Roscommon captain Conor Devaney will soak up every second of this weekend's Allianz Football League Division final at Croke Park in the knowledge it will feed his team with invaluable experience for the championship.
The Rossies take on Cavan on Sunday with promotion to the top tier secured.
It means both counties are in bonus territory, but nobody will want to squander a chance to lift some silver, and Devaney expects a good battle.
"We're very happy at the end of the league to have found that success," he told RTÉ Sport.
"The game at Croke Park is a bonus and we're looking forward to a very competitive game, as it always is, against Cavan.
"Every game at Croke Park will bring on this team a lot. There's a lot of young players. It's not a must that we win on Sunday, however we're all competitive in this sport and we'll be coming up here to try to win."
Devaney said harsh lessons were learned from last year's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final loss to Mayo.
Having pushed Stephen Rochford's men all the way in a drawn first game, they were beaten out the gate in the replay, slumping to a 4-19 to 0-09 defeat.
That came after a tough league campaign that saw them relegated from Division 1 alongside Cavan.
Now, Devaney says, Roscommon are in a different place and better equipped to run the top teams close on the biggest days of the summer.
"We played Mayo in the championship last August.
"We drew with the the first day, but we could see the difference then between Mayo and ourselves and the gap that needs to be bridged on the second day, when they hammered us.
"They learned a lot more within a week. I suppose their fitness levels and their physical strength were that much better on the second day. That was noticeable. There is a gap definitely but I'm not sure it's that huge."
