Dublin beat Galway, knocked them out of the championship and left Parnell Park with their backs being slapped for making it back to the knockout stages.
Suddenly, from a momentous win over the 2017 champions and 2018 finalists, Dublin hurling was looking at a potential quarter-final clash in Croke Park with Tipperary.
There was just the matter of Laois first.
Unfortunately, that Portlaoise diversion was enough to take Mattie Kenny’s men off the road for the remainder of the championship and on Corbett & McGrath’s Big Build-Up, Derek McGrath explained why there would’ve been some Laois Gaels sniffing a chance before throw-in in O’Moore Park.
“Everyone is building Dublin up to be unbeatable, whatever they were in the bookies, 1/8 or 1/10.Â
“Then there’s a cuteness from Brennan in the whole approach, telling them that ‘the media perception here is we’ve only had a week to prepare. The media perception is that we’re up against it.’ Underneath the surface then you have this bubble.
“There’s never a huge gap between ourselves in Waterford, Dublin, Wexford and the Laois’. The Tipperarys and Kilkennys and Corks seem to be able to put the hammer down on these teams a bit easier.
“Even if you look at last year, Limerick played Carlow and they beat them by 27 or 28 points whereas Wexford struggled for a huge amount of time against Westmeath in the equivalent preliminary quarter-final.”
Likewise this season, Cork dismantled Westmeath whilst the Dubs were overcome by Laois.
McGrath’s belief that the traditional powerhouses don’t struggle with the Joe McDonagh teams as much as Wexford, Waterford or Dublin do holds up if you think Galway would’ve motored through Portlaoise on their way to Croker.
“Even ourselves (Waterford) in the second round of the league in 2015 – the year we won the league – I remember going to Dungarvan absolutely petrified playing Cheddar’s Laois.
“There was a feeling in Waterford that, if we had lost that, I’d have had to step away. That’s the type of pressure. You’re in an environment where people’s expectations are not in line with a more pragmatic or realistic viewpoint.Â
“A lot of it is to do with tradition but I think when you’re playing Laois or Westmeath or Carlow, you have to be nearly completely paranoid in your approach if you’re coming from a Waterford or a Dublin or a Wexford.”
Waterford beat Laois that day in 2015 and went on to clinch the title. They contested the All-Ireland final in 2017. But fortunes can change on any given Sunday.
Watch McGrath’s analysis from 5.26 here:
