Laois's expected win over Wicklow last month confirmed that the Dubs would play a championship match at a venue other than Croke Park for the first time in a decade. It's a decade since the Dubs have seen the interior of a provincial ground on a summer day. So, this is no small deal.
In honour of this novel occasion, here are five of the most memorable Dublin away matches down the years. Not all these matches were strictly speaking 'away' games, hence the quotation marks.
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2006 - Longford v Dublin
A match that has grown in legend in the past ten years, the longer the Dubs have stayed away from provincial grounds on championship days.
Longford people, who even now grow wistful at the memory of that blissfully sunny day, may have cause to regret the Dubs finally being taken out of Croker again. People might stop writing retrospectives about that match.
From early in the day, the Dublin supporters were milling around the Market Square. The roads leading up to Pearse Park were closed off to traffic.
The terrace opposite the Main Stand, usually the home of the more seasoned and blokey of the home supporters (as opposed to families), had become a makeshift Hill 16 for the day.
Even on bigger days in Pearse Park, county finals and the like, vast swathes of concrete are still visible at either end of that terrace. Not that day. The Dubs had filled every inch of it.
Even the tiny little incline behind the goal at the scoreboard end of the ground - usually dead space populated only by pebbles - had people on it.
Longford gave Dublin a real fright, feeding that the notion for years to come that the Dubs wouldn't have it all their own way outside Croker. After 20 minutes, Longford led 0-5 to 0-1.
Giddy on the improbability of it all, the Longford supporters sensed the backlash was coming. It duly arrived through Mark Vaughan's goal. A burst on either side of half-time was enough to win the game for Dublin, who started the game slowly and finished the game poorly.
Longford kicked the last four points and only lost by two, 1-12 to 0-13. They had kicked a ruinous number of wides in the second half.
Even as they reeled off the late scores, the feeling was that the horse had bolted already rather than one of 'we could still do this!' The pain of missing out on a historic result was assuaged by a marvellous run through the qualifiers which incorporated a win over Derry and a trip to Killarney in the last 12 match.
2001 - Kerry v Dublin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeQdf7uU344
Another one of those games which causes one to scratch one's head. These unimaginative bean counters in Central Council have prevented any further 'foreign trips'. And why? The drawn game in Semple Stadium in 2001 is one of the most memorable matches of the decade.
The Dubs hadn't met Kerry in the championship for sixteen years, not since the 1985 All-Ireland final.
During the Dubs desperate quest for an All-Ireland final in the early 90s, Kerry were missing from the big-time, Clare scuppering the anticipated rematch in 1992.
When Kerry at last revived in 1996, the Dubs were in retreat and couldn't get out of Leinster.
It's hard to credit these days but, by 2001, Dublin had gone six years without a Leinster title and hadn't taken a major championship scalp since beating Tyrone in the 1995 All-Ireland final.
They were never far away from Meath but they hadn't beaten them either and they found on themselves on the wrong side of a couple of big games against Kildare.
There was little reason to suspect they'd beat Kerry - the All-Ireland champions - down in Thurles. Their supporters occupied the Killinan End, ironically the culchie end of the terrace, furthest from the town.
With the Dubs trailing by seven points late on, Carr threw on ageing folk hero Vinny Murphy, whose heyday was nine years earlier. In addition to throwing the few obligatory shoulders, he struck a lovely goal, dragging the Dubs back into contention.
Moments later, Dublin's slight blonde free-taker Wayne McCarthy floated in a 45. It dropped short and Darren Homan punched it home.
The Dubs led by a point until the final seconds when Maurice Fitzgerald, with Tommy Carr screeching in his air, swerved over a sideline ball.
The replay, also in Thurles, couldn't compete in the drama stakes. With John Crowley hitting top form, Kerry won a match which has been relegated to the status of a footnote. It wasn't a hammering but nor were there too many heart attacks late on.
1996 - Louth v Dublin
Mickey Whelan's coaching reputation in his home city is in a healthier state these days. This is a legacy of the his important role in the 2011 All-Ireland win and St. Vincent's All-Ireland club victory in 2008.
Back in the late 90s, he was a deeply unpopular figure. He assumed the job at a difficult time. The year after an ageing team finally crawled over the line to win an All-Ireland.
Whelan, a two-time All-Ireland winner as a player with a PhD in Physical Education from a US university, came in buzzing with new age ideas, many of which are now part of orthodox thinking.
But back in 1996, a battle-weary Dublin team were stubbornly resistant to their manager's earnest prognostications.
When I took over Dublin in 1995, they had been used to a different type of training. And they had been lucky to win the All-Ireland that previous year. I was trying to make them a better team but they just didn't buy into my innovation.
In '96, they departed the environs of Jones's Road to play a couple of games in Navan. They dispatched Westmeath handsomely enough and then faced Louth in an ominously low scoring semi-final.
With six or seven minutes remaining Louth led by a point. But then blast from the rather distant past Joe McNally, no one's idea of a poster boy for the strength and conditioning lobby, rode to the rescue.
He hit the equaliser and struck the decisive goal a couple of minutes later. Dublin got out of trouble but it was a short stay of execution.
A coming Meath unseated them in Croker in the Leinster Final.
1983 - Cork v Dublin
The Cork county board's talent for strong-arming gave us this incredible day down in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
Following a draw the first day out, Cork officials argued that Croke Park was effectively a home venue for Dublin on the novel grounds that Croke Park was in Dublin.
The Dubs, who've never been afraid of the long trip, acceded to the request with Heffo quietly believing that this could be used to their advantage.
There was a beefed up security presence on the day with many fearing that the Dubs might cause aggro down in Munster.
The Blackrock End was re-christened 'Hill 17' for the day. Opposition leader Charlie Haughey was down at the game, celebrating jubilantly after the Dubs win.
They hit four goals and won by eleven points in the end. Rock, Duff, Mullins and Joe McNally hit the net. The celebrations of the players afterwards suggested this was one of the greatest days.
They won a sour All-Ireland final afterwards against Galway. The semi-final in Cork is fondly remembered by comparison. Dublin's greatest day on the road by a serious distance.
1974 - Dublin v Kilkenny
*Not the championship but the last time they travelled to Kilkenny
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 1973. 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.
