By Cian O'Connell

At the start of 2011 James McCarthy waited and wondered about what the future held in a blue jersey.

Success and silverware has followed in the intervening years with McCarthy winning four All Irelands, six Leinster titles and four Allianz Football League medals. "I suppose, it was the combination of a couple of things happening," McCarthy remarks about Dublin's recent triumphs. 

"Pat Gilroy took over and he tried to swing things around, and all of us came together, about 20 or 30 of us, in 2009/ 2010 and then there was added the three or four lads in 2013/2014 as well. 

"If you asked me back then, I didn't think we would go on and do what we done the last couple of years, I suppose.

"But we had everything, the wheels starting turning, combination of players coming at the right time, right management in Jim taking over. And winning the first one was the big one, we could easily have lost that game. If you didn't win your first All-Ireland, do you believe you can do it again?

"Well, we did win it and that makes you think you can do it again and again. Since then, we haven't really looked back. When it comes to big games, you are looking around you and with a few minutes to go, it is getting really loud, you know what to do.

"You have been there before, and it helps. As a player, being there definitely helps. The fact you have done it before, it gives you that belief and that is hard to come by."

Dublin enter Saturday's intriguing encounter with Tyrone protecting a proud 30 match unbeaten League and Championship record. "They are a tough team to play against, they seemed like they were disappointed with how their year ended last year," McCarthy says about the upcoming clash.

"I think they were expecting to do a bit better than they did, in the end they just got beaten by Mayo – we know how good Mayo are.

"Tyrone are a tough team to play against, they are blooding a lot of new players, young, quick, hungry players. And the likes of Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte are right up there, they are kind of driving them on.

"Tyrone don’t make things easy for you, I think they’ll be relishing playing us on Saturday and trying to kind of knock us down."

The League matters deeply to Dublin. "Looking back, I guess around 2010/2011, we changed and we said that we were going to take the League really seriously," McCarthy says. "If we are going to start beating these teams in the summer, we are going to need to beat them in the league.

"And our first one is when we went down to beat Kerry down there and then we started picking up these wins away and it just stands to ye, it stands to ye. A lot of teams have their best players playing in the League as well, so if you beat them then, you think why can't you beat them in the summer."