Dublin defender Paul Casey has welcomed the prospect of playing Meath again in the All-Ireland football quarter-finals, one of the few possible pairings ahead of Sunday evening's draw. With only the provincial finalists kept apart, Dublin have a one-in-four chance of playing Meath again, or one-in-three chance should Laois beat Derry in Saturday's remaining third-round qualifiers.

"Well we've no preference whatsoever," says Casey. "We've no hand in the draw, and we'll take whoever it is we get. If you want to go all the way in this championship you have to beat the teams put in front of you.

"It's definitely good that you can't play the provincial finalists again. It would be very close if we were to play, say, Laois again. But sure the Meath game was back in June. It would be a huge test for us again, for sure."

No matter who it is they actually draw Dublin won't play their quarter-final until August 11th - their stand-alone date in Croke Park. That will mean a four-week break since their Leinster final, some of which has been partly put over to club interests.

"We'd a down week last week, with about half the panel involved in the club championship. We're back together this week, and it's been hard work again. So we're just looking forward to the weekend draw now."

Casey agreed Dublin possibly played some part in Meath's impressive run through the qualifiers, given the confidence they would have gained from coming so close to toppling the now three-time Leinster champions. "I'm sure Meath took a lot from those two games. Those two games were great for us as well, and sure maybe they had a big say in helping us improve. But I think it's great for Leinster football that Meath have done so well in the qualifiers.

"I think this year we've noticed anyway that all the other teams in Leinster have made a step up. The two games against Meath were certainly as tough as any games we've had in the championship over the last few years, and I think stood to us as the Leinster championship progressed.

"But of course the All-Ireland series is a whole new ball game. If you lose from here on you're out of the championship, so that's definitely going to be a step up, and we just hope we'll be able to meet that challenge. It's up to us to improve on where we were last year, and progress further."

Which, by the way of a small reminder, would require making the All-Ireland final.