After Hill 16's shock at seeing Stephen Cluxton in the warm-up of the recent league game against Louth came the real thing at Croke Park yesterday.
After lining out in Division 2 and then in last week's opening Leinster SFC victory over Laois, David O'Hanlon had been named in the matchday programme to start against Kildare.
However there were rumblings beforehand that Cluxton was back in and so it came to pass, the 41-year-old starting in goal for the first time since Dublin's All-Ireland final victory in 2020 - the last shot of their triumphant six in a row march.
READ MORE: Dublin survive big scare to see off Kildare and reach Leinster decider
Cluxton was called into action as early as the third minute when Kildare corner-forward Jack Robinson beat the press and raced into the Dubs' half, finding himself one on one with the legend of the game.
Robinson pulled the trigger but Cluxton dived to his left to save. Soon after the Parnells man could be heard roaring as he organised the Dubs' defence, as if he never went away, and he didn't put a foot wrong throughout.
"I thought he played well," said Dessie Farrell later. "Obviously we've had challenges with goalkeepers in terms of injuries over the last number of months and Evan (Comerford) is still working his way back to fitness.
"Dave O'Hanlon had a very good league campaign, we were very happy with him and in the championship opener against Laois as well, but we felt it was time to try Stephen and give him some exposure in game time.
"If anything happened to David you could be in trouble there so now was a good time to do it."
Farrell was pleased to get more game time into Paul Mannion, who started, and Jack McCaffrey - who made a real difference when he came on at the break as Dublin trailed.
Farrell hopes the performance will have an effect going forward this summer and starting with Sunday week's Leinster final against Louth.
"It definitely grounds players who may need grounding, and I'm not saying they do but it brings everything back to earth with a bang and the reality is that that's the type of game you're going to encounter when you move on," he said.
"They're going to go down to the wire and there are going to be clutch moments, there'll be big decisions to be made and big balls to be won or whatever it might be.
"And you really want to experience that, particularly with a lot of our young fellahs in the mix. That's the litmus test and the more exposure they can get to that, the better."
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