RTÉ GAA analyst Eamonn Fitzmaurice believes that Derry have demonstrated that they are very much a Division 1 team in waiting – and victory over a yet to ignite Dublin on Saturday night would rubber-stamp such an assertion.
Both sides enter the Celtic Park tie, which will be broadcast live on RTÉ2, with 100% winning records to defend after four matches, but the manner of their journeys to eight points from a possible eight have been wholly different.
Apart from a stern test against Louth in Ardee, Rory Gallagher's Ulster champions have cruised to league wins over Limerick, Meath and most recently Kildare, holding the trio to a miserly combined total of 1-18.
For Dublin it’s been a case of just doing enough. A comfortable win over Limerick aside, they were left hanging on in narrow victories over Kildare and Cork before needing seven points on the bounce late on to avoid a shock loss to Clare at Croke Park on Saturday evening.
While level at the top of the Division 2 table, Fitzmaurice believes that it’s the Ulster side who look best placed to record what would be a real impact win, even if we’re still in the league skirmishes.
"Derry have pushed on from last year again. We’ve all been so impressed with them for the last couple of seasons and the graph has continued to go up," he told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"A couple of the issues that were hanging over them from last year, particularly in terms of their forward threat and a bit more support for Shane McGuigan, they looked to have worked on that this winter and they have improved again and they are pushing on again.
"It’s a huge opportunity for them next weekend, if they were to beat Dublin above in Derry that's a statement win. You can be sure that Rory Gallagher is really driving that angle this week.
"It’s a great chance to maybe sock it into Dublin when Dublin look like they’re stuck in gear at the moment and haven’t really got going."
Fitzmaurice had expected Dessie Farrell’s side to have accelerated through the gears by this point in response to last year’s relegation, but he still sees a team that is struggling to locate it’s attacking verve.
"I was actually expecting a bit of a return to that [all-action attacking] in this league because I just felt that it was an opportunity for them, as well as trying new players, to try different elements and add stuff to their game-plan, but it’s very much more of the same.
"They’re taking a lot of short kick-outs, I didn’t see the game against Clare but certainly against Cork they weren't as aggressive against the opposition kick-out as they were normally.
"It’s pedestrian, it’s a lot of possession-based football, but look they’ve won four out of four so you can’t argue that much against it either.
"For Dessie Farrell and the lads, it’s a results-based business and they’re getting the results, but you just question going forward and going deep into the championship, will they need something different?
"I just think that with Con O’Callaghan inside in the full-forward line, I can’t understand why they aren’t more direct at times, why they aren’t using him."
Despite those issues, Fitzmaurice says the trip to the Maiden city will "get the juices flowing" for Dublin.
"In terms of the form team it is Derry. I think they were in a very similar position this time last year and I think Rory Gallagher will be beating that drum this week that it was towards the end of the [2022] league that they had a couple of slip ups, up in Hyde Park in Roscommon in particular. It cost them promotion in the end.
"They have been very vocal with their determination to get into Division 1 this year, that's the next step for them. They won the Ulster Championship last year, which was obviously a massive step in their development, but to get into Division 1 now and be playing those Division 1 teams week in, week out is the next step that they want to take.
"Because of that and because of the way they are playing and because of the way Dublin are playing, you’d really fancy Derry next Saturday evening.
"Having said that, the Dubs, with the likes of [James] McCarthy and [Jack] McCaffrey having got game-time under their belt....they have been kind of going through the motions so far, but a game like this against a team that they’d see as a threat not only in the league but as a threat possibly in the championship, Dublin are good in those situations.
"I think we’ll learn more about Dublin maybe than Derry next weekend, we kind of know where Derry are at, but we’ll see now can Dublin go up a couple of notches when faced with a foe who could be in their line of fire later on in the season again."
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