When the new format for the hurling championship was launched in 2018, it was feared in some quarters that the provincial finals might become an afterthought.
A tangential interlude before the All-Ireland series.
Instead, the Munster championship has entered a new golden age – one which has left the Guinness-branded mid-90s era in the shade – with unprecedented hype, packed stadiums and sold-out notices appearing earlier and earlier in the week.
The rhetoric has occasionally gone overboard, almost provoking a split in hurling nation. At the height of Munster triumphalism last year, Niall Moran, on a wind-up mission, told the Our Game podcast that a Munster medal was nearly worth more than an All-Ireland.
From the get-go this season, the focus has naturally been on Limerick's push for a historic fifth All-Ireland in a row. But they have a chance to break new ground at provincial level this week.
Cork have done a five in-a-row in Munster on three occasions, once pre-independence (1901-05) and twice more in close proximity to one another in the 70s and 80s. It was only Limerick's duo of successes in 1980 and 1981 that was sandwiched between the latter two.
But no county has yet managed a six-in-a-row in Munster, and it will be some repudiation of the historical order if Limerick are the ones to achieve it. Rarely has the narrative of a county changed so dramatically in such a short space of time. As of 2024, it's almost hard to remember the time when Limerick were perennial hard-luck merchants.
Indeed, the last time a team embarked on a five-in-a-row All-Ireland tilt, Limerick were only nominal entrants in the championship, a devastating, season-long strike resulted in them sending out a virtual third-string outfit. They were so far off it at the time, the big boys would barely have noticed their absence.
For the current generation, most of them are chasing their sixth Munster medal, although a couple, like Nickie Quaid and Declan Hannon, are after number seven.
That tally would take the latter two boys one clear of Clare's all-time haul.
For this Clare generation, a Munster medal may be the holiest of grails.
A few of the longer in the tooth ones have ascended the steps of the Hogan – John Conlan, Tony Kelly, Shane O'Donnell, David McInerney – but still have no Munster title to their name.
The county lost 11 provincial finals between 1932 and 1995 (when they were said to be labouring under a curse imposed by a local mystic, who died nine years before the GAA was founded) and have now lost six deciders since the last of that trio of titles won under Ger Loughnane in a four-year spell between 1995 and 1998.
Mid-90s foes back for good these days - the 94-95 Munster finals, when Limerick prolonged Clare's agony only for the Banner to turn the tables in an emotional win the following year
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) June 8, 2024
Watch the Munster SHC final on @rte2 and @rteplayer from 3.15pm on Sunday #gaa pic.twitter.com/sH7TiroeP2
Clare's All-Ireland victory in 2013 was an extreme outlier in the context of their performance in the 2010s and was won at the end of a pretty wacky hurling season (the formlines that summer bore no resemblance to the era, generally).
In the four years either side of that bolt-from-the-blue win, they failed to even reach Croke Park – it would in this context probably be pushing it to describe their heavy away qualifier defeat to Anthony Daly's Dublin in 2010 as 'reaching Croke Park'.
Under Brian Lohan, by contrast, Clare have become hugely consistent, topping the Munster round-robin standings in both 2022 and 2023.
Lohan is the object of fierce idolatry in Clare due to his inspirational playing career. While his win ratio is comfortably the best of any Clare boss in the post-Loughnane period, there's no championship silverware on the table yet.
The permanently embattled Davy Fitz, whose feud with Lohan has outlasted even the media's interest in talking about it, was obviously referring to his former friend last year when he spoke of "managers who are there three or four years and have won zero and are not getting half the hassle."
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Lohan has since won silverware in the shape of the 2024 league title, although that prize is not at an all-time high in terms of prestige these days. It's hard to imagine Lohan, in particular, pleading that they won the league if their championship summer fizzles out.
They won this year's league without Tony Kelly, whose involvement has been fitful since undergoing ankle surgery over winter. The 2013 Hurler of the Year has been sprung from the bench in three of their four Munster SHC games, scoring 1-04 in total. Once again, he's been held in reserve, at least according to the starting XV published on Friday.
Kelly's interrupted season may account for Clare's form being somewhat less compelling than 12 months ago.
