Portlaoise manager John Mulligan has now set his sights on bringing a second All-Ireland club football title to the club after yesterday's Leinster final victory over Garrycastle.
The Laois champions claimed a record seventh Leinster title, but have only once gone on to lift the All-Ireland crown 1983, a record Mulligan is eager to improve on.
'We only see this as a stepping stone to going further,' he said.
'We are in with the big boys now. We are down to the last four, so we have to plan from here and move on to our next challenge after Christmas.'
Mulligan revealed that there was no sense of panic in the Portlaoise dressing-room at half-time despite the 28th minute dismissal of Peter McNulty and the fact that they were only four points up after playing with a near gale force wind.
"Believe it or not, we weren't actually that concerned at half-time playing against the wind because we usually play well against the wind.
'I think there were times there in the second half where we appeared to have an extra man. It was a marvellous performance by us and moving on from last week (against Clara), I think we went up another rung of the ladder.
'People said Portlaoise couldn't take the physical stuff but we showed last week we could and this week we showed we had the bottle and the character to come back, despite conditions like that. So it's great.'
