Former 'Footballer of the Year' Michael Darragh Macauley insists Dublin won't fall into the trap of taking Laois for granted.

Jim Gavin's players will make their championship bow in Nowlan Park on Saturday week and O'Moore County boss Mick Lillis claims: "It's not David and Goliath, it's probably David and Goliath's bigger brother!"

Macauley and his team-mates won't be distracted by such talk…

"The day you start talking about the Leinster semi-final or Leinster final is the day that we are going to get caught, or soon to be caught because it's one of the strengths of this team that we've been able to focus on what is in front of us," he told The Irish Independent.

"You have heard the cliche coming from a million athletes, that they don't look past their next race or whatever it is. You just can't. Once you are caught daydreaming you are gone."

The All-Ireland Club winning Ballyboden St Enda's star has been troubled by injuries in recent times but he insists he's '100pc' ahead of this summer's championship campaign.

"You can't really beat games and I've had enough games this season that I've got loads of football into me.

"It was just about getting the body right, which it is right now. I've no excuses going forward. I'm good to go, yeah.

"Coming into last season, if I'm to pull out excuses, it's that I probably didn't get enough games due to injuries that were kind of ongoing for the year. But this year I've played a rake of games already, and a whole lot in the off-season last year when the guys weren't playing. So I'm kind of good to go, I've ticked all the boxes at the moment."

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