Matthew Whelan believes Laois are in with a chance of upsetting All-Ireland champions Clare.

The O'Moore County welcome the Banner to Portlaoise for a novel national hurling league quarter-final on Sunday and Whelan insists that an upset is not beyond the bounds of possibility:

"It's a national quarter-final. I think we have plenty to play for and there's no point going into something if you don't think you can win it," he told The Irish Independent.

"We've got the training right and everyone is putting in a big effort. We have video analysis, nutrition, we do more on tactics and we're doing the weights in the same way all the other counties are now.

"When you do all that external stuff, you hurl better and your confidence grows and I think that is showing at the minute."

Referring to last summer's 20-point drubbing at the hands of Davy Fitzgerald's charges in the Qualifiers, Whelan adds:

"They probably knew what we were going to do tactically. We were at a different stage of our development then and you saw what they went on to do later that year. But I think we're a better team now." Tweet

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