Dublin's senior footballers may have no real opposition in the Leinster Championship but that luxury doesn’t stretch to the club scene.
The All-Ireland champions will bid to win their tenth provincial title in a row and 14th in 15 years next season.
But capital club kingpins Ballyboden St Enda’s take on Carlow’s Éire Óg on Sunday in Portlaoise knowing that their two predecessors failed to get out of the province.
Mullinalaghta of Longford famously shocked Kilmacud last year in the final, while St Vincent’s fell to Wicklow’s Rathnew in the quarter-final in 2017.
"The quality in Leinster is serious," says Ballyboden forward Ryan Basquel.
"We played Newtown Blues (of Louth) in the first game and we pulled away at the end but with five minutes left there was only a point or two left in the game.
"Crokes last year lost to the Longford champions and Vincent's lost to the Wicklow champions so it shows you have every county in Leinster has strong competition.
"The thing about it is any county champions that you play, they're going to be used to winning so they're going to have a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence too.
"So yeah, [it’s a] massive challenge playing every game."
Prior to that, however, the Dublin champions, Vincent’s in 2016 and Ballyboden in 2015, did claim the Leinster prize.
Basquel was part of the Knocklyon-based side that went on to win the All-Ireland four years ago and believes that experience will stand to them.
"It definitely gives you confidence," he adds.
"Funny enough we played the Louth champions the week after the county final that year, and the Westmeath champions in the semi-final, so even the experience of just going down to the various county grounds, it's different to Parnell Park.
"You kind of know what to expect. The style of football is probably different to what you play against in Dublin. That's another thing. So I think the experience that we had is standing to us.
"But at the same time, we didn't have that experience back then, and it didn't stop us then either. So there's various things that you can draw on, but I suppose at the end of the day, it's all about the day."
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