AS Jack O'Connor might say, this is where the summer begins for these two sides.

Up to now all they've done is beat teams they should be beating. The Dublin and Meath saga was gripping and it was fun, reminding us of what used to be and hinting what might be to come in Leinster, but its importance was exaggerated.

Leinster secretary Michael Delaney, for one, claimed that for Dublin to contend for All Irelands they need Meath to be strong but is that really the case? When Meath were too strong it duly decreased Dublin's All Ireland prospects, while Meath brought Dublin to the brink in 2005 yet neither side beat a Division One team outside the province. Meath will always test Dublin in tete-atetes but the truth is someone else has replaced them as being Dublin's sternest test in the province. That that other team wears blue and white instead of green and yellow should be neither here nor there.

Of course, Laois didn't provide that stiff a challenge last year, capitulating after Ray Cosgrove punched Dublin's second goal to the net 20 minutes from time. It was the kind of finish Laois have tried to erase and everyone else seems to have erased. That day Dublin showed the kind of killer instinct they've been regularly accused of lacking, yet who ever cites that day in their defence? Instead that game's abiding legacy was to perpetuate the notion that Dublin weren't really tested in Leinster last year. That's the Dublin dilemma. Win well and they're not tested; fail to win well and they lack a killer instinct. They can't win until they win it all.

Needless to say Dublin did the right thing in ruthlessly choking Laois off last year but even allowing for their slow starts in recent weeks, Laois won't allow themselves to be open to such an attack today. They would hardly have surrendered so tamely if Padraic Clancy hadn't gone off that day and he's unlikely to go off injured again today. His replacement last year, Brendan Quigley, is no longer a raw debutant. Laois will be a lot better than they were in June 2006. But that was one day. Whether they're any better now than they were for the year in general, we'll only get our answer this evening.

It's Liam Kearns' brief. A few years ago he was in Limerick with a hard-working team without the firepower to go to the next level and Laois were under an inspired but old-school manager whose reluctance to modernise placed a ceiling on their confidence to go to the next level.

Now both players and manager have got what they were looking for. He has forwards he could only dream about in Limerick and they've got their modern manager. Neither player nor manager now has an excuse.

This arrangement will be the measure of both of them.

The feeling here is they're still short of Dublin, that they're still barely a top eight team, max. They don't have the power to curtail that Dublin half-back line and with Jason Sherlock's recall, Dublin have that bit more guile too. While Michael Tierney's elevation is reminiscent of Ross Munnelly's breathtaking rookie year of 2003, it's offset by Munnelly's dip in form. Laois will throw something new at Dublin today . . .

Kearns always did at Kerry, like starting John Galvin or Jason Galvin at full forward instead of midfield . . . but whether Billy Sheehan ends up starting or Paul Lawlor moves out to centre forward to run at Bryan Cullen, Dublin should prevail. Those Meath games might have been overhyped but the value of squeezing out a win in them cannot.

Verdict Dublin by two

LAOIS F Byron; C Ryan, T Kelly, J Higgins; P McMahon, D Rooney, B McCormack; P Clancy, B Quigley; P O'Leary, C Conway, C Parkinson; M Tierney, P Lawlor, R Munnelly

DUBLIN S Cluxton; D Henry, R McConnell, P Grif"n; P Casey, B Cullen, B Cahill; C Whelan, S Ryan; C Moran, A Brogan, B Brogan; J Sherlock, C Keaney, M Vaughan

LEINSTER SFC FINAL DUBLIN v LAOIS Croke Park, 4.15

RefereeM Hughes (Tyrone) Live, RTE Two, 1.50