Sit back and enjoy the Lyons Show

He's back. Limited amount of shows only. Welcome to the cabaret. Tommy Lyons props himself on a table in the Dublin medical room and the place fills with media and the merely curious. The lame and the halt form a disgruntled queue outside.

"Well is Goggins a defender lads?," asks Tommy.

Coman Goggins has just proved emphatically that he is, having hinted otherwise two weeks ago.

"Ye're poor judges lads," continues Tommy.

We are but he's going to rub it in anyway.

"Ye give him an All Star one year then ye write him off the next." True. All true.

Tommy has several themes he wants to work through. He is dismayed the GAA haven't adequately publicised the fact that there were reduced ticket prices on Saturday.

And then there is the wonder of this summer and the way the Dublin team has caught the imagination of its city.

"We put about 60,000 people in there today, if the figures are right. Donegal had 15,000 tickets. And most of the rest came from us."

His team, he knew, had made mistakes the last day and as he watched the video over and over during the past couple of weeks he knew what had to be done.

"We pushed them back today, lads, we defended from number 15 back through the lines. We never let them get going properly."

Ciarán Whelan, the Dublin midfielder, gave an exhibition on Saturday which reminded one of, well the young Ciarán Whelan who scored four points in a Leinster final. On Saturday he leapt, he caught, he carried, he shot, he scored.

Perhaps the secret is the flu he'd been suffering from.

"I was a bit surprised to feel so well, actually, but that's life. I got a flu after the drawn game and it dragged on.

"We knew that we underperformed right through the team the last day. Six or seven of us had to improve our performance. It's about workrate.

"We made a lot of simple errors out there, but it just didn't happen for Donegal. We know we're not the finished article. Our six forwards today tackled very hard and Donegal didn't get the supply of ball today. We won nothing today, though. It's the first round of the All-Ireland series as far as we are concerned. We increased our performance level today. We'll have to keep it there."

Keeping it there is Ray Cosgrove. His sixth goal in the last four games makes him the country's top forward in terms of scoring averages. As a player who was almost left back in the box by Dublin he looks already like a shoo-in for an All Star.

He's whistling a happy tune.

"Six goals, yeah. They're going in. In fairness, though, Dessie gave me a superb ball and that's what I'm there for. It came to me, Tony went the wrong side, and I went for the left foot. He sort of forced me to that side. I went and leaned on the right foot. I'm comfortable enough out there.

"I played soccer for a few years. I'm comfortable in front of goals. I thought we hassled them a lot today. Number 15 all the way back."

He is asked if Tommy Lyons' presence on the sideline made a difference. Same old questions.

"Tommy being here? I was asked the same question the last day. We dropped three points at the end: would we have done it if Tommy was there? He's a huge influence. The atmosphere changed completely when he came back. He instilled confidence in us.

"We're more comfortable when he is around. We did our homework for today. Tommy drilled it into us and we played some good stuff at times today. We needed a good start today. They came with the momentum. Midfield did well for us today. Ciarán was injured the last day, he'd say he was below par himself. Today he was superb."

They aren't the finished article but they'll know surely the Dublin teams of 1974 and 1983 weren't the finished articles either. They have momentum, they have confidence, they have another day beneath the blue cliffs of Croke Park to look forward to.