PILLAR CAFFREY makes a compelling point. Dublin, as All-Ireland champions, are going to have a difficult time of it in 2012.

The man who managed them before Pat Gilroy took the reigns in 2009 already sees the cracks.

“I think Dublin are going to find every game this year tough, in a way they haven’t found in the last two years,” said Caffrey. “Every team they play in the league is going to be up for it and physically, maybe that is why the little bits of indiscipline have been creeping in.

“I just see some of them not coping as well as they should with the little bit of physicality that is coming at them.”

We’ll get to Kerry but Dublin were popular champions in 2011, even outside the Pale.

Why was that, Pillar?

“I’d say it was a couple of factors. One, was it was a 16-year gap and there was a lot of near misses for Dublin. That 16-year gap also included Dublin not getting to a final so there would have been quite a lot of sympathy built up for this Dublin team and a lot of those Dublin players who had played in four and five All-Ireland semi-finals.”

We are talking about the Caffrey era of course, Pillar having been a selector when Tommy Lyons’s team made the 2002 All-Ireland semi-final.

“Number two was, the neutral in football is always up for the underdog. They’d seen enough of that Kerry team winning All-Irelands and when it came to All-Ireland week everybody, all the neutrals, were up for Dublin. It was a once-off and I would firmly believe that lasted for 10 days afterwards and the begrudgery started setting in.

“I just think that Dublin players are going to realise this as the season unfolds, that they’ve six big weeks ahead of them now in terms of back-to-back league games and you’ll see every team upping the ante when it comes to Dublin.

“My fear is just how physically these guys are going to cope with what’s coming at them and the little lack of discipline and fellas taking swipes back when theyre getting hard hits and this type of thing. This is going to impact hugely on the mentality in Dublin.

“The feel-good factor is well and truly gone now towards Dublin and it’s back to, as I used to say, 31 against Dublin.”

Ah yes, the Caffrey management fostered that mentality in spades – Dublin against the world.

The main fear for Dublin and everyone else in 2012 is the wounded green and gold animal. That was evident in the opening league encounter at Croke Park.

“Kerry were much better than them that night. One thing I have noticed already is how hungry the Kerry fellas are. I was in Parnell Park on Sunday and I thought the three Kerry fellas that were playing [for Leinster] were playing with a different type of passion than you’d normally see at this time of year. So I just get the feeling that things are going to be slightly different for Dublin.”

It goes deeper. Kerry are hurting even more than the pain caused by the early 21st century Ulster raids by Armagh then Tyrone. According to Pillar, Kerry are in a Séamus Darby-type hurt locker.

“I’d have a lot of friends in Kerry and they’d say it was even worse than ’82. That’s saying something. The players themselves, they will know that they let a great opportunity go and while we as Dubs enjoyed it and celebrated it, the Kerry players that I have seen this year are driven in a way that I haven’t seen in the last four or five years so I’d still be very wary of them.

“And we all know that there’s massive talent in Cork if they get it together and keep the forwards injury free they’re going to be a huge threat this year also.

“And we’ll see if Tyrone can muster up a big challenge again.”