Donegal's Marty O'Reilly has insisted that taking on Dublin in an Allianz Football League final would be an occasion to be savoured, not feared.
A win over Mayo in Castlebar on Sunday would secure Donegal a final place for the first time since 2007 when they were champions.
There have been plenty of suggestions, however, that they should be careful what they wish for because Dublin love nothing more than to punish teams in springtime deciders.
The Dubs are currently top of Division 1 and a win or a draw in Monaghan on Sunday will leave them a game away from five titles in a row.
Dublin beat both Kerry and Cork by 11 points in the last two league finals and demolished Derry 3-19 to 1-10 in 2014.
The last thing a young Donegal group containing 13 U-21s needs is a morale crushing defeat to stew over while preparing for the Championship though versatile half-forward O'Reilly insisted they'll be going for glory.
"Any time you get to Croke Park to play Dublin, even if it is just for the experience that the younger lads gain from it, it's worth it," said O'Reilly.
"For them to come in and to get to play Dublin would be great and, to be fair, every day we go out and play a game of football against Dublin we're trying to beat them.
"We had a tough game in Ballybofey a few weeks back, it was a draw in the end, so if we happen to get past Mayo on Sunday we'll be looking forward to a league final no matter who it is against."
Dublin hammered Roscommon by 21 points last weekend to set a new unbeaten record for league and Championship games.
"Dublin are 35 games unbeaten now, they are the form team in the country," said O'Reilly. "If you even look at their last game against Roscommon, they were quite dominant over them last weekend whereas we just about got past Roscommon. They had a chance at the end and didn't take it and we got a last minute winner.
"So if you look at it that way there could be signs that Dublin could beat Donegal heavily, if we meet, but the players wouldn't believe that. We'll go out and we'll certainly put in the best performance that we can if we get to play them in the final."
That Donegal are within touching distance of a final place is an impressive achievement in itself.
All-Ireland winning trio Christy Toye, Rory Kavanagh and David Walsh retired in January, just months after Colm McFadden and Eamon McGee made the same decisions.
Odhran MacNiallais, an ever present throughout 2016, and Leo McLoone, another member of the 2012 group, also made themselves unavailable this year, opening the door for a batch of talented youngsters to step in.
"It's been brilliant to get them so involved," said O'Reilly, a Dublin-based primary school-teacher. "The likes of Ciaran Thompson has come in, he's over 21, but he's doing great. Cian Mulligan came on in the last two matches and got a point with his first touch against Tyrone. It's great, really good for Donegal football.
"When we first met up last November we knew that eight or nine senior enough players weren't coming back. It didn't come as a surprise then when a few of them announced maybe in January or February that they weren't coming back and we had three months of training done at that stage.
"We still sat down and said that getting to a league final was our target. We have that chance now on Sunday but obviously Mayo will have a lot to say about that too."
The route south to Castlebar for Sunday's tie will be a familiar one for O'Reilly whose second cousin is ex-Mayo star Billy Joe Padden.
"My Dad is from Belmullet, in Mayo," he said. "When I was growing up I always had a Mayo jersey on me. I remember Donegal and Mayo playing a big quarter-final at Croke Park and I had the Donegal jersey on over the Mayo jersey. I pulled off the Donegal jersey afterwards! I was always a big Mayo supporter growing up."
There is also the chance that Donegal could end up playing Monaghan in the final, if the Farney pull off a home win over Dublin.
That would pit two huge Ulster rivals against each other and there's been nothing to separate them in recent seasons.
In fact, across their last seven meetings in the league and Championship they are split evenly; Monaghan 5-75 Donegal 4-78.
"I saw that stat, it's incredible," said O'Reilly. "Every game has been won by a point or two and the overall aggregate score is a draw. It's remarkable, really".
