Locker Room: They won't welcome the sympathy but it was possible to stand on Hill 16 yesterday and to feel a little bit sorry for the Offaly footballers. They played some sharp and sprightly football yesterday and deserved better than the cold full-time margin gave them.

Kevin Kilmurray has done the sort of job with his county team which entitles him to feel that the nabobs and panjandrums of the Offaly county board may do unto him as they do unto all promising managers - fire him before Christmas.

Anyone who saw Offaly during the league campaign even on that constipated night in Parnell Park could tell there was a good team in there trying to get out. Summer and a little patience seems to have freed them. Yesterday they played some fine football and their tactic of the diagonal ball into their lively corner forwards had the Dublin defence reaching for the emergency button many times.

The scores didn't come but Offaly are entitled to feel they were better value than the margin suggested. They'll look back on a few missed chances, on the fact that Stephen Cluxton was slightly fortunate to stay on the field after he felled Cathal Daly, one of a few marginal refereeing decisions which just didn't go their way. They'll know, too, that at critical periods in the game Dublin's experience in dogfights ensured the shiv went in deep between Offaly ribs.

If Offaly thought things were miserable when the game ended with a sea of beery, slack-bellied Dubs pouring onto the pitch prematurely from Hill 16, life got worse a little while later when the back-door draw pitted them against Laois. A cruel afternoon.

The Dubs will feel the exuberantly delirious reaction of their disciples to the arrival of another Leinster title was perhaps a little embarrassing. Leinster titles are not what Dublin are about this year and despite the impressive margin between the teams at the end of play Pillar Caffrey will feel he saw enough flaws yesterday to keep himself and his backroom team close to the drawing board for the next few weeks.

That Dublin have become the first side since the Paddy Cullen/Pat O'Neill era to win Leinster titles back to back means little, even if you look back at the fate of that Dublin team in the years 1992-1995 when they won four in a row. In the end they fell over the line in the 1995 All-Ireland final, winning the big one they craved by the narrowest of margins. Every piece of progress from season to season was incremental in the micro sense. In the end it was Jason Sherlock, a kid with a talent for the unexpected, who tipped the balance.

This year's model have flair when it is needed and also an ability to dig themselves out of a hole when necessary. The rest of the summer will be about discovering if they have enough of both qualities.

Yesterday's match hinged on a five-minute spell in the second half when Dublin did the right things and Offaly tried to but couldn't. Having introduced a sub to mark Mossy Quinn, the Offaly bench had that slightly sickening experience of seeing Mossy haul over another point from play in his first possession after the switch. That put Dublin ahead by nine points to seven and the game hung in the balance.

Between the 48th and the 53rd minutes the match swung. Sherlock, still working his heart out in blue after all these years, won a free which Quinn popped over. Three points in it. A couple of minutes later Niall McNamee had a bad miss from in front of the Dublin goal and from the kick-out the ball swept downfield and Alan Brogan hit a point which doubled Offaly up on the floor.

Instead of being within two points Offaly were suddenly four adrift. Then Thomas Deehan dropped a point attempt short and on the next attack Brogan added another score for Dublin.

At that stage even if the game's next significant occurrence hadn't been the dismissal of Alan McNamee there was no way back for Offaly. Dublin were playing into the Hill and beginning to feel their own strength. The celebration fireworks would be lit by Sherlock's late scores.

Afterwards Caffrey, who has perfected the technique of appearing vaguely exasperated by the sheer tiresomeness of just about every question he is asked by the print media, didn't elucidate much on what he had just seen. Dublin were too long in the tooth to have put their stuttery period down to nerves. Offaly deserved a lot of credit.

No arguing with either point but it would be a fine thing to be a fly on the wall next time the Dublin think tank gathers.

Dublin's midfield had a fine day yesterday with Shane Ryan, in particular, processing a huge amount of ball. What will worry those who are inclined to worry about these things is this will be the last time in the championship Dublin are likely to win so much ball in the middle.

And on meagre rations how will the Dublin forwards survive? Yesterday was interesting in terms of the contrast between the teams. Dublin came to terms with the challenge of it in the end but for a long period Neville Coughlan was dropping back to midfield winning possession and delivering fine early and diagonal balls in the direction of Deehan. Niall McNamee benefited from a similar style of supply from the Offaly midfield.

Dublin, on the other hand, run the ball into channels, a tactic which when it works can be extraordinary and when it fails can be frustrating to watch. The half-back line are cavalier by instinct and like to gallop forward as well, all of which makes for a frustrating time for the forward who just wants a quick ball played into space.

Dublin's forward selection yesterday seemed a little odd as well. Ray Cosgrove, rehabilitated with his splurge against Laois, is surely a poaching full forward if he is anything. Conal Keaney can be a full forward or he can be a very effective right wing forward . It was surprising in the absence of Kevin Bonner (who injured an ankle midweek) to see Keaney at full forward and Cosgrove being asked to forage as a wing forward, but Dublin got away with it.

Playing Sherlock at centre forward worked well. He gets the ball and transfers it quickly and sharply, which is the quality you most want in a centre forward. Bryan Cullen looks more and more assured at centre back and one has the feeling Dublin are a few steps closer to solving the puzzle of team coherence than they were when the music stopped last summer.

It's a long summer, though, and what's interesting about teams just now is what's on the bench, and yesterday's introductions when the game was in its final stages were significant. Darren Magee will be needed. The return of Stephen O'Shaughnessy will bolster the defence. If Collie Moran gets back to his prime he will be a huge asset. Bernard Brogan wasn't introduced and it seems odd to anyone who has seen his performances in the Dublin championship this year his cause isn't championed a little more. The point is, though, Dublin have options.

At this stage that's what it is about. Options and experience. Implacability on the big day. There's an All-Ireland out there to be won this year and a field of contenders chasing it, none of whom with the exceptions of Kerry (who seem to need some healing) and Armagh (astoundingly renewed again) have direct experience of precisely how to do it.

After that there is a posse in which Dublin are the most experienced side. After Armagh, Dublin have the most scoring options up front and the most momentum. How many beautiful blue Sundays are left for Croke Park this summer? One? Two? Three?