Michael Dara Macauley says Cork are the team to beat.

Holders Dublin take on the Leesiders as part of Sunday's national football league semi-final double-header at Croke Park and the 2013 Footballer of the Year is expecting a tough assignment:

"Yeah, Cork have definitely been the team to beat this year," the midfield maestro told The Irish Times. "They've a huge panel ... it's going to be an interesting match.

"And in fairness [they] were a very tough team to play against in Croke Park a few weeks ago. It's hard to know if it's a completely different style, but there's a lot of different players there that we wouldn't be as used to from playing against now. It's a big ask come Sunday but all we can do is give it our best."

But Macauley is confident that Dublin's never-say-die spirit gives them a chance of winning any match:

"A lot of this team have been together for a while now, and are after coming through All-Ireland finals, semi-finals and quarter finals, and all that memory is in your bank," he adds.

"When you are down in a game you can either drop your head and say this game is beyond us, or else you draw off that mental resolve you have from other game. And I suppose that is definitely something we have in this team.

"But you have to have it, that never-say-die attitude, if you want to go anywhere. It would have been very easy of us to throw in the towel at a certain point on Sunday, and the week before but, in fairness, the lads came back strong and we finished out the game and showed a good bit of heart in doing it."