PAUL GRIFFIN is surrounded by dictaphones. In the GAA corporate box this week, leaning against a picture of Kilmacud Crokes team-mate Ray Cosgrove (wheeling away after Dublin’s first goal against Kildare in the 2002 Leinster championship), he seems unfazed by the heavy burden recently placed on his shoulders.

The first Crokes man to be county captain, he was a surprise choice to succeed Alan Brogan but survey Griffin’s record since 2003 and he becomes a logical and clever choice. He is low-key, industrious and usually the defender charged with bottling up the opposition’s primary marksman.

Like any smart leader, he plays down the role. “I think the responsibility doesn’t change that much. Your sole focus, or your main focus, is still going to be to go out there and play as well as you can. Focus on your performance, I think, that’s the biggest thing.

“As regards talking to the team, you judge that as you go along. We have a lot of guys out there who have been captain before and have been leaders. Again, I’m still looking for them to keep talking. I don’t think it is a case where you have to talk because you feel you should or for the sake of it. You choose your words when they are needed (rather) than being in everyone’s ear all the time.”

All very true but such a choice seems part of the “fresh eyes” approach manager Pat Gilroy and coach Mickey Whelan have tried to bring to the Dublin camp. With Griffin a mainstay of the Dublin set-up for seven seasons now, it is no harm to let someone who recently collected an All-Ireland club medal lead out a team desperate to make the same step at intercounty level.

Dublin’s 14-year struggle to reignite a love affair with Sam Maguire starts on June 7th, against Meath in Croke Park.

The new Dublin, despite many old heads on board, are trying to build proper foundations before Kerry and Tyrone disappear further around the bend.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and Kerry boss Jack O’Connor are adept at tweaking and shifting during a match, which has long been Dublin’s Achilles’ heel.

“It’s always going to be a work in progress throughout the summer,” says Griffin. “With Mickey and Pat coming in they’ve brought fresh eyes looking at it. They have their own way, evolving how we are playing as opposed to coming in and trying to rewrite everything. It depends on who you are playing, the type of game and how the game goes.

“I think that ability to adapt is what’s ultimately going to make you successful as opposed to going out with a rigid game plan and thinking, well, we’ve got to do this for 70 minutes. Because games go through phases. They change and evolve and you have to be able adapt and bring it back to your own strengths – if you can.”

Griffin defends the provincial champions route even though it has been of little benefit to Dublin in recent All-Ireland campaigns.

“For most teams the easiest route to get towards the All-Ireland is to be relatively strong in your province, to build up that form.

“The back-door system is obviously there but a defeat takes things out of you. It is difficult to come back. With the back door you don’t know who you are playing. For us, we definitely want to be successful in Leinster and take it on from there.”

June 7th will give us an indication of whether it is a new Dublin or more of the same.