It was Andy Moran, a former teammate of Stephen Coen, who first put forward the view that you have to score at least 20 points to have a chance of beating Dublin in Championship football.
Not all the time, though. Dublin's scoring rate dropped during their Leinster campaign - averaging 19 points a game.
In contrast, tomorrow's opponents, Mayo, have been shooting the lights out with an average of over 25 points across their three matches in Connacht.
Indeed, they are the top scorers in the Championship - ahead of high flying Kerry.
It's not something anyone saw coming when they lost Cillian O'Connor, their top scorer of all time, for the entire season.
"If you were to ask Cillian, even if he was playing and someone else was injured, someone's loss is someone else's gain,'' said Coen.
"I suppose the depth of our squad has shown in the last three or four games, we just need to move on regardless of who we lose or what happens throughout the season.
"There's a lot of ambitious guys within the group, it's a very competitive group, so we just keep pushing each other all the way.
"There's plenty of competition in the forward-line for places, supported by our defence and our attack as well.
"Just need to keep sticking to the system, sticking to the game plan and regardless of who is in or out we just keep ploughing on. We've been happy enough so far."
It's not just about Mayo's attack this summer. Rob Hennelly has nailed down the number one spot now that David Clarke has retired.
And, in front of the goalkeeper, the defence - of which Coen is a vital part - has looked solid.
That they kept Galway scoreless in the second half of the Connacht final is testament to that.
"It just shows that the team defence is fairly good from number 15 back. It's stuff we're trying to work on, that as well as going forward, just to try to be solid in defence,'' he said.
"Yeah, it was an enjoyable 35 minutes. We were pretty strong defensively, worked hard together but again, we're just trying to keep improving on that as much as possible every day we train, every day we play, just trying to develop that.''
Coen showed leadership qualities from a young age, captaining Mayo to the All-Ireland minor title in 2013 and the Under-21 crown five years ago.
He's filled in everywhere from wing-back to wing-forward in different games under both Stephen Rochford and James Horan.
And he's one of the few farmers left in inter-county football. Balancing the two takes a bit of planning.
"It's probably similar in that the way our system works at home is that spring time is really, really busy,'' he said.
"So from, like, middle of January to the middle of April, it worked out really well that the Championship finished in the middle of December and then we didn't go back until whenever it was - middle of April or May, I'm not sure when it was, so it actually worked out perfect.
"During the summer, for suckler and sheep farming, it's literally just let the animals grow and let them develop as much as possible.
"To be honest, it's been ideal. I've been at home, my father's been at home, we've managed it pretty well. My brother is only an hour away so between the three of us we work through it.
"Again, for the weekends and stuff, that's when we get most of our work done because the three of us work during the week, and obviously I get allowances because of games and stuff but yeah, we make it work all the time, it's fairly straightforward."
When Mayo have come up against Dublin over the past decade, the champions have put special emphasis on nullifying the influence of Aidan O'Shea.
More often than not, they've succeeded in putting the shackles on him.
Tomorrow is a landmark day for O'Shea - his 150th game for Mayo - and you can be sure he'd love nothing better than playing his part in leading his county to the All-Ireland final.
"Aidan would be an ultimate professional and that's testament to the amount of appearances he's made and all the games he's been involved in,'' said Coen.
"He always makes himself available, he's always hungry to perform, a real leader in the group and someone that a lot of the guys would model themselves off. As I say, minds his body, nutrition, recovery, that would all be top notch, would never be questioned.
"And look, he's just been brilliant for us the last...I don't know how many seasons he's been in with us, is it 13 or 14 seasons probably?
"A lot of guys retired earlier in the year and they put in a massive tenure with Mayo and his is no different.
"For a guy of his strength, Aidan is always looking to get stronger, to get faster, get more explosive, so he never lets himself rest, he's always pushing on, pushing on, trying to improve himself. Again, that's testament to his attitude and his application.''
Mayo have always had their moments - even in defeat to Dublin.
But they've never had enough of them to get across the line in front since 2012.
Coen knows they need to be on it for 75 minutes plus this time around.
"Every team are going to have two or three purple patches in a game so obviously we need to make hay when we're in good form throughout the 70 minutes,'' he said.
"But then we're under pressure or taking on a bit of heat, we just need to manage that game as much as possible.
"It's not really rocket science but sometimes it can be difficult to manage those situations when you're under pressure. I think with more experience and the more games we've played, we've got better at it so hopefully we'll continue to do that.
"There are plenty of elements of our game that we want to improve on (from last year's final) and that we feel we have improved on and focused on throughout the year.
"It sounds very basic but just score a bit more and concede a bit less, it's fairly basic. I think we've developed right throughout the year. There are certain areas of the field that we want to work on and we have. We'll hopefully see the fruits of it now on Saturday."
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