Seán Moran, hopes to see National League champions Waterford making it to September's final
Waterford's NHL win at the end of last month revived more than the spirits in the county. It also breathed some expectation into the championship.
GAA president Nickey Brennan has always favoured a more relaxed outlook, pointing out that the domination by Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary is an historical constant and not just something has popped up to bring to a close the golden age of the 1990s.
Whereas the president is undoubtedly correct about this and the last decade of the 20th century was golden because it was unique the scale of the Big Three's current imperium - eight successive All-Irelands and counting - is unprecedented.
The expectations generated by Waterford haven't changed the basic landscape as even at the start of this season Justin McCarthy's team would have rated in the top two or three, albeit that there are question marks over their delivery in the thin air at the top of the championship. But, overall, the field of contenders is thinning rather than expanding.
Twelve months ago the talk was of Cork's potential three in a row. It was a live possibility for nearly the whole season, but had it happened it was as far as the team were likely to go, given the production line in Kilkenny and the essential lack thereof in Cork.
As things panned out, Kilkenny arrived maybe a year ahead of schedule and it's no surprise that even after losing the league final they are nearly as tight as evens with some bookies to win an All-Ireland that is four months away.
Despite a couple of setbacks in the league, Brian Cody watched his team coast to the last day of the competition, using the opportunity to try out new players and sift through the riches at his disposal. Most of it was achieved without the services of either Hurler of the Year Henry Shefflin or Young Hurler of the Year James Fitzpatrick.
One potential concern is the impact of the player's club campaign with Ballyhale. It's an occupational hazard for counties with players whose clubs do well in the championship, that they may have to come to terms with a fall-off in form.
But it's not a guaranteed consequence and Shefflin was given a bit of time and space since St Patrick's Day - admittedly he was getting married - but any slippage in his form would be significant given his massive importance to the team.
In the NHL final, however, 12 points together with an uncharacteristic number of wides showed that even after a long lay-off he was still comfortably able to play a major role. A few more weeks' sharpening and there seems little prospect of a decline in form. It will be harder to tell with Fitzpatrick until he's moved back to centrefield.
Otherwise, Kilkenny emerged from the league with a few question marks but none that appear unanswerable. There was some surprise at PJ Ryan's extended run in goal, but he hasn't done a whole lot wrong and in the past five years since restructuring his team during the 2002 NHL, manager Brian Cody has hardly deviated from rewarding form at whatever time of the year.
One of the few problem positions is corner back. Since Willie O'Connor retired Kilkenny have twinned Michael Kavanagh with a succession of players better suited to half back - James Ryall, JJ Delaney and Jackie Tyrrell. Given that Kavanagh's hold on his place has been tenuous over the years - only Delaney's injury got him started in last year's All-Ireland - the full back line is prone to upheaval.
The decision to try Brian Hogan at full back is more than a statement of preference for a physically big player on the edge of the square; it's a reflection of the lack of options in the line.
Noel Hickey spent most of last season at corner back without ever producing a performance as compelling as his AllIreland final curtailment of Brian Corcoran. Yet, his only previous run in the role last year was when it was deemed prudent to switch Delaney to mark Damien Hayes in the quarter-final against Galway.
A similar alternating of roles would appear to make sense, but then who takes the third place in the line given the hitherto reluctance to commit to Kavanagh and that Hogan isn't a corner back?
At least there is a sense of ferment about the champions' efforts to improve and settle the team for the challenge of recording back-to-back titles.
Conversely Kilkenny's main competitors Cork are a lot less persuasive than a year ago. There is a new manager in place and, unlike the previous handover between Donal O'Grady and John Allen, Gerald McCarthy's appointment was more of a venture into a different genre than simply turning the page into a new chapter.
The consequent friction exacerbates a situation in which new players are urgently needed in the light of Brian Corcoran's retirement at the end of last season and uncertainty about how best to deploy the attack.
When Ger Loughnane was appointed manager of Galway the perhaps naïve response was that the irrepressible former Clare manager, bored by years of punditry, would unleash the talent in the west as a genuine force in this year's championship.
Reality has intruded over the course of the league and if it was obvious that few were going to be impressed by the spring performance, more tellingly there's a downbeat realisation that we might have seen all there is to see and that Loughnane's extraordinary ability to get Clare just right for the championship won't necessarily transfer like a patent formula.
Should that challenge fail to materialise, the front runners to challenge Kilkenny will be Waterford. One of the most significant things about the league success was that Justin McCarthy unearthed a couple of new players that will strengthen the side and give it some forward momentum.
Inability to clinch the deal in tight circumstances - losing four All-Ireland semi-finals by an average of two points each - is still the spectre that stalks the team, but the NHL title was achieved in exactly those circumstances after matches against Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny and their physical strength, pace and score getting ability combine for a powerful amalgam in any championship.
In general, it's true that hurling and football don't differ hugely in terms of the correlation between pre-season short-lists of All-Ireland winners and the September reality. Where hurling suffers in comparison is in its inability to produce heart-warming outsiders, who even if they don't feature at the sharp end of the championship, trip up more highly-rated teams along the way.
Hurling's stricter hierarchies mean that a consistent top-four county like Clare drawing with Kilkenny in 2004 is as close as we have come to sensation.
For a while it appeared as if Dublin might be on the verge of making genuine progress, although manager Tommy Naughton distrusted the volatile enthusiasms of the crowd - neither believing that startling NHL results against Kilkenny, Galway and Limerick meant they had suddenly become contenders, nor that a midweek defeat in Belfast signalled the unmasking of a massive fraud.
April was a cruel month for the Dubs with championship opponents Wexford indicating that they too had improved and the news that one of the team's bright young prospects, Kevin O'Reilly, had sustained a season-ending injury.
Like the Dublin hurling community, we live in hope and, even if Kilkenny prove unshakeable, let it be after a championship of good matches and preferably with Waterford reaching the All-Ireland final.