In some ways, Saturday’s Tailteann Cup final has Oisín McConville back on familiar ground. From his playing days with Armagh and Crossmaglen, McConville is well used to big days out in Croke Park. The first message he has now for his Wicklow players is to embrace the moment for all its worth.It will be their biggest day out in his four seasons in charge, with Wicklow looking to overcome two-time Tailteann Cup finalists Down. Another hefty prize on offer is a spot in the Sam Maguire competition next season.Despite McConville’s mostly winning record at Croke Park – including Armagh’s 2002 All-Ireland final win over Kerry, and six All-Ireland club finals with Crossmaglen – he admits some of those occasions passed him by, such was his obsession with the action on the field.“A lot of time as a player I would have maybe went to the extremes about sheltering myself away from what was going on,” he says. “I wished I probably embraced it a little bit more.“So we’ve tried to create that in Wicklow, with everything that goes on around the final. Apart from what goes on between the white lines, or at training, you have to embrace a lot of that. It gives you an idea of how important it is to other people. It’s not that you want to focus completely on that, but you need to be aware of it.“And that has flipped for me, because, as I player, I would rather spend most of the time in my room, not looking at what was going on outside of that, probably to my detriment at times.”Down are back in the Tailteann final for the third time in four seasons, losing to Meath in 2023 before beating Laois in 2024. It’s a first final for the Garden County, but regardless of the result on Saturday, McConville believes his team have reached a level of consistency they’re no longer satisfied with being commendable in defeat.Roll back a few months and neither Wicklow nor Dublin were exactly where they wanted to be. In the Leinster quarter-final between the counties, Ger Brennan’s side hung on by two points after being reduced to 14. Wicklow goalkeeper Mark Jackson uncharacteristically missed a series of two-point frees.McConville’s team opened their Tailteann account with a defeat to Laois, but then went on a winning run, seeing off Limerick, Tipperary, Antrim and Offaly in turn.“It just feels like the time of year you really want to be involved,” says McConville. “There’s very few teams left, just to be in that company does feel good.“We said after the Dublin game that the potential was there for us to go and win it (the Tailteann Cup). We spoke openly about that, and that’s probably something that has us where we are today.“Our last four performances, bar the Laois game, have been pretty good. Regardless of even if they hadn’t been, we’re getting results and that’s a turnaround from where we were. We’ve moved into a stage where we need to be winning things.”Despite last year being linked with the then-vacant managerial positions in Mayo and Louth, McConville agreed a two-year extension in Wicklow to see him through to 2027.“I will hold my hand up and admit that, at the start of the year, our number one aim was promotion,” McConville adds, Wicklow just missing on promotion from Division 4. “But this certainly feels significant.”*Oisín McConville was speaking at an event organised by AIB, sponsors of the All-Ireland football championships