Cormac Costello: Us older guys in Dublin team are pushing on

Having monopolised the league trophy as well as the All-Ireland for most of Jim Gavin's reign, the Dubs are back in a Division 1 decider for the first time since 2018.

In between, they have hoovered up four more All-Ireland championships, 'shared' a league title with Kerry in 2021 (their prospective championship meeting was to double as a league decider but it never happened), took a surprise spin in Division 2 and then returned.

Under Dessie Farrell, we had grown accustomed to their league form being slack. Shockingly, they were relegated in 2022, a notion which would have been borderline surreal a year later.

Their ultimately successful run through Division 2 was largely swagger-free, with Farrell admitting after a forgettable win over Limerick that they "looked like a Division 2 team today." Not that any of that counted for much later in the year.

The start of this year's league appeared a continuation of that trend, although Dublin have taken wing after two opening losses, embarking on a run of form reminiscent of their salad days under Gavin.

"Things are starting to click, there was no silver bullet there," Costello tells RTÉ Sport, when asked to account for the uptick in form.

"The first game against Monaghan was a really poor display from ourselves. Again, maybe a little bit of ring rust or whatever you want to put it down to.

"Second game, we actually thought our performance wasn't too bad. Mayo were very good on the night and they fully deserved their win. But we didn't think it was the worst performance in the world.

"Just the last couple of games, offensively, things have clicked and we've been a lot more clinical in front of goal.

"Things seemed to marry the last couple of games, which is great. But at the same time,