Revenge was sweet for free-scoring Dublin who overcame Laois at Croke Park to secure a Leinster SHC semi-final clash with Kilkenny next weekend.

Mattie Kenny's men had 15 long months to mull over being dumped out of the 2019 Championship by Eddie Brennan's side and finally got the opportunity to take out all their frustrations.

They duly delivered a big performance with Donal Burke their main man in attack, scoring a stunning 1-16 and signalling his appetite for destruction in this year's Championship having missed last year's.

Eamon Dillon came on and glossed the scoreline for Dublin with a stoppage time goal and 1-1 in total.

The huge tally will command the attention of 2019 All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny with 10 different players getting on the scoresheet for a rampant Dublin who are through to their first provincial semi-final since 2016.

Their hurling was crisp, sharp and on point throughout and a cool 1-16 of their tally came in the first-half alone as the first shots of the 2020 hurling Championship were fired. Rustiness after the long inter-county lay off certainly wasn't a problem.

Burke accounted for 1-09 of that first-half scoring surge as he ran hard at the Laois defence and dovetailed well with Davy Keogh and Ronan Hayes.

Dubs boss Kenny made a series of interesting calls, leaving ex-All-Star Liam Rushe on the bench alongside experienced performers like Dillon, Shane Barrett and Mark Shutte, all of whom would come on.

Chris Crummey, best known as a half-back and last year's captain, started in attack and hit two first-half points, 0-03 in total.

Riain McBride and Conor Burke, both from the St Vincent's club, boomed over scores too as Dublin gradually increased their lead throughout the opening half.

They were four ahead at 0-12 to 0-08 in the 24th minute when Donal Burke struck for his goal.

It was a beauty too as he took off on a solo run down the centre of the Laois defence, leaving a couple of defenders in his wake before firing across goal to the 'keeper's left at the Hill 16 End.

Laois were boosted by the availability of Ross King following hamstring trouble and he scored six first-half points.

They went with a two-man full-forward line of King and Stephen Maher and deployed Sean Downey as a spare man in defence.

Mark Kavanagh was Laois' top scorer with 0-09 against Dublin in last year's Championship tie.

He couldn't start this time because of shoulder trouble but came on at half-time.

Two other unnamed Laois panelists were missing having been ordered to self isolate.

It amounted to eight changes in total from the Laois team that lined out in 2019 and while Dublin had just eight starters from that day in Portlaoise too, the changes worked out better for them.

Dublin restarted with four points in a row to move 1-20 to 0-12 ahead in the third quarter.

It was ominous for Laois though they refused to throw in the towel and upped the ante to pick off a series of scores which got the margin down to six points on a couple of occasions.

King and goalkeeper Enda Rowland consistently punished foul play by Dublin with points from frees though they never got a sniff of a goal which they badly needed.

Dublin finished strongest and benefited from the quality of the players they were able to introduce with Dillon and Schutte contributing 1-02 between them after coming on.

DUBLIN: Alan Nolan; Paddy Smyth, Eoghan O'Donnell, James Madden; Conor Burke (0-02), Daire Gray, Cian O'Callaghan; Sean Moran (0-01), Riain McBride (0-02); Cian Boland (0-02), Donal Burke (1-16, 0-10f, 0-02 65), Danny Sutcliffe (0-02); Chris Crummey (0-03), Ronan Hayes, Davy Keogh (0-01).

Subs: Eamon Dillon (1-01) for Hayes (50), Liam Rushe for Crummey (56), Jake Malone for Gray (61), Mark Schutte (0-01) for Boland (68), Shane Barrett for Moran (72).

LAOIS: Enda Rowland (0-02, 0-02f); Donnchadh Hartnett, Ronan Broderick, Lee Cleere; Sean Downey; Padraig Delaney (0-01), Ryan Mullaney (0-01), Fiachra C Fennell (0-01); Patrick Purcell (0-02), James Keyes; Aaron Dunphy (0-02), Willie Dunphy, James Ryan (0-01); Ross King (0-10, 0-09f, 0-01 65), Stephen Maher (0-02).

Subs: Jack Kelly (0-01) for Cleere (33), Ciaran McEvoy for Broderick (35+3), Mark Kavanagh for Keyes (h/t), Conor Phelan for Mullaney (51), Eoin Gaughan for Maher (68). 

Referee: Paud O'Dwyer (Carlow).