It's just over three weeks since Dublin regained the All-Ireland senior football title.
A sweet success in the capital, where rivals Kerry were seen off and a few of the old guard returned to help give the Dubs the extra push required.
Amongst those who came back was Paul Mannion after two years away. Years when the Kilmacud Crokes player watched on from a pub in Killarney and then from Boston as the Dubs suffered championship losses at the hands of Mayo and Kerry.
Mannion was named player of the match as Dublin gained revenge on the Kingdom in this year's Sam Maguire decider. Another All-Ireland to add to the collection after the Crokes reigned supreme [eventually] last January in the club final against Glen.
Speaking to the media to mark being named PwC GAA/GPA player of the month after his performance in last month's football finale, Mannion did highlight a success that was a little different to those previous.
"I genuinely don't have a favourite so to speak at all, but in the couple of weeks after the game people were saying that one was special," he said
"In the couple of weeks after the game people were saying that this was special, that it felt like 2011 and 2019.
"All of them are special in different ways but because of how the last couple of years have transpired and how we struggled early on this year, with management taking on criticism, it did feel a bit sweeter all right, for sure."
As to returning to the inter-county fold, Mannion was determined to give a right go once he made up his mind that he was going back.
"I never felt any regrets or regretted the decision.
"Once the decision was made, I was going to go back - to do whatever I can. Times, early in the year, particularly in the league when I was trying to recover from the ankle injury (which was troubling him during Crokes' All-Ireland run), that was tough.
It was probably a lot tougher than I expected from a fitness point of view. The lads had put in a serious pre-season of really, really hard running, they'd built up a big engine. I was constantly playing catch up, having come back later. I was still doing two months of rehab when I got back in with Dublin.
"So that just took a long time to get back. Once I got back up to a respectable enough level, I felt I was okay, and I was in a good space again."
Gaelic football keeps evolving, whether we like some of the changes or not, and for Mannion one aspect of the modern game and how teams implement it dod take him by surprise on his return.
"The game feels like it has changed a lot, in terms of how teams set up. All the teams have been defaulting into a defensive style of play. It's partly out of fear that if we don't set up that way we'll get counter-attacked. It leads to a situation where every team sets up quite similarly. It's extremely difficult to play in terms of how exhausting it is.
"It's really gruelling. Onlookers will think it's slow, slow, slow and boring, but players out there are nearly always exhausted because of the amount of pressing, tackling and tagging you have to do in those systems. That has been the big change that I've noticed."
During the period where concentration was solely on his club, Mannion got to appreciate being around his Crokes colleagues even more. This weekend, he's back into battle as Castleknock are next up in the Dublin championship.
"The last two years with Crokes and getting to spend all the time with them was amazing," says the 30-year-old.
"I was 27/28 years of age when I left Dublin that time, it is only at that age that I really got to spend all of time and put all of my focus on Crokes.
"So I was just able to enjoy it a lot more, I became better friends with a lot of the lads in Crokes, in a way that I hadn't been able to in years gone by. I really enjoyed the run we went on with Crokes over those couple of years.
"Definitely in years gone by it could be difficult to get motivated again for club championship, but I've found myself, even over the last few weeks, even with the inter-county championship, almost thinking about club championship. I'm looking forward to getting started with that. I can't wait.
"I trained last night with Crokes, getting ready for the club championship. It was nice to get a sweat on and get prepped for that. I'm feeling good now."
