn't and I'll keep his name but he was a quite good player and I said there is one thing we are going to do and that is win the county championship.

"The second thing was that (last February) I went to Gerard Murphy (club captain) and said this year, Gerard, I think you are going to be one of the most fortunate men in the parish because we are going to win the county championship."

Gerard hasn't been accustomed to being described as fortunate in a career that has been constantly interrupted by chronic injury which most recently caused him to miss the All Ireland semi final. Tomorrow, however, he may be lifting an All Ireland trophy.

Although Billy O'Shea is captain of Kerry this year and a number of Laune players look set for influential roles with the county - Mike and Liam Hassett, maybe Tommy Byrne (whose father played for Eire Og) there is a suspicion that not all are particularly pushed about inter county football. Evans disputes this.

Maybe it can look like that from the outside but from the team itself, they would look at the county team as the highest accolade, there's no question about that. The tact that the club are so successful over the last two or three years and the fact that Kerry are not successful would very naturally influence players.

"Secondly, the likes of Conor Kearney, who has been lambasted these guys, Timmy Fleming, Joe Shannon and Billy O'Sullivan have been pushed around and have played for the county and not, ehhh..."

Enjoyed the experience?

"Yeah. Whether they're good enough or not is not for me to say. If any of our players were with other clubs, whether they'd be greater or lesser players, they'd be stars but the fact that they're with Laune Rangers means there are no stars. There's a great uniformity of talent.

Although they play an accomplished running game, Evans says that they are not simply a short ball team but draw on many influences.

"I really really admired the football of south Kerry, Cahirciveen, Sneem, Waterville and Valentia. Wonderfully natural players at kicking points even without training because, I tell you this, they've won under 21 championships with only a single training session. Hard to believe.

But I did learn in north Kerry where there's a totally different style of football. It's direct but teak-tough, I've learned that. You get that combination and put in a bit if craft that you'd learn from looking at the Crokes (Dr Crokes of Killarney, 1992 All Ireland champions). Killorglin is in the middle of Kerry and we reflect that.

"We can go short but we prefer a longer game. I like to keep the game simple. We like a longer game. Against Corofin obviously we had to go short (the weather was awful).

From the spectacular vantage point of his house overlooking the river and town, Evans contemplates tomorrow's denouement at Croke Park when a distinguished history fuses with a successful present. He is aware that chances in the club championship don't come around that often and that he operates in an unforgiving environment.

"You have your chance dawn here in Kerry to prove yourself and then you're gone. It's a high standard."