Shamrock Rovers and Cork City couldn't have experienced more contrasting league seasons, but Hoops supremo Stephen Bradley is refusing to underestimate the threat the Leesiders pose in Sunday's FAI Cup decider.
While Rovers were crowned domestic kingpins for the fifth time in six seasons, Cork are heading back to the second tier of Irish football after finishing rock bottom of the Premier Division table.
Bradley addressed the media earlier in the week ahead of Thursday's trip and subsequent 1-1 draw against AEK Athens, and while that Europa Conference League encounter in the Greek capital could hardly be regarded as an optimal prep so close to the Cup decider at the Aviva, Bradley sounded as if he wouldn't have it any other way.
"We're really looking forward to it," the manager said of the Cork clash. "It's the showpiece game, it's where you want to finish your domestic season – in the national stadium, fighting for the cup and fighting to do a double.
"When you've been successful, like this group has, it means you play games every three days.
"If you said to us in January, this will be the scenario, we'd take your hand off.
"It means you're doing something right. When the rest of the league closes down on Saturday, we're preparing to go to Athens and play a cup final on Sunday.
"It's exactly what you would want as a group and as a club.
"This group and these players are well used to it."
The chasm in the league standings between the teams, where Rovers topped the table on 66 points with a goal difference of +23 to Cork's paltry tally of 24 points and a goal difference of -28, ensures that Bradley's charges will be sent off heavy favourites.
However, Cork did manage to draw two of their home league encounters against the eventual champions during the campaign, and the Rovers boss is wary of the potential for an upset against Ger Nash's outfit.
"People who maybe don't follow football would see this as a foregone conclusion, because of that – we're champions, they got relegated – but anyone who has watched Cork since Ger came in would think totally differently.
"I think they've got some really exciting young players. They've got some experienced players that understand what it takes to win, and they've got a really good manager and a good backroom team.
"We're under no illusions that Sunday is going to be a really difficult game and Cork are a team that have caused us problems, especially down there this year."
Jim McLaughlin and his successor Dermot Keeley managed a dominant Rovers side to a hat-trick of league and cup doubles in the mid 1980s, with the opportunity to emulate legends of the past one Bradley is keen to grasp.
The 40-year-old is also hoping to harness and draw upon the expertise of a few of those heroes of yesteryear.
"That team of the 80s were a special team, some say the best to ever play in the league, and they paved the way for us to go and follow.
"We have an opportunity to do that on Sunday again and we understand it's going to be difficult, but we know that if we can get the job done that it's a special achievement and one as a group that we've been wanting to do for some time.
"That team from '87 the four in a row (league titles) are brilliant, in terms of supporting us, helping us, speaking to staff, the players.
"They've been like that from day one. Hopefully this week we can get them in and get them around the players and around the staff to talk and pick their brains."
Watch the Sports Direct FAI Cup final, Shamrock Rovers v Cork City, on Sunday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
