“There were a lot more positives to take from the Mayo game…”- Cormac Costello

By Paul Keane 

Two games into the National League and Cormac Costello can see tangible progress being made by Dublin. Soon enough, he is sure, the results will follow. 

There was, the eight-time All-Ireland winner said, a noticeable improvement in performance levels from the opening round game against Monaghan to last weekend's tie in Castlebar against hosts Mayo.

In both games, Dublin held the lead in the second-half but ultimately slipped to back-to-back narrow losses, giving them plenty to think about ahead of this weekend's break in action.

Speaking at the announcement that GetPRO, a new high protein range from Danone, are the new Official Protein Partner of Dublin GAA, experienced forward Costello said that the first few weeks of 2024 have been full of learning points for an ambitious group with almost 50 different players already used between the O'Byrne Cup and National League.

"At the end of the day, we're all competitive," said the eight-time All-Ireland winner. "Any time you go out to play, you want to win, no matter what the competition is. We were very disappointed over the weekend but it's early in the year yet. We're kind of just getting a bit of ring rust off as well.

"The two games we could have got something out of and ultimately we didn't but if you look at last weekend's performance, although at the end of it the result was the same as the first day, it was much more improved. There were a lot more positives to take from the last day. We can take those positives and build on them for the next day against Roscommon."

That Round 3 tie against Roscommon will take place at Croke Park on Saturday week. A week later, Dublin will host Kerry there in a repeat of the 2023 All-Ireland final. Three consecutive weekends of Division 1 activity will conclude with a Round 5 trip to Celtic Park in Derry.

"We kind of were late coming back training," said Costello of their return to pre-season duty for 2024. "A lot of teams might have had a head start on us as well and there are some lads that are still coming back into the group so there's a bit of that and a bit of trying new lads out and trying new systems of play."

Free-taker Costello has started both league games so far, weighing in with 1-8. As much as he says it's too early to push any panic buttons, he is aware that Dublin need to start turning positive performances into league points too.

"We're two games in without a win so it's time to start picking up a couple of points," he said. "We don't want to get relegated again but we know it's going to be difficult, the level of Division 1 is so high, the standard, and there are some really competitive and tough games coming up. We're under no illusions that we need to pick up our performances to get a couple of wins and stay in Division 1."

A spell in Division 2 didn't prevent Dublin from going on to win the All-Ireland last year but dropping down a tier isn't something Costello wishes to do again.

"It goes back to you're playing against teams that are the best in the country and if you're not getting those performances right in Division 1, and if you fall into a lapse of losing games, it can become nearly, well, not a habit, but you could fall into a place you don't want to be," said the Whitehall Colmcille man.

"If you look back at the year we were relegated, I think we lost the first four or five games in a row. Then it creeped into our performances in the Leinster championship. We weren't performing well in the Championship and then ultimately got knocked out in an (All-Ireland) semi-final.

"We don't want to fall back into that trap again. We've been bringing lads back, we're still not at full strength so it isn't a major worry now but we do want to start getting good performances too and getting a few wins on the board to build us into the Championship."