Caffrey does his best to play it down a bit

Leinster SFC Longford v Dublin: Conal Keaney is walking down the tunnel under the Hogan Stand when RTÉ drag him aside for a quick word for The Sunday Game. Ray Cosgrove is walking behind him. "Give me a mention, Kean-o, will ya?" When you win your first championship match by 19 points you can afford to be in that kind of humour, writes Ian O'Riordan

None of the Dublin players looks like he's just been through a championship match. A thorough warm-up perhaps, but not 70 minutes of competitive football. And the fact is they haven't. When Paul Caffrey appears it is obvious he's going to have a harder time than usual playing down Dublin's performance, but he still does his best.

"No, that wasn't what we were expecting. We gave Longford the utmost respect coming into this game, and we still wouldn't be happy with some aspects of our play, particularly in the first half. But look, I know the last 10 or 15 minutes was no good to either team. And that put the real gloss on the score line.

"But we would have liked a tougher test, absolutely. We've no control over what Longford produced, but in fairness they did fall away in the last 15 minutes, and that gave an unfair scoreline."

Even with players like Keaney and Alan Brogan and Shane Ryan all hitting new heights, Caffrey resists lavish praise.

"I think the players were looking forward to getting into Croke Park again. But the competitive thing is a basic requirement when you put on a county jersey. I wouldn't slap a player on the back for being competitive.

"There were a lot of anxious faces in the dressingroom beforehand, a lot of players with bad memories of their last two performances here, particularly in the second half against Kerry. But all in all we are relieved to get a win under our belts."

Surely Brogan and Keaney deserve special mention? "I would think a few individuals would still feel they've something to improve on. It was a big day too for Stephen O'Shaughnessy and a lot of ball was aimed into his quarter, but he had a fantastic second half, because it was a step up for him. So it's onwards and upwards from here."

To Meath, in other words. Caffrey still doesn't alter his calm expression: "I know this Meath-Dublin thing does take on a life of its own, but what happened today will have absolutely zero relevance going forward. All the players will go back to their clubs now for the week, because there's some ding-dong battles in the club championship this week. We'll meet up again next weekend and start talking about Meath then."

Over in the Longford dressingroom, Luke Dempsey is breaking into a five-minute soliloquy that, unprompted, goes through almost every aspect of the game.

"If we are to upset the odds we needed to take all our chances," he starts, "and Dublin to miss a lot of theirs. But that didn't happen, and in the end it was an embarrassment for Longford.

"It was always in the back of my mind that something like that might happen from what I heard about some of Dublin's recent challenges. We were a little depleted down the middle, missing players like Liam Keenan at midfield.

"They're physically strong, and had men competing all over the field, which is a feature of Dublin's performance which I hadn't seen the in the last two years. All their forwards tackled tenaciously, and didn't allow any Longford player settle on the ball.

"Hopefully we'll have everyone back the next time out, and we'll just have to try and lift ourselves again for June 19th. That's the reality of sport. I know the team that gets Longford will be licking their lips. But I think that would be showing Dublin disrespect, I thought they were fantastic out there, and deserve all the credit they get. I would feel they can go all the way in Leinster now if they get up that relentless pace."

In Luke Dempsey's words then you heard it first: Dublin for the Leinster championship.