Laois's expected win over Wicklow last Saturday confirmed that the Dubs would play a championship match in a ground other than Croke Park for the first time in a decade.
In 2006, thousands of Dubs descended on Longford in a match whose fame and significance has grown with every year the Dubs haven't played outside Croke Park.
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Contentiously, this year's road trip does not constitute an away game for Dublin - that wouldn't do - but a match played in a neutral venue.
Laois are naturally aggrieved at this. As are those who harbour deep hostility towards hurling snobs. Why is the home of the hurling snob getting to host such a lucrative championship match?
We've spoken to All-Ireland winning Kilkenny goalkeeper David Herity about his lesser known double life as a Kilkenny footballer.
Read that here. He is anxious to impress upon his county men that playing Gaelic football is not comparable to wrestling a lion.
One of Kevin Heffernan's earliest assignments as Dublin manager was a trip down to Kilkenny in December 1973. Possibly the most unglamorous assignment in the history of Dublin senior football.
The match is often highlighted as an indicator of how far down the pit of irrelevance Dublin football was wedged when Kevin Heffernan took over as manager.
According to legend, the Dubs lost in the first round pretty much every year from 1966 to 1977. In fact, they did win the odd game, beating Westmeath in '72 and Wexford in '73. Other than that, they were beaten in their first match by Longford (twice in 1968 and 1970), Westmeath (1967) and Laois (1971). Kildare beat them in a couple of semi-finals.
The city as a whole took no interest in their crap football team. When the revolution was sparked off in 1974, Gay O'Driscoll's workmates were surprised to suddenly learn that he had been playing inter-county Gaelic football for a number of years at that stage.
In Colm Meaney's craic-drenched documentary on Heffo's Army, the manager talks about their pre-Christmas journey down to Nowlan Park.
Heffo was surprised to the rows of cars outside Nowlan Park on the way into the ground.
I was surprised to see so many cars and evidence of a crowd around the place. And when we went in I said to somebody 'God, football must be making a great surge in Kilkenny!'
However, it quickly transpired that this was the result of an administrative cock-up, albeit one the administrators in Kilkenny were eminently relaxed about.
Then I realised it was the start of the county minor hurling final. The time was 2 o'clock. We were to play at half past two.
So, I said to Paddy Grace, who was the (Kilkenny) county secretary at the time. I said to Paddy, 'we're supposed to play at half two...'
His answer to me was 'well, if ye want the points, ye can have them!'
So, after that I just sat back and waited for the hurlers to finish. And as soon as the game was over the crowd got up and all bar about a dozen - a dozen! - went home about their business and left us to play on an icy cold evening.
It was so cold that even the scoreboard man went home at half-time.
