CHAMPIONSHIP 2012:Dublin manager Pat Gilroy has a healthy respect for tomorrow's opponents Laois, writes PHILIP REID

THE TEXT messages and calls to Pat Gilroy after the draw for the All-Ireland quarter-finals offered a common sentiment: Dublin had come out on the so-called softer side!

Not that he paid too much heed to such a consensus. Too long in the tooth and too shrewd to go down that path, Gilroy – in the countdown to facing Laois at Croke Park tomorrow evening – remarked, “Whatever (team) gets picked out you just have to deal with it . . . you have to deal with the hand you get. It really does make no difference because you have to beat what’s put in front of you.”

And, certainly, Dublin’s manager is not one for taking any rivals lightly, especially at this stage of his team’s title defence. All Gilroy does is point to recent history as warnings. Mayo beating Cork last year. Down trumping Kerry the previous year. Dublin themselves overwhelming Tyrone, also two years ago.

“This weekend is the time of year when shocks and surprises do happen. We’ve been part of that – Tyrone in 2010 and ourselves – so we know this is the weekend if somebody wants to beat someone, there’s a great opportunity. So, we’re very wary about it.

“I’ve got a lot of messages saying it’s a great draw but it’s only a great draw if you win your game. You can say it’s a great draw if you’ve got through it. That’s just the facts of it. You can take nothing for granted. They are all decent teams in the quarter-finals. They’re all either Division One this year or next year, so it’s going to be difficult.”

For tomorrow evening’s quarter-final, Dublin have made one change from the team that held off Meath – since consigned to on-lookers by Laois – in the Leinster final. Eoghan O’Gara, who made an eye-catching appearance as substitute when replacing the injured Alan Brogan before half-time in that provincial decider, has been promoted to a starting place at the expense of Kevin McManamon.

“He made a big difference to us the last day, he’s justified his inclusion the way he played,” said Gilroy of O’Gara, adding: “I think he has progressed an awful lot. Eoghan’s biggest challenge has been to get a decent run injury-free.

“Every year we’ve been involved he looks like he’s coming a certain way and then he picks up another injury. Since the end of May he has been injury-free and once he gets that he has a lot of skill. He is capable of doing a lot of things and we’ve seen him do it in training. We’re starting to see it this year.”

The other talking points were Brogan’s successful recuperation from a groin injury and the failure of Diarmuid Connolly, suspended for the Meath game, to regain his place in the team.

Brogan – last year’s ‘footballer of the year’ – proved his fitness in training on Wednesday night after following all the medical advice in working his way back to fitness. When others were out on the pitch, Brogan was doing deep water running and such like.

Of Brogan’s fitness, Gilroy observed: “On the Tuesday night (after the Meath game), the medical people said it’ll take a week. It was just a very minor tear . . . we did a tackling drill (at training on Wednesday before finalising the team) where you can’t hide. He was absolutely fine on it.

“Ultimately, you would depend on the player telling you if they had a problem and most fellas, and somebody like Alan with his experience, would tell you if there is something wrong. He would have no problem saying it.”

Dublin’s bench – which won’t be officially announced until before the match – has a look of attacking strength-in-depth, with McManamon joining Connolly alongside the new kid on the block, Ciarán Kilkenny.

Connolly, who missed Dublin’s last outing following his straight red card dismissal against Wexford, has failed to win back his starting place but, on a more general level, Gilroy made the point that some players – like Connolly – get “targeted” and “they should be protected by the referees as well”.

Gilroy expanded: “He shouldn’t have done it and he knows he shouldn’t have done it but at the same time there’s certain things that happen in games and he was thrown to the ground just before that . . . I’m not just saying it for him. There are other players. Paul Galvin seems to be in a similar situation, that a lot seems to happen to him that goes unpunished. So, there is a flip side to it. Dermot is a smart enough guy and I think we’ll be safe enough to use him in the future. He’s a human being and we all make mistakes.”

For this one, Connolly isn’t in from the start. And Gilroy knows that his team will face an improving Laois team, pointing to the dominant manner of their win over Meath as evidence of what lies ahead for the 15 selected players.

“Physically against Meath, they (Laois) really put it up to them and came out on top in a lot of the physical exchanges. Conditioning-wise they’d be up there with the top teams. They’ve come on a lot in the last two years in that regard. Even from last year’s championship to this year’s league you could see they had gotten bigger.

“They have been developing a way of playing over the last two years that is starting to come together. You could see that the last day, there was a good pattern to what they were doing and Meath could do nothing about it.”

Fore-warned!

DUBLIN TEAM: v Laois

(1) Stephen Cluxton

(2) Michael Fitzsimons (3) Rory OCarroll (4) Philly McMahon

(5) James McCarthy (6) Kevin Nolan (7) Cian OSullivan

(8) Eamon Fennell (9) Denis Bastick

(10) Paul Flynn (11) Alan Brogan (12) Bryan Cullen (capt)

(13) Bernard Brogan (14) Michael Dara MacAuley (15) Eoghan OGara