Kerry footballer Tom O'Sullivan is looking forward to Saturday's Interprovincial final against Ulster with great interest as the All-Ireland winner strives to be on the first team from the south to win the competition since 1999.

It is the Munster footballers' longest streak without Interprovincial silverware since their last sucess eight years ago - their previous win was back in 1982 - and O'Sullivan is keen to ensure that his province will be celebrating their 15th title on Saturday night.

"It means a lot to the players to play in an Interprovincial final. It was only yesterday that I was talking to Paul Galvin. I was asking him was he coming up. He was saying that he was mad to win a Railway Cup medal. But he is carrying a few injuries at the moment," said O'Sullivan.

"He's coming up with the panel anyway but whether he will start I don't know. Kieran Donaghy is the same. He's injured as well. But they are coming up to win."

This positive mentality is reflected throughout the squad but O'Sullivan admits that more needs to be done by the GAA to promote the competition and ensure that it is slotted in well in the GAA calendar.

"Time is the big thing really. There are a lot of county championship games and players would prefer to put themselves in with the club. It's hard to fit the whole lot in really. It's hard for the GAA to find dates for everything.

"There is a week between the last game (the last semi-final) and this game and a week isn't enough to promote it really. Maybe the media could promote it a bit better."

O Sullivan is hoping for a big crowd at Croke Park on Saturday but he reckons that the GAA will be lucky to get an attendance in excess of 30,000.

"I'd say if they got 30,000 they would be lucky enough. I'd say it will be a lot of family and friends and maybe with the Bank Holiday weekend it might draw a bigger crowd. I think if Munster and Ulster put out good teams, it could be a good crowd.
He added: "It's 10 euro to get in and that's not going to break anyone. It's 20 euro to get into a nightclub. I presume there will be more entertainment at Croke Park on Saturday!"

Ulster boast 27 titles, just one behind Leinster, and O'Sullivan expects a very tough game against the northern side this weekend.

"There is great rivalry there alright. I think both teams are bringing up big players so it should be a good game. It would be nice to put one over on Ulster.

"I think there are five or so Kerry players playing for Munster and there will be six or seven Cork players and one or two from Waterford, so I'm sure they will all want to put one over on Ulster as much as Ulster will want to put one over Munster."

The Rathmore attacker was involved in the last two championships with Munster but success was not forthcoming on either occasion. He is hoping that it will be a case of third time lucky this Saturday.

"At the end of the day, it's a Railway Cup final and I think Darragh O'Se is the only fella playing from Kerry to have one. Munster have only won it once in the last ten years so I'm sure the players would like to have at least one before they retire."

O'Sullivan expects to mark Paddy Bradley this Saturday and recalls previous clashes between himself and the Derry All-Star.

"I marked Paddy before back in 2004. I think myself and Paddy marked each other in a secondary schools game before. So we had a couple of hellos and goodbyes. Paddy is good and I'm not looking forward to marking him because he is very fast.

"And not just that because he is very strong as well and very accurate. His All-Star this year was well deserved. It's about time he got one," O'Sullivan added.

Monaghan’s Dick Clerkin is willing to put county rivalries aside this Saturday for his province as Ulster look to beat Munster in the 2007 M Donnelly Interprovincial football final.

The Monaghan half-forward believes that player power will ensure that the competition formerly known as the Railway Cup continues to remain a firm part of the GAA calendar.

"There has been a lot of talk in the past few weeks maybe about this competition coming to an end," Clerkin said ahead of the weekend's floodlit clash at Croke Park.

"I don't know who is questioning that because from a players' point of view, we love it. It's the only opportunity we have to play our own game - a game that we love - with our own peers, to represent your province.

"The International Rules is not the game that we play every week, every year. This is the only outlet we have to do that so from a players' point of view we would hate to see it go."

Clerkin says that the camaraderie among this Ulster squad has been excellent in the past few weeks as county loyalties and last summer's inter-county antics have been put to one side.

"Ourselves in Monaghan, we had a good run in the Ulster championship and we came up against quite a few of the boys along the way and I was just thinking of a few things that would have went on, on the pitch and wondering ‘does he remember that or not?!'

"I suppose you just have to forget about that and people realise that it is all part and parcel of the game, what happens on the field stays on the field,” the chemical engineer said.

"We are playing together now and we all get on very well. We've been training for the last three weeks and had the semi-final against Connacht last weekend. A few of us went out the night after and we get on very well, people realise that it is just on the day and that nothing carries over."

And Clerkin is not particularly bothered about the Interprovincial championship adding to what is already a jam-packed schedule for the inter-county footballer.

"We are footballers and that's what we do. If we get the opportunity to play for our province, no matter what time of the year it is, it’s great. Playing under the floodlights at Croke Park with your province alongside the best players in the country, why wouldn't you want to do that – it just adds a whole different element to the playing side of things."

Clerkin is no small man by any means, standing at 6ft 1in, and he brings to Gaelic football great leadership and skill in abundance. However he cannot but be influenced by the interest and passion which Donegal native and Ulster manager Brian McEniff possesses for the Interprovincial championship.

“Brian would be a very proud Ulsterman and he has been involved with the set-up for the last 20 years or so, he is very keen. This year to bring the Railway Cup back up north especially after losing it the last two years and the tradition we have in the competition.

"He puts a lot into it and he gets us involved from three or four weeks before the semi-final so that we get some nights where we get to train together," he explained.

"His interest in the competition is huge and that rubs off on the players. The players from Ulster really want to be involved.”

The 25 year old is delighted to get the opportunity to play for his province.

"You love to get called up. It's a huge honour. There is no case of boys turning around and saying: 'no we don't want to play' for whatever reason. People that don't play are people who have commitments.

"It is unfortunate that there is not a great time of the year to slot it into the calendar. There are the club championships and that is just the reality of it. There is huge interest and that is coming from Brian's appetite for the competition," Clerkin added.

"Some nights with club commitments there mightn't be too many there at the Ulster training sessions but people still come and travel. We would train in Clogher in Tyrone and people might have two or three hours to drive but they always would. Brian is infectious in his interest in it and it rubs off on everybody else."

Munster SF (vs. Ulster): Alan Quirke (Valley Rovers, Cork); Thomas O’Gorman (The Nire, Waterford), Tom O’Sullivan (Rathmore, Kerry), Kieran O’Connor (Aghad