Oisin McConville has described Dublin’s room for improvement this year as ‘scary’ as he tipped the Boys in Blue to complete a record-breaking five in-a-row.
The Dubs lost three games in Division 1 of the Allianz League this year - a first in a single season under manager Jim Gavin - and failed to qualify for the final for the first time since 2012.
Armagh All-Ireland winner McConville believes that these set-backs are just the thing the team needed and he insists they will be the better for it.
"I can’t see past the Dubs," he said, speaking to RTÉ Sport. "They just seem so far ahead of anyone else and I think the League will have done a favour in that it will have grounded them.
"I think they will have taken a lot out of it, learned a lot of lessons and I think they’ll be an even more dangerous animal than they have been over the last few years, which is scary."
McConville does believe however, that we will have a competitive race for Sam Maguire, which will be a stark contrast to 2018 when the Championship was essentially a prolonged coronation for Dublin.
Last summer the new Super 8s All-Ireland quarter-final stage failed to spark into life as the GAA would have hoped and no one managed to lay a glove on the Dubs.
This year though, Kerry have a crop of exciting new players, newly-crowned League champions Mayo are motoring well under James Horan, back for his second spell in charge, and Tyrone appear to have improved following their All-Ireland final appearance.
"We have some viable alternatives now to the Dubs," said the Crossmaglen Rangers legend.
"There’s a little cluster of teams that have been in Division 1 for some time, a top six, and you’re looking at Kerry, Mayo, Monaghan, Tyrone, and Galway. Then there’s maybe Donegal and outside of that I can’t see anyone mounting a sustained push in order to really trouble the Dubs."
Dublin’s squad strength and the new structures make the five in-a-row more likely according to McConville.
Realistically, there’s little chance of Dublin failing to reach the Super 8s given their dominance in Leinster.
That means they are going to have to be beaten twice to stop them getting out of the group stage and on to the All-Ireland semi-final.
And given the compressed nature of the business end of the season, Dublin’s greater resources should come to prominence.
"The Super 8s is all about squads," explained McConville. "During the League we have seen a lot of teams who have developed squads, teams like Tyrone, Mayo, Monaghan, Galway even, who have brought in players and added them to the system.
"They have tried players at Division 1, which will stand to them, but when you look at squads you have to look at the embarrassment of riches that Dublin have. This is nothing new to people - we have been saying it for five or six years - but the new system certainly plays to their strengths."
