JOHNNY MCCAFFREY KNOWS all about what beating Kilkenny in a provincial semi-final feels like.

In 2005, the dual star captained Dublin’s minors in both codes and led the hurlers to their first Leinster title since 1983, seeing off the Cats along the way.

It was a breakthrough moment for the capital and seven years on the Lucan Sarsfields club man wants to create an even bigger one in Portlaoise later today (5pm).

After their league win in 2011, Anthony Daly’s revolution received a setback in April when his team were relegated from Division 1A after losing out in a play-off with Galway.

While being stripped of their top tier status was never part of the plan, McCaffrey states that all the work put in over the past number of months was geared towards today.

“Obviously we didn’t want to get relegated,” he said in an interview this week. “We didn’t want to lose any game. We went out to win every game. But I suppose the big thing we focused on was our performance.

A lot of times they were quite good in the league bar the first day against Galway. We did get a lot out of it as regards blooding a lot of new lads and maybe lads in different positions that maybe hadn’t played there before. So that’s really strengthened our hard going forward for the Championship.”

Kilkenny boss Brian Cody still believes Dublin are one of the best three or four teams in the country and added that they are more than capable of producing a victory against his side.

And 24-year-old McCaffrey agrees that they are closer to the top counties than their league status suggests.

“I think we’re not that far off. Our whole year has been based on what we’re going to do in the summer – the 23rd (today). We’re hoping that we can pull everything together that we’ve been doing in the last couple of months and have a good long summer.

“Hopefully some of it comes on Saturday (today). If not we’ll come again and regroup for the qualifiers and make a crack at the All-Ireland. We got a taste of what it was like in an All-Ireland semi-final and it’s somewhere we want to get back to and go one step further this year.”

The All-Ireland champions have been struck with several injuries ahead of the semi-final, but Dublin welcome back three key players in Conal Keaney, Stephen Hiney and Thomas Brady. Unsurprisingly, McCaffrey is glad to see the trio return.

“It’s great to have them all around, especially Stephen who was gone since March last year. The two lads had played championship so weren’t gone as long so to have them back playing and available in the championship is a big plus.

Also it’s given the other lads a boost and pushed them on to play better because the three lads are good. The likes of Danny Suttcliffe and Eamonn Dillon coming in has added to the panel again and Ross O’Carroll coming in from the footballers, you know, the strength in depth there is massive all over the pitch.”

A place in the final on July 8, where Galway will prove stiff opposition, awaits the winners while whoever comes out second best will have to pick themselves up for Phase 2 of the All-Ireland qualifiers and McCaffrey is relishing the challenge Kilkenny will pose.

“If you’re worrying about what they’re doing or who you’re marking you’re not going to concentrate on your own game so it’s really about focusing on what you can do yourself and how you’re going to impact the game.

“If you can get a touch on the ball early on or get a foothold you have a good chance of making an impact on the game, that’s what you want to do. You play the game, rather the game playing what you’re going to do. That’s what you’re focused on early on.”

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