SOME THINGS change. Some things stay the same. The Hill filled itself up on time for once yesterday and the congregation was duly rewarded with an uplifting blowout from their favourites.

A 48th Leinster football title came back, as expected, to the capital. The Croke Park sward was duly invaded. The GAA switched to its beloved Plan B. Alan Brogan lifted the silverware. Every head turned to the possibilities of this being Dublin's year.

"The rest of the season starts tomorrow," said Paul Caffrey, "and that's what we're about."

That is what Dublin are about. The task is to graft on enough improvement to get over the edge this year after several near misses. The task is to dampen the raging hype that grips the city like a fever at this time every year and to keep working, working, working. And the task is to play also with a little of the uninhibited flair they produced yesterday. All those things are what Dublin are about.

For Wexford the rest of the season starts today as well. Last night the road home was long and glum for a side that had illuminated the Leinster championship before yesterday's 23-point hammering. They face into the qualifiers wondering if they have it in themselves to lift it again.

Yesterday's meltdown had nightmarish qualities to it. Dublin, two points to the good at half-time, burst out of the traps and rat-a-tatted three goals in quick succession in the middle of the half. And that was it.

"Where did it go wrong?" Wexford's bright young manager Jason Ryan was asked.

"The whistle at half-time," he said. He didn't need to elucidate.

Dublin's intensity had that rare white heat and as they played into their beloved Hill the game turned into a celebration. Their fifth Leinster title of the decade was won in the most exuberant fashion, and enjoyment of their own powers might be as necessary to winning an All-Ireland as all the earnest training-ground plotting.

This summer is opening up in strange ways. The weekend action saw numerous casualties. Everywhere sides are being revealed as flawed. Dublin just roll on.

That could be good. It could be worrying. Leinster hasn't proved the most rigorous testing centre these past few years, and Dublin's sense of their own well-being will be taken as much from memory of past failures as from the pleasant feel of yesterday's canter. There was no sense in Croke Park of a side getting carried away.

"Would you count that the best performance of your tenure?" Paul Caffrey was asked.

"Does it matter?" he replied.

Surly but correct.

"We're where we expected to be. We're not into romancing about how many titles or whatever."

The Dublin dressing-room may be beyond romancing but the Hill isn't. Days like yesterday - when goals from Diarmuid Connolly, Alan Brogan and Mark Vaughan popped like fireworks - are the fiestas that keep the place packed. This may have just been another Leinster title but the swagger and ruthlessness bode well.

"You never expect a half like that," said Alan Brogan afterwards. "We knew at half-time we were playing well enough. Might have worked a couple of goal chances in the first half. One of the best halves of football I have been involved in. It was a pleasure to be involved in that Dublin win."

Dublin and the Hill. The team have stopped the silly theatrics of walking slowly toward that corner before each game but a communion of feeling between team and terrace has never been a bad thing for Dublin football.

Yesterday the worry lines vanished from the faces of the Dubs. There was no late collapse into self-doubt. More than anything perhaps that is what this team has needed. Things stayed the same in Leinster yesterday. They changed slightly for Dublin. Could be the story of the summer.