It's easy to work out Michael O'Grady's frequently-expressed desire to be guaranteed more matches when his Dublin team's steady improvement over the preliminary pool matches is taken into account. There was a determination and quality about last week's play which hadn't been evident in the previous matches against Carlow and Westmeath. Beforehand most calculations had Laois better on paper, but a fair bit behind in terms of fitness. This turned out to be more or less the key to the match, with Dublin's persistence overcoming a decent halftime deficit. A week later and Laois are probably fitter and Dublin more confident so another tight match can be expected. There are a few other factors which tend to favour Laois. Weather isn't going to be great and Laois's greater strength will be more valuable than in the drawn match. Tullamore is also an advantage to the midlanders because they are more familiar with it and will have a good crowd from the county present because of the footballers' presence on the double bill.