Donegal boss Rory Gallagher admits the rest of the country concentrate too much on Dublin and don't focus enough on themselves.
Speaking in the Irish Examiner today, he said: "The whole country obsesses about Dublin. When you are in Ulster you worry about Ulster first. You keep an eye on Dublin all year, of course."
"They are a very good side. It is up to others to determine how good they are; all we are concerned with is being ready on Saturday evening," he added.
Going back to his earlier days, he remembers the current Dublin crop coming through the ranks. “I worked as a coach and it was a phenomenal experience. Philly McMahon, Johnny Cooper, Diarmuid Connolly — these guys were 14, 15, and 16. Paddy Andrews is one I would have worked with for a good few years.”
Gallagher credits the capital's success with the work done at local level: “You could see it building with the amount of work that was going on in the club scene.”
Dublin have been the dominant force over the last five years but have not been invincible. Donegal beat them by six points in the 2014 semi-final and although Gallagher wasn't involved that day, he believes his current crop can emulate the achievements of two years ago.
"The level of performance that we’re capable of, we feel we can beat anybody and that would have been the same looking from relatively on the outside in 2014,” he said.
Looking forward to the weekend he said: “They beat us in 2011, we beat them in 2014. It is like a lot of rivalries — you can see one game as defining but they are not really. We learned a lot from 2011; I am sure Dublin learned a lot from 2014, and Saturday evening will present a new challenge for both teams".
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