Ten days out now from the dream final. It's always a great buzz in the few days after an All-Ireland semi-final win. You'd be bouncing into training on the Tuesday afterwards, knowing you were winding up for the biggest game of the year.
I suppose it's no great secret that we've had ample experience of the All-Ireland final build-up in Mayo.
Typically in my career, there was a three- or four-week gap between semi-final and final, which back then gave a little more leeway for post semi-final celebrations (there was a four-week gap in 2021 as well for reasons we don't need to dwell on here...).
Certainly back in 2012 and 2013, we'd get a couple of days on the beer after a semi-final victory. Sure, why would you play if you can't enjoy it and celebrate success?
It was fairly new to our generation then and when you're young, it's all exciting. Even stuff like getting suits fitted was cool. We never wore suits (wisely, we didn't go down the cream-coloured route like Liverpool in the FA Cup final years ago). There'd be a big party planned afterwards, all the rest.
Managing the logistics and the extra trimmings that surround an All-Ireland final was always a challenge.
The tickets shenanigans was one headache. You'd have your allocation to dispense among family and friends. The one good aspect of the Covid final in 2020 - which was an eerie and weird experience in many respects - was that this was taken out of the equation.
Sure enough, you'd get these random texts from people you hadn't heard from in 12 months. 'Jaysus, you wouldn't keep me in mind for... etc, etc.' That b******t was always part and parcel of it. I tended to just to hand that responsibility onto friends and family members and from 2016 onwards, I had absolutely nothing to do with that rigmarole. Let them be the rotweilers to deal with the chancers out there.
It definitely got more serious towards the latter end of my career. By 2016 and 2017, we had become used to the drill and there was less novelty and less madness. But I still always liked to make a point of celebrating the good days as best I could, because you never know when they're going to dry up.
The management were always trying to get you in the mindset of treating it like any other game. And by that stage, the players were on that page.
The closer you got to the game, the more you were inclined to hide yourself away. Usually, the supporters would get more hyped up than the players. They'd just want to talk about football, football, football.
You were always wary of getting sucked into speculation about tactics, who you'd be marking, the weather, 'oh, ye might do it this time, will ye do this time?'
But it's all part of the general buzz I suppose.
Obviously, the final build-up is no great novelty to either of the combatants this year.
Dublin and Kerry were both far from perfect but powered home in the closing stages. It was perhaps telling that both semi-finals followed that pattern, with the favourite coming strong in the endgame.
It possibly highlighted how the current championship structure benefits the teams with deeper panels, who are able to time their run over the course of the season. Neither Derry nor Monaghan had that luxury, especially given the Ulster Championship still retains that old prestige. They were more inclined to go full tilt earlier in the season and may have had less in tank as a result.
Derry did so much right for so long on Sunday.
Having nailed everything in the first half, they lost it due to poor conversion in the second half. They just needed to be 10% more clinical in the middle of the second half and they'd be preparing for a first All-Ireland final in 30 years.
For me, the critical miss was the Ethan Doherty one. It was a straightforward chance cutting in from the Cusack Stand side and he pushed it wide of the far post. That would have put them three points ahead, he pulled it to the left. They're energy-sapping misses and kept Kerry close enough at a time when they were struggling to get traction up front. Then, once they got a sniff late in the game, they went for the kill.
The lack of depth was also a problem. Conor Glass is a good example of their issues. He hasn't stopped for a year now, with two big campaigns with Derry and the long club campaign with Glen sandwiched in between. He was even played in a facile win over Limerick in their first league game, while the club final controversy was still rumbling.
I think it's no coincidence that last Sunday's semi-final was one of his quietest games. Now Derry were fortunate that his midfield partner Brendan Rogers had a fantastic game.
Despite it all, there are serious grounds for optimism in Derry. The semi-final display last weekend was light years ahead of the second-half implosion against Galway last year. They've a really good Under-20 team, they won the All-Ireland minors. We've now seen the current senior side can compete with the very best teams in the country.
And Monaghan, once again the great overachievers of 2023, had their goal chances too in the first half, Conor McCarthy breaking in for a half-chance, then Ryan McAnespie hesitating slightly when he had a clear chance.
So, the two finalists arrive at the big show after fairly patchy displays. At this remove, it's ferociously hard to call it between the two. There'll be plenty of time to ruminate on that next week.
Lastly, we should give full credit to Colm O'Rourke, who shipped plenty of flak early in the year. He and Meath came through some grim days in the league and after their Leinster Championship exit to Offaly to finish the year on the high note. It was uplifting to see the great Sean Boylan back on the sideline celebrating alongside Colm as part of the backroom team.
It's a credit to their mentality and Colm's management that Meath embraced the Tailteann Cup, which some fans, who recall their glory days, might have turned their nose up at. It again showcased the worth of the second-tier competition.
And it's worth posing the question, who would you rather be? Meath, who fell into the Tailteann Cup in April but then wound up finishing the year with silverware. Or Louth, who had an excellent season in many respects but finished with three losses in the group stage, the last one a fairly brutal hammering at the hands of Kerry.
We saw how competitive Westmeath were in this year's All-Ireland series, a whisker away from beating Tyrone and knocking them out of the championship. Already, O'Rourke and Meath know they'll get a crack at the group stage in 2024. Winning that silverware last Saturday should prove an important stepping stone for that Meath generation and give them a platform to build on.
