Peter Keane tells a story to those who ask him if his Kerry team will have a game plan to beat Dublin if the chance arises this summer.
After spending the first few weeks of the championship preparing in relative quiet, the spotlight is back on the Dubs and their drive for five again after they gutted Louth.
History will be made on September 1 if no other team can get the measure of Jim Gavin's men and, after newly-crowned league champions Mayo fell in Connacht at the weekend, Tyrone and Kerry seem the most likely candidates.
The Kingdom have been in Dublin's shadow for too long, or so Kerry people will insist. This summer would be time enough for the subjugation to end.
But this is a young Kerry team under a new manager at this level, for all Keane's achievement in the underage grades. Has he worked out a way to stop Dublin?
"I remember learning to drive and I remember going out the main road," replied Keane, who will get a first taste on the sideline of senior championship football this Saturday evening when Clare host Kerry in Ennis.
"It was kind of different then, when you were learning to drive. I was inside in the car with my father and we were driving out the road from Caherciveen and we were heading out to Valentia Island.
"We were at the Points Cross, which was only a short bit out and I started asking a question which was about a road that was about two miles out.
"And he chewed me and said, ‘We’ll worry about that when we get there, at the moment we’ll worry about this'.
"So there’s about as much point as me worrying about a Dublin or anyone else worrying about a Tyrone or a Mayo or someone else. We have Clare in the first round, and we’ll worry about that."
He was there as a young lad in 1982 when Offaly shocked Kerry and killed their own five in a row attempt, and Keane believes that history will weigh on the Dubs during this championship campaign, too.
But he admits to what a respect for the Dubs, even if it comes across as a slightly grudging respect.
"They certainly have very good footballers and you know they are very good because of the way they play the football," he said.
"Do I enjoy it? I’m not sure I look at them enough to say whether I enjoy it or not But by God they can play football...does that answer the question?".
Keane will have noted Mayo's loss to Roscommon, after Kerry themselves lost the league final to Mayo.
But he was glad of the experience at the time, of the players having a run-out at Croke Park on a significant occasion.
"Would I rather we'd won the game? Yeah," he confided. "But sometimes you look more closely and a tighter eye when you don’t win it.
"So I wasn’t overly bothered either which way it went and I don’t want to sound like, 'Ah he's only saying that because they lost’. I wouldn’t be jumping out of my skin had we won it either.
"If you look at us we’re young, we’re slight, we’re light.
"Sure Aidan O'Shea must have 10 or 12 years under his belt doing strength and conditioning, so it's going to take that bit of time to get to that physicality.
"So was I shocked by that? No. It is going to take time and the question is how long will it take to get there".
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