Watching the first half in Celtic Park on Saturday evening, I thought we were glimpsing the Dublin of old.
They were controlling the tempo and flow of the game, and 0-07 to 0-02 was a modest enough lead at the break given their dominance.
For me, the game stirred memories of the 2014 Division 1 League final and the radically different directions the two teams have charted since then.
Dublin went on to do some of the greatest things we've seen in Gaelic football, winning six in a row. Derry, meanwhile, embarked on a steep decline, eventually dropping to Division 4.
Derry's evolution since then has been remarkable. Rory Gallagher has laboured hard in the background to produce a panel of players capable of delivering a second-half performance that took down the Dubs.
They were possibly guilty of showing them too much respect in the first 35 minutes, sitting too deep and allowing Dublin far too much possession.
But to come out in the second half and beat them in the manner they did highlights not only how far Rory Gallagher's side has come, but also the vulnerability of the Dubs at the moment.
I sense Dublin have been playing within themselves until now in Division 2 but on Saturday, they were playing against a top table team in Derry, an All-Ireland semi-finalist from last year.
Ultimately, they weren't able to adapt and change their gameplan when the tide turned in the second half.
Now, I think they will fix it. It's possibly a good lesson for Dessie, in that he at least got what you could call a 'half-good' performance. But the major learning for the Dubs is that they need to take more risk and jettison the cautiousness that has increasingly been a feature of their game in recent years.
Ciaran Kilkenny's conservatism in the second half, eschewing a goal chance in favour of popping a pass over to Cormac Costello, probably highlighted their mentality.
In the Jim Gavin years, Dublin were the masters of taking down the blanket defence and their attacking game is still geared to that end.
The reason that we were able to rattle Dublin is that we weren't afraid to go man-to-man and utilise the high press. Take some of their guys on and pin them back.
Other teams tended to give Dublin exaggerated respect and were happy to watch them playing football, whereas we embraced the challenge of taking them on and getting them to an uncomfortable place where they have to chase and they have to tackle.
And we got great joy out of that - now, it didn't bring us ultimate success - but it got us pretty damn close to cracking one of the greatest teams of all time.
Now all of a sudden, teams are just not afraid of Dublin as they might have been four or five years ago.
Partially, that's down to the Dubs showing their age - there's been a loss in personnel too but they still have the core group of guys there, James McCarthy, Ciaran Kilkenny, Brian Fenton, Mick Fitzsimons.
Will Dublin adjust in time for the championship? They struggled in the league last year but were still in rude health come championship, coming up narrowly short in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Ultimately, I think the kick they received at the weekend could prove in hindsight to be good for them, giving Dessie the opportunity to adapt and embrace more risk in their attacking play.
The other major talking point to emerge from the weekend were the diving incidents in Salthill and Hyde Park, both of which were zeroed in on Allianz League Sunday.
It's something that's crept in notably more this year than in most. It's not a good look for the game. We always contrast our game with soccer, and pride ourselves on Gaelic football being a physical, in-your-face sport.
In our era, diving was something where if you did it - you got your a** kicked pretty hard, whether internally or otherwise.
I always think back to our Dublin games - if you went down softly, never mind a dive, you were getting a right boot on the a**e from the next player coming in to say 'get up'. That was the nature of the contest.
I don't want this to be a macho thing but it was a case of you get hit, you hit back. You get on with it and that was the way the game was played and the way we were brought up.
Are we seeing more diving/simulation/players going to ground too easily since the league resumed? pic.twitter.com/HEs1GsTAOE
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) March 5, 2023
In my view, it's not a good look for top teams trying to achieve the ultimate goal.
Listen, cynicism is endemic in every sport across all codes. A winner does anything possible to win games. That's a given.
A forward hooking an arm to get a free, I would regard that as just a bit of cuteness and experience. We saw a blatant pull-back - but crucially not a pull-down - late on in the Armagh-Donegal game.
Before we go any further, I can hear the chorus of people saying 'You threw a GPS...' (I can hear the hate) But we're not on about that!
But diving is relatively new to the GAA, and it's troubling to see so many incidents sprouting up in such a short period of time.
What to do about it? Given the cynicism involved, might a black card be an appropriate penalty? Are retrospective bans an option?
Either way, hopefully with the highlighting of these incidents from the weekend that county panels will take note that there is no place for it and we can stamp it out.
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