Dublin manager Ger Cunningham believes his players "showed what they're capable of" in their impressive away win over Cork in the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday night.
The Dubs had been written off as relegation fodder by many after a 16-point trimming by Tipperary in the opening round of Division 1A at Croke Park but comfortably held off a fancied Rebels side for a 2-19 to 1-14 victory at Pairc Ui Rinn.
"All in all, I'm very happy," he told RTÉ Sport.
"There was a lot of disappointment in our dressing-room last weekend after the performance against Tipperary. We probably showed them a bit too much respect and we were well beaten.
"We knew that wasn't reflective of what we see in training and we were just trying to get the lads to bring what they were doing in training and bring a serious attitude to it.
"They brought a great work-rate and I think that was the big thing for us. Thankfully it paid off.
"They showed tonight what they're capable of."
It looked like Dublin were in trouble when they went behind 0-04 to 0-01 early but a goal that bounced in off off forward Ryan O'Dwyer put them into a lead that was four points by the interval.
"It was a bit of a lucky goal but that gave us a lift," said Cunningham. "We were 0-04 to 0-02 down, all of a sudden we went ahead. It was great for the lads and they got some confidence from it.
"We could have gone further ahead if Donal (Burke, who scored 0-08) had stuck the penalty but we had a good 20 minutes in that game before half-time where we pushed on and scored eight or nine times."
A second goal from debutant Eoghan Conroy (who shot 1-02) after the break helped Dublin surge clear and even when losing Chris Crummey to a debatable second yellow card for the final quarter of an hour, Cunningham's side held firm against his native county.
"It was a great finish from Eoghan, that gave us a good boost to drive on for the second half," he said.
"What was encouraging was that we took it on in the second half, we didn't slacken off, even when Chris (Crummey) was sent off, again for a very harsh second yellow card. We finished it out well."
Cork boss Kieran Kingston (above) was frustrated by his team's inability to cope with a direct approach and motivated opposition he says came as no surprise.
"I'm very disappointed," he told eir Sport. "We expected a rebound from Dublin and we got it. We just weren't able to match their hunger on the night.
"Dublin are a very strong athletic team and we knew they were going to come at us. They ran at us and caused it a lot of problems but we expected that.
"We created a huge number of goal-scoring opportunities and didn't take them. You have to take them at this level."
The optimism among Cork fans kindled by the first-round win over Clare may now have been quenched but Kingston suggested he wasn't going to over-react to either victory or defeat.
"I don't think we're as bad as we showed tonight and I don't think we're as good as people said we were after last Saturday night. We're somewhere in the middle."
