The All-Ireland champions' league form was underwhelming but an improving injury list gives grounds for optimism, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

DUBLIN WILL begin the defence of their Leinster and All-Ireland football titles with a near full-strength panel but still lacking some confidence after their disappointing league run.

“I think over the past few years we have had a strong league campaign and built our championship form on that,” says forward Paul Flynn. “Obviously it wasn’t a good league campaign for us this time.

“To lose four out of seven games was not great, we weren’t happy at all. But we just had to make the best out of the situation, try to learn from the few mistakes we made, and hopefully try to build on that, going into this championship.

“The good thing is that it’s great to have the clean bill of health, nearly, going into the championship, with the likes of Eoghan O’Gara, Bernard Brogan, all back now. It would have helped if they’d a couple more league games, but we do have our club championship coming round the corner, so they will get a few games.

“And we’ve had a good few squad games as well, which are always competitive.

“But it’s about the lads working themselves to get sharp, otherwise players are there to come in and take their place.”

Flynn was speaking at an event in Croke Park to launch the 2012 Leinster championship, which begins on Saturday and Sunday week – with Westmeath v Antrim and Carlow v Laois in hurling, and Westmeath v Louth and Longford v Laois in football.

Dublin aren’t out until June 3rd, when they face the winners of the Westmeath/Louth game in Croke Park; in the meantime they have been upping their preparations, including a training camp in Cork over the Bank Holiday weekend, and Flynn claims Dublin’s only focus right now is that opening game – while they are also aware of how difficult it is to defend an All-Ireland.

“When you look back over the last 40 or 50 years, only a handful of teams have been able to win All-Irelands back to back. There is that kind of pressure too. But you can’t think about that either, because that just drains your mind.

“All we can do is focus on our first game, try go through the front door. Or else you can always get a rude awakening.

“So Louth against Westmeath in two weeks’ time we’ll be watching very closely. If we don’t go into the winners of that game well prepared, focused just on that game, it will be a serious banana skin.”

Addressing the inconsistency of their league form is also one of Dublin’s immediate priorities, their mood swings epitomised by the contrasting fortunes against Mayo: the highs of their first meeting, abandoned at half-time, and the lows of the second one, which Mayo won comfortably.

So what does Flynn believe happened?

“Your guess is as good as mine. It was just one of those days, the second time, when things didn’t go our way. I got sent off, Diarmuid [Connolly] got sent off. That didn’t help the situation, but I think at that stage we were nearly beaten anyway, things weren’t going our way. So just one of those days, happens to the best of us . . . we went out with the intention of winning every game.”

It is expected that manager Pat Gilroy will add at least one or two of Dublin’s under-21s, who only last Sunday collected their second All-Ireland title within three years, and Flynn certainly believes they’ll be ready to make the step up.

“There’s a great bunch of lads there, and Jim Gavin has done a great job with them. There’s some really good footballers there now, and I’m sure they can take a step up now. I’m not sure who, because you could pick any of them.

“I actually think they play a similar enough kind of style to us. They’ve all got a tremendous work rate, and they all seem very comfortable on the ball. But I think it all depends on the individual, and what kind of attitude they come in with. But there are some excellent footballers there, no doubt about their ability, it’s just a matter of attitude, that’s the most important thing.

“It is a big step up, but then looking at some of them lads, they don’t look like they’re too small. Our strength and conditioning coach looks after them as well, so that’s obviously a bonus. They’d be doing similar enough programmes to what we’re doing, but just not as much weights. So I definitely think they’re good enough to make the step up.

“But we’ve already brought some new lads into the panel this year, who keep it fresh, the likes of Johnny Cooper, Paddy Andrews as well. They’re all coming in with a massive hunger, and that’s distilled throughout the panel.”