I remember what it was like trying to convince yourself that you could beat Kilkenny. It never felt like you were just up against the 15 players in front of you.You were also up against the weight of tradition and the painful memories of all the times they had beaten us before. And you knew that they believed they were going to win, whatever we thought about it.The general feeling is that Kilkenny are going nowhere and that Dublin will never have a better chance of beating them, and I find it hard to buy into all that. Maybe I just have too many scars from my playing days.I always compare Kilkenny to Kerry in football. After they were beaten by Meath in last year’s championship, everyone thought Kerry were finished. A few weeks later, they were All-Ireland champions. Everybody who had written them off felt stupid.Over the last few weeks, Kilkenny have been destroyed by Galway in Salthill, struggled to get a draw with Offaly, and were poor for a half against Kildare. If any other team was showing that kind of form you wouldn’t give them a second thought. But if Kilkenny managed to get into a Leinster final, would you bet against them?Dublin have only beaten Kilkenny once in the championship in 80 years. I don’t know how many other times they were good enough to beat them but just couldn’t make themselves believe it. That’s the challenge they face now. Do they believe they’re good enough?In the life of every team, there comes a tipping point where you go one way or the other. In my time with Galway it came after the 2016 Leinster final, when Kilkenny beat us again. By that stage we had lost two All-Ireland finals to Kilkenny over the previous four years, Anthony Cunningham had been pushed out as manager after a heave by the players and Micheál Donoghue basically said to us, “enough is enough”.As players we needed to take ownership of this. We couldn’t carry on losing the games that mattered. It took us another 14 months to win the All-Ireland, but in terms of our mentality, things changed after the 2016 Leinster final.Galway's Conor Whelan after losing to Kilkenny in the 2016 Leinster hurling final. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Dublin are already guaranteed of qualifying from the Leinster round-robin, but to prove to themselves that they’re different now they must beat Kilkenny on Sunday. Dublin can’t keep putting these things off.If beating Limerick in the All-Ireland quarter-final last year was worth anything to them as a group this is the kind of game where they must show it. They didn’t play with any fear that day in Croke Park. How many times in recent years have they played without fear against Kilkenny?Dublin’s win against Galway in Salthill was impressive, and it will be another boost to their confidence. But since Galway came into Leinster in 2009, Dublin have never been afraid of them. They didn’t look at Galway in the same way they viewed Kilkenny.[ Fortress Parnell Park? Dublin’s record against Kilkenny says otherwiseOpens in new window ]Last year was the first time that Galway had beaten Dublin in a championship match in Dublin; last Saturday was the second time in the last three years that Dublin have beaten Galway in Salthill. For Galway, that game will give them a lot of food for thought. There was a period in the second half when they were keeping Dublin at arm’s length on the scoreboard, but they couldn’t kick on and put the game to bed. Instead, Dublin took the game by the throat.Given how bad Kilkenny were in Salthill a few weeks ago, this was Galway’s first real test and they failed it. From their point of view, it is better for it to happen last Saturday than in a few weeks’ time.The three goals they gave away should all have been prevented for different reasons. The first one from Donal Burke’s 65 was a bit of a freak. You’d never expect that a ball being stopped from going over the bar would end up in the net.Dublin’s Brian Hayes playing against Galway last week. Photograph: Evan Logan/Inpho But Dublin’s other two goals were the result of poor defending. John Hetherton shouldn’t have been allowed to make an uncontested catch less than 20 metres from the Galway goal, and for the winning goal Brian Hayes’s run wasn’t tracked. In both of those cases you’re talking about basic defending.Just like Dublin, Galway are already guaranteed to qualify from Leinster and if they beat Wexford on Sunday they’ll be in the Leinster final. Wexford have had a terrible year, but in each of the last three seasons they produced their best performance in the final game of the round-robin – each time against Kilkenny. If there is any drop in Galway’s concentration or intensity, Wexford could make them suffer.[ If you think hurling referees are influenced by the scoreboard, you are rightOpens in new window ]In many ways, Offaly could be the biggest winners at the weekend. If Dublin beat Kilkenny and Offaly beat Kildare, they will get out of Leinster for the first time since the round-robin system was introduced. It would be an incredible achievement for a team that was in the third tier of the championship just five years ago.I don’t think they can take Kildare for granted, though. They gave Galway plenty to think about a couple of weeks ago and they were very competitive in the first half against Kilkenny last weekend. They won’t fear Offaly and I wouldn’t be betting my house on the outcome of that match.The big game of the weekend, though, is in Parnell Park. Dublin are not a young team. Most of them are familiar names who have been around for a long time. After a four-year absence, Liam Rushe has come out of retirement and he didn’t come back just for the sake of wearing the Dublin jersey again, he came back to win things.For this group of players, beating Kilkenny in a game that matters is a bridge they have to cross. They can’t keep putting it off.