John Sugrue thinks Laois can challenge the little boys from the Monaghan County poster

Having had no match against the Division 1 opposition for two years, Laois now has two in the space of a fortnight or so.

Their undefeated run in league and championship until the Leinster final must be seen in the context of the fact that Westmeath – who finished in the middle of the table in division three – was the team. better ranked and never beating likely to be extended against Dublin.

Their first half was certainly commendable, but they fought well before half-time and Dublin inevitably did well in the second half, winning 18 points at the end.

"Our product declined as the game progressed", Recognizes Laois director John Sugrue

"They put you to the test and if there are small flaws in your system, you will be exposed.

"It turned out that we were able to match them for about 30 minutes until we started to lose some form and be subjected to too much stress perhaps.

"In recent years, teams have been eliminated by Dublin after 15 or 20 minutes.

"So we still have 30 minutes in this game.

" They are a well-established team and know each other's models. They know what kind of ball arrives and what each guy can do with the ball before they have it.

"You can see models in their game, but it is very difficult to counter."

Navan's opponents tomorrow, Monaghan, are arguably the poster boys for counties like Laois, despite their size and limited resources. are continually competitive against the best in the game.

Their only previous game in the championship was a qualifying match at Portlaoise, which Laois won with six points in 2012, while Sugrue was part of their backroom team.

Malachy O 'Rourke succeeds Eamonn McEneaney soon after and brings Monaghan into the divisions and two titles of Ulster.

"Malachy took over at this stage and since then he has mastered them well," acknowledged Sugrue .

"They spent whole days and enjoyed many successful days, but Monaghan also had a strong football team.

" It's one of those things although counties need to to get together and put in order in a big, big sense with development teams and things like that. To make sure things are done right.

In each of the last eight seasons, Leinster's defeated finalists lost their next match in qualifying.

"It's a fact, I can not challenge you on that," admitted Sugrue.

"It's also a fact that we have not won two successive Leinster games in 11 years so I think what we've done this year is slightly different from what we've done in recent years and to some extent I think we can be slightly different from the Leinster provincial winners in the last eight years.

"I think we can fight in this game and that's what we're going to do, challenge Monaghan and see where we can go with them.

" If we can extend this window by 30 minutes that we had against Dublin at 50-55 minutes against Monaghan, so we come to a point where finally we grow as a team and they may come back to us as a team. and we really have to focus on that. "

PREDICTION

Monaghan may have missed out on a golden opportunity of an Ulster title after losing to Fermanagh after defeating Tyrone but fortune made them smiled since

In shooting Laois on Monday morning, this meant that their road to the last eight was composed exclusively of Division Four opposition, having beaten Waterford and Leitrim in previous rounds.

Laois will propose a much more rigorous test that has improved considerably under John Sugrue this year, but not so much that suggests that they will be able to bridge that gap if Monaghan went about his business properly, which admittedly , can not always be counted.

VERDICT: Monaghan

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