DAVID PHELAN REMEMBERS what it was like first time around.

The buzz of All-Ireland final day, heart pumping, the bus drive to Croke Park. But that was two years ago and this time it’s different.

Since then, everything has changed utterly for Mount Leinster Rangers. All-Ireland intermediate champions of 2012, they won that title under lights at GAA HQ.

Now it’s St Patrick’s Day and the associated razzmatazz. And where previously it was Na Fianna of Armagh, this time it’s the superstars from Portumna who will provide the opposition at the famed Drumcondra venue.

Karl Lawlor was captain then, now it’s Phelan — a quiet, unassuming 28-year-old dairy farmer who is hoping to get his hands on the Tommy Moore Cup.

“There is a great bond – we’re together a long time now,” Phelan reflects. “There are lads here since 2006 when we won our first senior title. Some lads have retired and there are younger lads coming up along the way but any younger players that do get involved in the team are pretty much brought into a family situation.

“Everyone looks after each other – we’re a small enough community where we live.

“We socialise together, a lot of the lads work together, we play hurling together, football together. We spend a lot of time together through the year.”

And that’s what makes Mount Leinster Rangers special – the genuine “bond” that attacker Phelan refers to.

It’s inspired the Carlow champions to new heights and while St Patrick’s Day is all about the panel of players here now, thoughts will naturally turn to absent friends.

Lawlor, for example, is in Australia and Phelan reveals: “We’ve been talking to him on and off. We’re still in contact a good bit. He’s wishing us the best of luck and wishes he was here but for different reasons he can’t make it over on the day.”

Looking forward to a “unique occasion”, Phelan has some idea of what might lie in store. But he accepts that nothing can fully prepare a player for Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.

He says: “It’s not going to be new but the situation we’re in, on St Patrick’s Day, will be a unique occasion to everyone. We played there in the intermediate All-Ireland.

“That was under lights, which was a special kind of atmosphere but on St Patrick’s Day, you’ll have a bigger crowd, a different atmosphere altogether, the pinnacle of the club championship.”

And Phelan recalls: “I’d never played in Croke Park before then. I remember driving in on the bus, driving underneath the Hogan Stand and the junior All-Ireland final was on at the same time. When you’re driving past the tunnel, you could see the junior final on and the lights. Then it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It’s an unbelievable feeling.

“When you come out of the dressing room, you’re looking around a small bit and getting the photographs taken but then once the whistle blows and the ball is thrown in, speaking personally it was just like another game until the end, and as James (Hickey) might say, it was the Europa!”

Mount Leinster captain David Phelan lifts the cup after the Leinster final. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Mount Leinster Rangers have adopted a very definite ‘step by step’ approach along the road to Croke Park but Phelan remembers a five-point defeat against Kilcormac-Killoughey in November 2012, and how it convinced him that MLR could achieve big things.

“After we won the intermediate All-Ireland, we said, why not? We’d never won a match in Leinster before, at senior level.

“Kilcormac-Killoughey beat us last year, which was a bit of a disappointment. They beat us in the first round of the Leinster championship but they went on to play in the All-Ireland final.

“I know they were beaten but that just showed us how close they could be.

“They had two guys sent off and were missing Dan Currams, one of their main forwards. It just showed us what we could achieve this year.

“I know you talk about counties but that doesn’t translate to club teams. “We don’t feel it does anyway. Portumna could be a different story alright – they have so many household names on their team. We’ll have to wait and see.”