It may not have been the final that most observers expected, but Kildare's Moorefield and St Loman's from Westmeath are certainly there on merit when this year's Leinster club football is decided on Sunday.
For Moorefield midfielder Daryl Flynn, the year to date has been most satisfying, but the county star also accepts that a hard road has been travelled to get this far.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Flynn said: "All year long we've been underdogs. We did it the hard way, we had to beat Sarsfields, Athy and Celbridge to win the county title. Then we beat Portlaoise, one of the top dogs in Leinster.
After that came Rathnew (Leinster semi-final). We got a good start with a goal early on. They finished the first half strongly and it was level at half time. Aughrim is tough place to go to, the weather didn't help, it was a real real dogfight and then we got a man sent off.
"We scored a few points after the sending off and pulled away in the end. And now we're in the Leinster final."
Assessing the Loman's challenge, Flynn added: "Ever since St Vincent's were beaten by Rathnew they were four teams left and any one of the four teams then felt they could win Leinster.
"St Loman's, I'm sure were of the same view. They came from seven points down to beat Simonstown the last day. It's going to be a tough battle for us. We're under no illusion about that.
"In John Heslin and Paul Sharry they have two fantastic footballers but there are 13 other lads on that team. You just can't concentrate on two. We have to watch them all."
