Laois manager Tomás Ó Flatharta insists Dublin are not "unbeatable", despite the Sky Blues winning nine of the last ten Leinster Championships.
The Dubs are on the same side of the draw as Laois, who get their campaign underway against Carlow tonight (throw-in 7pm).
“There is no team that are unbeatable,” Ó Flatharta told RTÉ Sport.
“That’s the way I would approach any game, whoever you’re playing. You have to have that belief in yourself.
“Yes, they can be a great team but you have to have a belief going into a game that you can win it.”
Before they can even dream of meeting the Dubs, however, Laois must travel to Netwatch Cullen Park to face Division 4 neighbours Carlow.
“It’s a local derby. Carlow will be delighted to have a home venue as well,” he said.
“They’ve had some nice results in the league. What we need to do is focus on ourselves and our own preparations.
“We have to take it one step at a time. Obviously, you always dream of going further in the championship but Carlow are our main focus."
Laois recovered from losing their opening two games in Division 2 of this year's Allianz Football League to avoid relegation.
Ó Flatharta was heartened by the determination shown by his players after their early defeats and highlighted the importance of remaining in the second tier.
“We bounced back," he said. "Our first two games, we were disappointed with our performance. But we had a good turnaround.
“There was some great heart and great fight shown in a number of games in the middle of the league.
“It was really important for us. Division 2 is a very competitive league and it was again this year. There were times when we were looking up the table after some of those displays.
“It is very important to have very competitive games against good teams going into the championship."
Nonetheless, despite Leinster only fielding three representatives in the top divisions for next year (Dublin, Laois and Meath), the Kerryman doesn't think the province is at a competitive disadvantage come Leinster Championship or All-Ireland series.
“You could look at that in a lot of different ways," he said.
“You might find, if those three teams were competing against some of the others, that you could have some ding-dong games in the championship. So I wouldn’t take much out of that."
“The qualifiers take on a story of their own. Some teams do well in them all the time, others don’t take them as seriously."
