As Dublin continue to dominate the senior football championship, Cian O'Sullivan rejected the notion that the county's success will be an indefinite issue outside of the capital.
One of the Dublin panel who traces his ties back to the breakthrough All-Ireland win of 2011, Cian O'Sullivan is by now well familiar with the pressures that come with playing for this team.
Furthermore, he has grown acutely capable of ensuring that the "talk" surrounding Dublin's senior footballers doesn't penetrate his preparation.
"We try to not let those things come in and distract us," the Kilmacud Crokes clubman told OTB Sports. "We are very disciplined in that and we have to be. Over the last number of years there have been so many potential distractions thrown at this team.
"We are the capital city and county, but we are also the media capital as well and with all the spotlight and attention that comes with that, it is something that has been a big challenge. But because it has been a big challenge in the past, we have become very good at insulating ourselves from it."
18 September 2011; Members of the Dublin setup from the Kilmacud Crokes GAA Club, left to right, Rory O'Carroll, Craig Dias, Kevin Nolan, Cian O'Sullivan, Paul Griffin, Paddy O'Donoghue, and Ross O'Carroll. Picture credit: SportsfilePrincipal among the distractions recently has been talk surrounding the dominance of Dublin and whether an unstoppable force has been created in senior Gaelic football.
"Personally, and I know it is the case for a lot of other lads on the team, we try to block that stuff out," he noted of the dialogue surrounding Dublin's quest for a sixth successive All-Ireland win.
"It is a distraction, it probably feeds the ego a bit and that is something we are very conscious of steering clear of. If there were any couple of weeks to show how complacency can knock team, we've seen the All Blacks lose and in GAA a number of kingpins have been dethroned. So, we try and not listen to that stuff.
"There has been a lot reported on it over the last week or so but we are players and we try to leave those things to the administrators. Let them make those decisions."
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Although the Dublin class of 2020 contains a raft of players who did not feature alongside O'Sullivan in 2011, he nevertheless asserted that this side - like all great sides - will eventually stop winning.
"Personally, I don't think these things last forever," he explained. "Whether it be Kerry or Kilkenny in the past who have been very dominant for a number of years, that doesn't last forever and I expect it to be the same in our situation as well."
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