Shane O'Donnell, still toying with the idea of early retirement to pursue other avenues, has become the focal point of the attack, more as a provider and a ball-winner than a heavy scorer. Like a rugby out-half, he has lately become the default MOTM pick. Though he only hit 0-02 against Tipperary, he was centrally involved in a further 1-08, through direct assists and being fouled in scorable positions.
Otherwise, they've had a decent spread of scorers, Mark Rodgers hitting 1-04 and 1-03 from play against Cork and Waterford respectively. David Reidy, Peter Duggan and Aidan McCarthy have also chipped in, the latter assuming most of the free-taking responsibilities. Loping midfielder David Fitzgerald found the net against Cork and Waterford, hitting 1-04 from play against the latter.
The thrilling Round 2 away win over Cork, which was thought to have condemned the Rebels to an early elimination, has taken on a further glow in light of recent weeks.
They hit four goals against a ludicrously open Waterford in Round 3 and could have had several more but still wound up only scraping home by a point, courtesy of Mark Rodgers' last-gasp 65.
In Round 4, they were made work for their win by a Tipp team with little to play for beyond regaining respectability.
Still, they've recovered well from the opening round loss at home to Limerick, one of their most galling defeats yet to John Kiely's side.
The hosts were presented with a rare gift in the form of a ragged and sloppy Limerick display for 50 minutes. Diarmaid Byrnes was hit with a bout of the yips on free-taking duties, which he has yet to properly shake off.
While Clare stretched nine points in front at one stage in the second half, there was a nagging sense they were failing to press home their advantage as the game fell into a curious third-quarter lull.
Byrnes' worst-hit free of all yielded the best possible result and the game took off in an entirely different direction.
Clare looked simultaneously rattled and confused as Gearóid Hegarty drifted into corner forward, no one apparently seeing fit to mind him. Eibhear Quilligan allowed Donnacha Ó Dalaigh's low-powered shot skitter under him for a second goal before Aaron Gillane, probably loitering inside the square, poked home a third on the rebound.
It was, in fact, only Clare's second Munster round-robin defeat to Limerick in five attempts.
As in 2023, the champions haven't quite brought their A-game to the Munster round robin. There was time enough for that in Croke Park last summer.
Their 2024 performances have tended to follow a specific pattern; sluggish first half showings before a ruthless second half explosion. They fell well behind the eight-ball against both Clare and Cork before overhauling the deficit in the second half. But for Shane Kingston's late, late raid – Ger Canning would surely have been invoking the Light Brigade – they'd have won both games.
They surely should have been behind at half-time against Tipp were it not for the poverty of their opponents' challenge.
Waterford, reeling from the number of goal chances conceded in Ennis, parked extra numbers deep and Limerick enjoyed a field day of shooting from long range. Their accuracy wasn't too hot but such was their dominance, it didn't matter much – they converted 0-30 out of a staggering 50 shots and won pulling up in the finish. As has been noted, Kiely and Kinnerk don't fret so much about conversion stats, placing more emphasis on middle third dominance and getting a high number of shots away.
2020s Limerick were always distinguished from the Dublin footballers in that they were thought more a single team than a conveyor belt, though newcomers are inevitably emerging, Ó Dalaigh, Shane O'Brien and Adam English delivering decent cameos, albeit usually in the latter stages of a one-sided win.
They are shorn of some regulars this time. Peter Casey's horrible ankle fracture against Tipp rules him out for the year, while Seamus Flanagan limped off against Waterford and is replaced by O'Brien. Further back the field, Sean Finn and Darragh O'Donovan aren't named, though Limerick aren't exactly short of reliable replacements back there.
One wrinkle this weekend is that the Munster champions are potentially putting themselves on a collision course with a rejuvenated Cork in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Don't expect these kind of far-off calculations to loom large – or loom at all – in anyone's mind on Sunday. For the historical anoraks, Munster finals in years ending in '4' have often provided classics – 1984, 2004. Two years ago, this pair produced a Munster decider at least on a par with them. Last year's meeting in the Gaelic Grounds was a touch scrappier though hardly short of drama.
Logic and form tends to suggest Limerick will rack up an unprecedented six-in-a-row, though Clare's hunger and historical need could yet intervene.
Watch the Munster Hurling final, Limerick v Clare, on Sunday from 3.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
