Michael Quinn wants Longford to use today’s clash with Dublin as a building block for the future of football in the county.
Whilst not conceding that the Leinster quarter-final is a damage-limitation exercise, the work-hungry forward says that experience gained in Croke Park can stand to Jack Sheedy’s side in the coming years.
League champions and All-Ireland favourites Dublin are practically unbackable for the game (4pm, live on RTÉ2) as they begin their quest for their tenth provincial title in 11 years.
But Quinn has his eye on the big picture and wants the younger members of the team to learn some lessons.
“Hopefully, if we address it with the right attitude and mentality, we can build on something in three or four years’ time when those young guys come into their peak then,” he said.
“We have to view it that it is going to be a learning curve and there are going to be things that we are doing right and things we might need to work on and do an awful lot better.
“But without playing the top four sides you don’t really know exactly where you are in comparison so it is going to be a learning curve.”
"There is no point coming this far and changing your game plan completely"
Longford won promotion from Division 4 in the spring and come into this afternoon’s game buoyed by a stirring comeback against Offaly, in which Quinn stood out, in a first-round game.
A 13-point hammering by Offaly in the league final meant that Longford went into that game as underdogs.
But, as a lower-tier team, that’s the reality for most of the games that Quinn and his team-mates play.
Earlier this season, Derry reckoned that they might scrape a result against Dublin by employing ultra-defensive tactics in their league clash at Croke Park. They lost by 0-08 to 0-04.
The former Essendon player says there is no point in this visitors “parking the bus” in HQ.
He said: “After the Offaly game there was such a buzz and excitement and there probably is an excitement to playing the Dubs.
But, like that, I think 90% of the games we play we are underdogs anyway, nothing has changed in that regard.
“We’ve talked about it a little bit already and there is no point coming this far and changing your game plan completely to suit one game or go all out defence and park the bus.
“That is not going to benefit you or you are not really going to learn a whole pile by doing that.
“Obviously, you have to be smart about it too, and can’t go all guns blazing and die out.
"You have to get a balance right and [have] a game plan that works best for you first, and then [worry] the opposition after that.”
