Having ended their long wait for an Allianz Hurling League title earlier in the season, Dublin are eyeing up another historic feat in Thurles this weekend.
It is 63 years since the Dubs last qualified for an All-Ireland SHC semi-final - in both 1952 and 1961, when they were Leinster champions, they progressed straight to the All-Ireland final.
A victory over Limerick on Sunday, the very team that ended their Championship run in 2009, will give Anthony Daly's men a shot at reigning champions Tipperary in the last-four.
Daly said: "We're under no illusions, Limerick are a team that are going well. They're a very united and a very forthright camp in that they're all pulling in the same direction after what happened last year.
"The prize is to get a game with Tipp and while people might say after the Munster final that it's not the sort of thing you should be wishing for, we want it desperately.
"We haven't been in an All-Ireland semi-final in years, so we would absolutely love to get there and have a crack off them."
The Dublin team to face Limerick will be announced after training on Friday, with forward Ryan O'Dwyer back in contention after seeing out his suspension.
He could come back in for Simon Lambert who deputised for him in the Leinster final against Kilkenny, while another of the forward contingent, David Treacy, is hitting his stride after time out with a hamstring injury.
Key defender Joey Boland, who started at centre-back against the Cats, has also benefited from further training following his shoulder injury.
"We're as close to full strength as we're going to get for the rest of this year," admitted Daly, whose charges are priced at 8/15 by bookmakers to beat Limerick.
"Ryan O'Dwyer is back after suspension. He has a full season's training behind him, and we would have no worries about tossing him in at the deep end if needed.
"Dave Treacy is back too after his latest injury, but whether there is 70 minutes in him is another day's work.
"He's certainly in great form though, and showed that last weekend when we went down to Thurles to get a feel for the place.
"While he was a loss for the Leinster final and we would have loved to have had him, it gave him the opportunity to work really hard at the fitness there for five weeks and he's in better shape now than he has been all season. You can see it in him now. He's that bit leaner and meaner looking.
"It's the same with Joey Boland. OK, it didn't go well for him the last day (against Kilkenny) but he has had the three weeks extra to prepare and he should be in much better form.
"In general, we would have more options than we had going into the Leinster final earlier this month."
Top of Daly's list of improvements that he wants to see from his players is the upping of their collective work-rate. They only scored six points from play against the Cats, with two of them coming from substitutes Maurice O'Brien and Daire Plunkett.
"At the start of the year, we committed to working massively hard. We decided that nobody would beat us for work-rate in 2011 and I suppose that's the thing that would disappoint us about the Leinster final.
"Maybe the occasion got to us, but our core values slipped away a little bit. We have to get back to those values and work like dogs and see where that takes us.
"When all else fails, work, graft and effort are the sort of ethics you can fall back on all the time.
"We've spent plenty of time instilling that into our group and it's something we would hope will be apparent in Semple this
It is 63 years since the Dubs last qualified for an All-Ireland SHC semi-final - in both 1952 and 1961, when they were Leinster champions, they progressed straight to the All-Ireland final.
A victory over Limerick on Sunday, the very team that ended their Championship run in 2009, will give Anthony Daly's men a shot at reigning champions Tipperary in the last-four.
Daly said: "We're under no illusions, Limerick are a team that are going well. They're a very united and a very forthright camp in that they're all pulling in the same direction after what happened last year.
"The prize is to get a game with Tipp and while people might say after the Munster final that it's not the sort of thing you should be wishing for, we want it desperately.
"We haven't been in an All-Ireland semi-final in years, so we would absolutely love to get there and have a crack off them."
The Dublin team to face Limerick will be announced after training on Friday, with forward Ryan O'Dwyer back in contention after seeing out his suspension.
He could come back in for Simon Lambert who deputised for him in the Leinster final against Kilkenny, while another of the forward contingent, David Treacy, is hitting his stride after time out with a hamstring injury.
Key defender Joey Boland, who started at centre-back against the Cats, has also benefited from further training following his shoulder injury.
"We're as close to full strength as we're going to get for the rest of this year," admitted Daly, whose charges are priced at 8/15 by bookmakers to beat Limerick.
"Ryan O'Dwyer is back after suspension. He has a full season's training behind him, and we would have no worries about tossing him in at the deep end if needed.
"Dave Treacy is back too after his latest injury, but whether there is 70 minutes in him is another day's work.
"He's certainly in great form though, and showed that last weekend when we went down to Thurles to get a feel for the place.
"While he was a loss for the Leinster final and we would have loved to have had him, it gave him the opportunity to work really hard at the fitness there for five weeks and he's in better shape now than he has been all season. You can see it in him now. He's that bit leaner and meaner looking.
"It's the same with Joey Boland. OK, it didn't go well for him the last day (against Kilkenny) but he has had the three weeks extra to prepare and he should be in much better form.
"In general, we would have more options than we had going into the Leinster final earlier this month."
Top of Daly's list of improvements that he wants to see from his players is the upping of their collective work-rate. They only scored six points from play against the Cats, with two of them coming from substitutes Maurice O'Brien and Daire Plunkett.
"At the start of the year, we committed to working massively hard. We decided that nobody would beat us for work-rate in 2011 and I suppose that's the thing that would disappoint us about the Leinster final.
"Maybe the occasion got to us, but our core values slipped away a little bit. We have to get back to those values and work like dogs and see where that takes us.
"When all else fails, work, graft and effort are the sort of ethics you can fall back on all the time.
"We've spent plenty of time instilling that into our group and it's something we would hope will be apparent in Semple this
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