They've won each of the last eight Kildare titles between them and Sarsfields and Moorefield will close out the decade with yet another final meeting tomorrow.
The subplots are numerous. Moorefield are bidding for three-in-a-row, something they denied their Newbridge rivals when beating them en route to the title in 2016.
The three-in-a-row hasn’t been done in Kildare since Sarsfields themselves managed it in 1952 and they don’t want their nearest and dearest emulating them.
Although Sarsfields have a greater spread of titles, 15 in total, Moorefield have won nine of their 10 since 2000, with the evergreen Ronan Sweeney featuring in all nine, and they’ve added two Leinster crowns as well.
Since 2001 they’ve met in eight county finals, including a replay in 2014, with Moorefield winning five.
Naturally, with the two clubs based in the same town, there are all sorts of crossovers.
“It certainly is a friendly rivalry,” notes Moorefield manager Ross Glavin. “On the pitch it's like any other match, there's a fierce competitive edge underneath both sets of players and that but there's a lot of families that are split.
“I'm married to a Sarsfields lady and her father would have been involved in Sarsfields teams over the years. There's a good crossover on our panel.
“I think there's a great buzz around the town to be honest. Both clubs kind of feed off each other.
“When one is down it kind of drives them on when they're looking across the town at their rivals winning and vice versa.”
The 2014 draw and replay stands out for Glavin, who was playing at the time before injury forced him into management at just 31.
“I think they were five points up with literally five minutes to go and we got five points and forced a replay and we learned a lot in that week then in 2014. Ronan Sweeney was captain and we beat them in a replay.
“They were going for three-in-a-row two years ago and came up against us in a quarter-final and we had been on the back of two losing years.
“We were a highly motivated team in my first year and we knocked them off their perch that year so it's a bit of a role reversal now.
“They'll want to to deny us winning the three-in-a-row because they were the last club in Kildare to win a three-in-a-row back in the 50s so their motivation will be to deny us winning whereas our motivation is a little bit different.
“We want to win this to get on and win other things further down the road.”
Both Glavin and his Sarsfields counterpart Davy Burke will be moving on whenever this campaign ends, the Moorefield boss having been announced as part of Jack O’Connor’s Kildare management team, while Burke was recently handed the Wicklow job.
“I suppose that's one thing I was thinking about over the last couple of days, “ Glavin admits.
“I had to remind myself that this is potentially my last club match in the Kildare Championship with my home club so we certainly want to finish off our Kildare campaign on a high.
“It's great that I'll be involved with Kildare in 2020 but that's the future and as far as I'm concerned now that's parked to one side.
“My sole focus will be on making sure I'm 100% dedicated and committed to getting the best out of this Moorefield team and sustaining this journey for as long as we can.”
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