By Cian O'Connell

Dessie Farrell was delighted Dublin produced a splendid second half display to defeat Mayo at Croke Park on Sunday.

The Dublin manager acknowledged that his team enjoyed a 'productive' spell after the restart.

Trailing by 0-8 to 1-3 as the interval approached, Dublin struck 1-7 without reply either side of the break to seize control. “I think we just knew we hadn’t performed that well, we were happy to be a point up at half-time not having gone great and we knew there was much more in us," Farrell reflected.

"It was just a case of trying to liberate ourselves a little bit and throw off the shackles to play front-foot football. The lads are good at that, and get into their flow when it happens and that first period of the second half was very productive for us and we’re very happy with that."

Mayo staged a daring comeback mission two years ago to beat Dublin in an All-Ireland SFC Semi-Final in 2021. "I think a couple of years ago impact was important and I think it’s part and parcel of the game now," Farrell says.

"Every team is looking for that and that’s where the bit of strength and depth and competition internally becomes very important.

"I mentioned it before, we have 22 new players, who have come into the squad over the last two seasons.

"It’s a significant number out of a panel of 38/39 and they’ve found themselves within that group and settled well and have that sense of belonging, which is really important, and with that they’re really driving the competition as well.

"Then the older, mature lads who have come back into the mix. It was trying to get that bond and cohesion together that was always going to be a little bit of a challenge with that type of number and that mix.

"It’s been good over the last couple of weeks, but at the end of the day today only gets us into the hat and gets us out in two weeks’ time again."