By Paul Keane

Ryan McConville is still just five-years-old, but already has a strong opinion on the sort of Gaelic football he likes to watch.

His famous father, Armagh great Oisin McConville, will often tell him he's heading along to a big Ulster Championship game and ask if Ryan - who is 'football nuts' - wants to join him.

"He'll take it or leave it," said Oisin, smiling. "If he wants to see football, he'll go to the Dublin match. Whenever I say I'm going to a Dublin game he wants to go."

Ryan, of course, isn't alone in being fascinated by this Dublin team. From five to 85-years of age, the back to back All-Ireland champions have caught the imagination of a nation of neutrals.

"That's why there's a scramble from all over the country to go and see this game," said McConville, eyeing Sunday week's All-Ireland football final between Dublin and Mayo.

"I think this All-Ireland final can eclipse the hurling for the first year in a long time. Because I can't see how this could be a poor game, I really can't.

"Mayo are in the best position they've been in in a long time, as long as they don't over-think it. If they play with the energy they've been playing with, it should make for an awesome All-Ireland final."

Sean Cavanagh, who retired from inter-county duty with Tyrone after their All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin, predicted this week that Jim Gavin's side would win the final 'comfortably'.

McConville rates Dublin as 'awesome' but not unbeatable."Mayo have an opportunity to win it, definitely they have a chance," he said. "They're the only team that can match Dublin physically and athletically, and that makes a hell of a difference.

"The biggest difference I've seen in the semi-finals is the ability of Dublin and Mayo to make up the ground and catch players, to close down the space.

"Tyrone and Kerry could do that, but they couldn't execute the tackle when they got there. Mayo and Dublin have that power, that pace, they can execute those tackles when they get there. That's what makes it so difficult for other teams to play against."

It's been suggested that the run through the qualifiers has helped Mayo though McConville believes that even if they won the Connacht championship, as many expected, they'd still have found their way to this stage of the season.

"I think they probably would still be here, but the games have definitely helped them," said the 2002 All-Ireland final goalscorer and winner. "They've figured out a few things as the games have gone along, and I think they're more aware of their deficiencies now than they've ever been, of what makes them tick.

"I'm saying that and yet I'm still hoping that's the case when they go into the All-Ireland final, that we are not sitting here next week talking about how Mayo are going to pull a rabbit out of the hat, because they don't need to do that.

"They don't need to over-think it, they just need to turn up and play with the energy they've been playing with. They can win it."

Tony McEntee, a close friend of McConville as a Crossmaglen Rangers colleague and a former Armagh team-mate, is part of Mayo manager Stephen Rochford's management team.

"I played with Tony and then I played under Tony and he was a different character to deal with as a manager or coach than he was as a player," said McConville.

"He has his ideas about how his teams should play. Obviously Stephen Rochford is the Mayo manager so at the end of the day he decides what way they play. But I think you can see Tony's stamp come over the team in the last number of years and particularly in the last six months."

McConville shrugged when asked if he suspected the decision to play Aidan O'Shea at full-back in the games against Kerry was one of McEntee's suggestions.

"It wouldn't be unlike Tony's ideas, but there had to be some joined up thinking from the whole management team on that one," he said. "It wasn't a complete disaster if you look at the fact that they got over the line against Kerry, but I don't think he'll be playing there again somehow.

"I think they'll play him centre-forward (against Dublin) and get him to play a role behind the midfield and do whatever damage he can do from there.

"That'll fit into what Dublin are doing as well with O'Sullivan going back to play as a sweeper."

Meanwhile, McConville revealed that he was nominated for the Donegal managerial vacancy following Rory Gallagher's departure but declined.

"I think I'm on the record for saying it before that the inter-county job that I would consider would be Armagh, I'm just not in line for that sort of job right now," said McConville, who hopes to continue in his backroom team role with the Laois hurlers in 2018.

"I think I still have to garner that sort of experience, through the college stuff I'm doing, I've done a couple of years with Cross' and now I'm getting the biggest education of my life because I'm with the Cross' U-6s and that's proving tough on a Friday evening!"