The curtain-raiser may well turn out to be the main attraction on Sunday afternoon when the Leinster SFC semi-finals take place at Croke Park.
Kildare will swallow hard, raise their shields and dash headlong into the seemingly unslayable beast that is the Boys in Blue at 4pm. But before that, Mickey Harte will look to take Louth past an Offaly side who, fresh off a big win over Meath, are on a mission of a different kind this season.
Either way, if the outcome of the latter fixture appears preordained – with the necessary apologies to a talented Lilywhites group – the fate of the pair in the opening game is certainly up in the air.
Louth are more or less guaranteed to be playing Sam Maguire football for the summer, but Offaly, despite their win over the Royals, could yet find themselves in the Tailteann Cup. We could be in for a cracker just after lunchtime Sunday at headquarters.
"This could potentially be the game of the weekend," reckoned Enda McGinley, speaking on this week's RTÉ GAA podcast.
"The energy, enthusiasm, the positivity. You can't beat it. That's why the provincial club championships are so good, because you've got both teams coming in on an absolute crest of a wave and you get a really great game of football.
Dublin have collected the last dozen Leinster titles in an unparalleled show of dominance of this or any other province. But outside of the vast shadow cast by Dessie Farrell’s squad, Leinster is possibly the most open province in the game.
"The Leinster Championship, for all its faults, it is the best second-place championship in the country," former Tyrone ace, McGinley, decided. "If you remove Dublin, down below that there's brilliant games going on.
"Louth have sort of put themselves out there as the second-place team, they finished highest of all the Leinster teams in the League, bar Dublin, so they see themselves ranked, rightfully, as the top-ranked team outside of Dublin in Leinster.
Offaly’s continuing improvement is all the more remarkable when you consider they were rocked by the sudden passing of manager Liam Kearns in mid-March. Kearns, 61, had only taken over from John Maughan the previous August.
"Offaly were disappointed to go to Division 3 a couple of years ago, they had a pretty poor campaign," McGinley continued. "They'd a very young squad at that stage, they expected to bounce back up and that hasn't really happened for them yet.
"But that win over Meath was absolutely massive for them. The sheer passion. We all know what they've come through as a team this year, but that seems to have galvanised them. Their energy since that has been remarkable.
"They carry a real pace, they're a very, very mobile team. Not physically the biggest whereas Louth are pretty physically imposing, particularly around the middle third. But a cracking game. Both teams will be going at this, hammer and tongs."
That Louth physicality was apparent in their second-half comeback against the Lakemen. Offaly's game is certainly one based more on pace than power. Will they have enough in them to hold off the not-so-Wee County?
"Offaly won it in the first half against Meath," said McGinley. "Meath were asleep at the wheel, it was so loose and so open. It will not be like that against Louth who, although very poor in their own first half against Westmeath, I would expect to be coming out with eyes absolutely focused on that Leinster final prize.
"Against Westmeath, Louth used nine forwards over the course of the game. The least any of those forwards were on the pitch was 15 minutes but only two of them scored from play. Sam Mulroy got 1-04 from frees, but the contribution from play of the Louth forwards would be a source of concern… but Offaly will know they have to be really, really disciplined in defence and cover the runners because so much of Louth’s damage comes from men coming at pace who can make wee openings or draw the free.
"Mickey has the perfect hook because Louth were so bad in the first half against Westmeath. He will not miss the chance to have his team primed for this one so they’ll be looking to negate that energy that Offaly are coming with."
Watch highlights of the weekend's football and hurling championship action on The Sunday Game, 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
