The Dublin hurlers, with a high-profile new manager on board, continue to eye up a Leinster title as a primary target, according to defender Paddy Smyth.
Morale appeared to be at a low ebb in the Dublin hurling set-up following the grimly disappointing end to their 2022 campaign, star defender Eoghan O'Donnell subsequently announcing his intention to throw his lot in with the footballers.
However, the capital's hurling scene has been swiftly re-energised by the appointment of Galway's 2017 All-Ireland winning manager Micheál Donoghue as the county's new senior manager, replacing his county man Mattie Kenny who departed after four years in charge.
Smyth said he was confident O'Donnell would be back with the hurlers next year and that the news about the new man was kept largely under wraps.
The Clontarf hurler said he has heard nothing but positive reports about Donoghue's management style.
""We heard the rumours, but we all know how the Dublin County Board works, it's very quiet until you hear an announcement," Smyth told RTÉ Sport.
"Which is probably the right way to be doing things. But you do see a lot of names flying about, you can't take too much heed of that.
"It's exciting news. You just hear snippets from people that worked with him, it's nothing but positivity about him. It's an exciting appointment so I'm just looking forward to getting to work with him.
"I don't know exactly the style he'll be implementing with us but [his teams] are very direct, very strong and you just have to win your own ball."
Donoghue's predecessor Kenny - who previously guided Cuala to successive All-Ireland titles in 2017 and 2018 - resigned in June after four largely frustrating years in charge, where the capital's hurlers landed a few landmark wins but also suffered numerous dispiriting setbacks, reaching the quarter-final only once, in 2021.
The 2022 campaign concluded on a bum note, with their exit from the championship at the provincial stage. The Dubs' season appeared to be on track after a tense one-point win away to Wexford, the endgame decorated by Danny Sutcliffe's spectacular defensive heroics.
However, yet another demoralising no-show against Kilkenny sucked the air out of their season and they subsequently found themselves eliminated at the round-robin phase as Wexford proceeded to surprise Kilkenny in Nowlan Park on the same evening Dublin fell short in Pearse Stadium.
Reflecting upon the season, it was the dismal 17-point loss at home to Cats - almost a replica of the league game between the pair three months earlier - which left the bitterest aftertaste, Smyth suggesting that Dublin's issues facing up to Kilkenny may be more of a mental problem than a hurling one.
"It's hard to put your finger on it. We started three from three in the championship. And then we had a bad day against Kilkenny in Parnell which was disappointing.
"To go out on points difference, it's hard to take. But we didn't perform in those last two games. No excuses, we just didn't perform to be honest.
"In a packed-out Parnell against Kilkenny, it was just a very flat performance by us all. We didn't respond to some setbacks in the game, some of the goals we conceded.
"I think it's a mental thing, rather than physical or hurling wise against them. Yeah, it's all about performing on the day and we haven't achieved that.
"We've obviously spoken internally about what went wrong that day but it's more just a mental thing, I don't think a Dublin team has beaten Kilkenny in a long time so it's about trying to be the first team to do that. Hopefully next season we can have a good crack off them."
Next season marks 10 years since Dublin last captured the Leinster title, Anthony Daly guiding the capital to a first provincial success in 52 years on an emotional afternoon in Croke Park.
For 24-year-old Smyth, on the panel since 2017, returning Bob O'Keefe to the city remains a key target, though he acknowledges that the province is highly competitive.
"That would be an ambition of the group. Kilkenny are coming off an All-Ireland final - where they were just a few points off - so I can't imagine they'll be weakened too much. Galway were close as well.
"So it is competitive in Leinster. It's definitely an ambition of ours to be winning that so hopefully we can put in a performance to win that.
"My age group is probably the core of the team at the moment, the 1998 group. There's seven or eight of us on the panel. So it's definitely a good base to be working off and supplement with U20s and lads coming through from them ages.
"It's definitely an ambition of ours to be going further than what we've been doing in the last couple of seasons. Even the talks we've held as a team internally would be a lot more ambitious than we've shown previously."
Dublin's Paddy Smyth was on hand to launch AIG's new Injury Cash product, aimed at sports people and athletes of all levels to help provide some direct financial support and assistance in the event of a covered injury.
