Dessie Farrell was happy with how Dublin were able to balance their Allianz Football League promotion push with blooding emerging players as they celebrated victory in the Division 2 decider.
They avenged an earlier league defeat to Derry with a 4-06 to 0-11 win at Croke Park on Sunday to cap a return to the top division for next year with a trophy.
With Dublin set to open their Leinster Championship campaign against the winner of the preliminary round fixture between Wexford and Laois, manager Farrell told RTÉ Sport that they could be satisfied with how the start of this year has gone.
"Our objective was to gain promotion and we did that and today is just icing on the cake," he said, adding that planning for the Leinster championship would start "immediately".
"It was great to get another competitive game and throughout the league we were trying to get that balance right between being very competitive, to ensure you were setting yourself up the best opportunity to get promoted, but also trying to blood some younger, newer players and maybe try out some different tactics and strategies as well.
"So it was a bit of a balancing act and thankfully we were able to get through in the way we did."
One setback was an injury to Dean Rock, who was withdrawn early in the match, with Farrell confirming that it was an ankle injury.
"I'm not sure to what extent (the injury is). Hopefully it won't be too bad but we'll get a picture on that in the morning," he said.
The Dublin manager added that the pursuit of goals had been a target for his team, with the approach paying off handsomely.
"Obviously goals are hugely helpful, particularly in low-scoring games like that. They're big momentum shifters and it's something we'd spoken about, something we've been working on and we knew in the second half some opportunities may present themselves when fatigue sets in," he said, adding that Dublin were relatively happy with their first half despite trailing given they had been kicking into the wind until then.
"It can be more difficult to keep the defence very compact the way Derry like to play and they did remarkably well at it for long periods but there were one or two opportunities and one or two openings that we were able to create and we were thankful to be able to take them."
Derry manager Rory Gallagher also highlighted Dublin's goal glut as the difference between the sides.
"Dublin are always dangerous of getting goals and they took them brilliantly and probably left one or two behind," he said.
"I felt that in the first half we should have stretched our lead far more – we were only two up and we missed a good goal chance and a number of chances.
"But we were playing against Dublin, who are a brilliant team with a brilliant group of players, and it was a great test."
With Derry turning their attentions towards an Ulster quarter-final against Fermanagh, Gallagher said facing Dublin was a good test for his side.
"The Division 2 trophy is not the height of either teams' ambition this year but being able to go toe to toe with each other in a really testing environment like Croke Park was great.
"We wanted to fulfil our league games and play really well and by and large the league was very successful.
"So we’ll just get our head around Fermanagh now in 13 days’ time so that will be very exciting.
"There are a lot of huge learnings, you take the positives and take the negatives, you only fail when you don’t learn. We have a very single-minded approach to learning all the time and trying to be better.
"The big thing for us is that we are good enough in the Ulster Championship against Fermanagh in 13 days’ time."
