Tommy Lyons knows these occasions well by now. Usual ritual. Paddy Carr comes to the Dublin dressing-room. Offers his congratulations and wishes Dublin the best. Tommy goes to the Louth dressing-room. Sorry for their troubles. Keep working. Seeya.

Neither man looks back.

Dublin finished up last season with a sense of unfinished business hanging over them. A missed free-kick against Armagh. The notion that their momentum might have been sufficient to carry them over the line. Lyons' wistful thought was that the first year is always the best.

Yesterday, they came back to the big time and enjoyed it just as well. Lyons the ringmaster was in fine fettle. His side didn't goal as freely as they did on the sun-splashed days against Kildare and the others, but they knocked over 19 points, ran up a fine tally of wides and generally brushed aside the challenge of a Louth side which fancied itself slightly. Best of all, perhaps, was the run of form exhibited by the young players Lyons brought with him.

"Lads," said Tommy. "They're all good footballers. If we'd started Tom Mulligan we'd have seen nothing but Tom Mulligan from ye lads all week. We have to break him in gently to ye. The lads we introduced today anyone who has been around knows they are good footballers."

The forensics were simple. Lyons thought Dublin had suffocated Louth in vital areas, and when the going got tough the full back line got going.

"I thought for the last 20 minutes of the first half our full back line were superb."

It had the feeling of another summer getting rolling in style. The Hill was crowded and uniformly blue. The mood was buoyant. The play had swagger. Lyons had perspective.

"First round lads. It's just getting us off the ground. If we won by a point I'd be as happy as I am now. We have the players to play out here. We know that. The fellas played in fits and starts today. Next day we'll have to go for 70 minutes whether it's Laois or Offaly. Lovely thing is we can look forward to that. Laois and Offaly have to go again."

And before there is a rush to lionise those who wear the larger numbers on their backs, Lyons urged caution.

"The subs? The game was won when we put most of them on. We were just blooding young lads in Croke Park. Anyone who knows anything about Dublin football knows that Liam Óg, Tom Mulligan, Mossy Quinn, Dotsy O'Callaghan are all good footballers. Don't forget Coman Goggins and Paul Casey. There'll be quare crack in training for the next while."

Ciarán Whelan was just as nonplussed as his manager. Wins against Louth in the first round aren't what little Dubs grow up dreaming about.

"It was nice to get a goal at the start. Get one early on and it gives you a platform. The sending off had a major impact on the game, in fairness. Their heads seemed to drop and the game was over nearly at that stage. They had three or four goal chances and if one of them had gone in, maybe? The score doesn't reflect things.

"Lads came in today and did well. That's the main positive. Dave O'Callaghan, Mossy Quinn, Tom Mulligan, etc. We have a stronger panel maybe this year. A win is a win."

They headed off to the Ard Comhairle level. To slake their thirst and dampen the curiosity about Meath. One suspects that it was a day when they saw a lot that pleased them and nothing that frightened them.