If, as expected, Dublin win their fourth straight All-Ireland title on Sunday, they will start tangling with notions of legacy. Are these players greater than Heffo's paradigm-shifting Dubs?
Much unties both sides, although they diverge in a couple of respects.
In favour of the current team: potentially four straight All-Ireland titles, and a general relentlessness hitherto unseen. Against them: the quality of the opposition - were any of Dublin's modern opponents as good as the Kerry team jousting with Dublin in the 70s or 80s?
Sunday offers Jim Gavin another way of delineating between his side from their forbearers.
If Dublin beat Tyrone, it will be the first time they will have won an All-Ireland final without at least one St Vincent's player on the field since 1942, or, to put it another way, since Vincent's won their first senior Dublin title. (Even in 1942, Tommy McCann of Parnells played minor with Vincent's at underage level before making a transfer).
Also, should the Dubs win on Sunday, they will be the first team to win an All-Ireland final without a player involved from the reigning county champions since Cork did so in 2010.
Both Gavin and Heffernan's reigns are linked by Vincent's dominance of the Dublin championship. Vincent's have won all but one of the Dublin championships staged since Jim Gavin took charge in 2013, and have thrown in an All-Ireland title and two Leinster titles for good measure.
Earlier, Vincent's were Dublin champions five times during Heffernan's 11 years in charge and, in a pattern that would repeat itself, won two Leinster titles and an All-Ireland crown.
Heffo's side was heavily influenced by Vincent's, to the extent that Vins were known as 'The Club' by those in the county team's hinterland.
Even prior to Heffo's reign, his club formed the backbone of the doughtier Dublin teams: in 1953, Dublin won the National League final against Cavan with all but one of the starting players affiliated with Vincent's. Dublin did the expedient thing and won the game in Vincent's jerseys.
By the time Heffernan took the reigns, his club was as influential as ever. The Dublin teams that started the 1976 and '77 All-Ireland finals were both coached by Vincent's men (Heffernan and then Tony Hanahoe) and on the field were inspired by another Vincent's pair in Brian Mullins and Jimmy Keaveney. On top of that, Hanahoe was instrumental in the half-forward line alongside defender Gay O'Driscoll and forward Bobby Doyle.
While Heffernan drew heavily on the dominant club side of his era, Gavin has not. While Vincent's Shane O'Hanlon remains a part of Gavin's backroom team, the on-field Vincent's influence has receded.
With Diarmuid Connolly and Shane Carthy in America and Michael Savage behind Stephen Cluxton and Evan Comerford in the pecking order, no Vincent's player has appeared in any of Dublin's seven championship games thus far. Connolly was Vincent's sole representative in the last three finals, while he was joined by Ger Brennan for Jim Gavin's inaugural All-Ireland triumph in 2013.
The Vincent's influence was strong in 2011: Pat Gilroy and Mickey Whelan were on the sideline, while Eamon Fennell came off the bench to join Brennan and Connolly on the field. Tomás Quinn was an unused substitute.
Gilroy was the sole Vincent's representative on the pitch when Dublin finally won their first All-Ireland title of the post-Heffernan era in 1995. He played the final eight minutes against Tyrone as a late substitute, winning the title alongside Jim Gavin. The relatively poor Vincent's influence on that occasion could partly be explained that The Club were going through a famine of their own at the time: they went from 1984 to 2008 without winning a Dublin title.
(As an aside, that '95 side ultimately proved to have a huge influence on the current team: after Gilroy came Jim Gavin, who drafted in his erstwhile teammates Mick Deegan and Jason Sherlock as members of his backroom staff).
Heffernan, meanwhile, had at least four Vincent's players starting on each of his All-Ireland winning teams.
Whereas Heffo's army had their spine forged at club level, Gavin's is all his own work. Something to consider if talk turns to legacy on Sunday night.
