A brief run down of the team's involved in this year's Liam McCarthy Cup.
Clare
Manager: Anthony Daly (third year).
Titles: All-Ireland 3 (1997), Munster 5 (1998).
Last year: Lost Munster semi-final to Tipperary (2-14 to 0-14), lost All-Ireland semi-final to Cork (0-16 to 0-15).
NHL position: First in Division One A, lost semi-final to Limerick (3-23 to 2-22, AET).
It's three years since Clare have won a Munster championship match, a fact mitigated by some good displays on the alternative route. An encouraging league ended badly with a big lead being lost against Limerick in the semi-final - uncomfortably similar to the circumstances of last August's defeat by Cork.
There won't be many changes, if any, in the team, which boasts a phenomenally big attack (Niall Gilligan at six feet is the shortest) that moved well during the spring campaign. Tony Carmody's injury in a recent club match isn't considered serious and the main concern is how the Brian Lohan-McMahon-Lynch lower spine will function in its 10th successive year.
Well able to emulate last year's top-four finish. Where it goes from there will be the arbiter of progress.
Cork
Manager: John Allen (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 30 (holders), Munster 48.
Last year: Munster and All-Ireland champions.
NHL position: Fourth in Division One A.
The big season dawns. This has been a subdued year for the champions to date, but for their purposes it hasn't started yet. Yet again there won't be any major changes and with so little happening at underage in recent times, things won't change much in the immediate future.
The alarms concerning the O'Connors, Ben in particular, may be exaggerated, but the back-up is thin. Still, an injury-free season will leave them well in contention for the county's fifth three-in-a-row.
The defence remains formidably the best in the country and centrefield has pace and precision, but the forwards as a unit are less impressive and dependent on Brian Corcoran, now two years back from retirement, for its physical focus.
Dublin
Manager: Tommy Naughton (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 6 (1938), Leinster 22 (1961).
Last year: Beaten by Laois Leinster 1st rd (4-14 to 0-14), beat Laois (3-13 to 1-10) relegation play-offs.
NHL position: Winners of Division Two.
After the traumas of last year Dublin are rehabilitating themselves slowly. A promising underage structure is paying early dividends and Tommy Naughton has been wise and patient with the introduction of three of last year's successful minor side. If Messrs Brady, McCaffrey and Dunne stick with hurling they will be the platform for a revival. Dublin cantered unbeaten through Division Two, winning promotion and a shiny trophy in the final against Kerry. That game, played as it was before the Division One final in Thurles, was a stark illustration of the difference in pace between the top tier and the rest.
The squad is strengthened by the return from football duty of Ger O'Meara and the emerging talents of Alan McCrabbe and Peadar Carton. The draw hasn't been kind to Dublin and a win over Westmeath will give them an afternoon with Kilkenny. Still, this summer and next winter will be about getting experience and learning to live in the fast lane.
Progress will be better measured in a year's time.
Galway
Manager: Conor Hayes (third year).
Titles: All-Ireland 4 (1988), Connacht 11 (1999).
Last year: Beaten in All-Ireland final by Cork (1-21 to 1-16).
NHL position: Fourth in Division One B.
Always a banquet or beggary in Galway. Expectations are strangely high this year after Conor Hayes' side pulled that coup last summer and bumped Kilkenny from the championship in a game that only a cat couldn't love.
Niall Healy broke through to deliver on underage promise that day. Kerril Wade and (ta-da!) Joe Canning are among those in a holding pattern somewhere above the county. Meanwhile, Eugene Cloonan is back and David Collins, a revelation at midfield last year, should be even closer to the real deal this year.
Is there a cloud in the western sky? Well, Kilkenny pulled their sleeves up on a league afternoon and gave Galway a decent beating, an outcome which suggests that the element of surprise is gone. Failure to reach the latter stages of the league left Galway with a long period of inactivity before they get down to work in the qualifying groups. Those gaps, though, aren't as critical as they used to be. Galway on a roll this summer could be unstoppable.
We've said that so often before, though, that you can be forgiven for not believing it till you see it. A huge test this year for Galway's management.
Kilkenny
Manager: Brian Cody (eighth year).
Titles: All-Ireland 28 (2003), Leinster 62 (2005).
Last year: Beaten in All-Ireland semi-final by Galway (5-18 to 4-18).
NHL position: Winners Division One.
The nightmare years (Oh puh-lease. "Just" two leagues and a Leinster since 2003, most counties wouldn't ever want to wake up!) seem to be drawing to an end. The System will provide again. The best goods are coming in smaller parcels and Brian Cody has redesigned the style to fit. More low ball, more angles and more spaces. Less strength, more pace.
What's distressing is that Kilkenny don't just have a queue of prodigies waiting to get the jersey, but lads like Eoin Larkin and Aidan Fogarty who had quiet underage careers are bursting through also. John Dalton looked wondrous at centre back early in the league. His clubmate John Tennyson took the spot when Dalton got injured. Either way, Cody has cover there.
Midfield is a nagging worry. Derek Lyng looks just off what he was. Brian Barry seems to have gone back in the order. Michael Rice and Richie Mullally contend for a spot, though. Up front, DJ sniffs a return, but where to put him? Willie O'Dwyer presses hard for a place also. Richie Power already has one. As do Shef and Gorta and Taggy (Fogarty) and maybe Cha. And Noel Hickey is back.
And there's a Fennelly (Michael) after breaking through.
Laois
Manager: Dinny Cahill (first year).
Titles: All-Ireland 1 (1915), Leinster 3 (1949)
Last year: Beaten in Leinster semi-final by Wexford (0-24 to 1-10), beat Antrim relegation play-off (1-23 to 1-15).
NHL position: Sixth in Division One B.
Dinny Cahill cut the journey time for his hurling fix when he left Antrim and hooked up with Laois. No sooner had he his feet under the table, though, than he was being ballyragged at county board meetings by suits who knew better than he who should be playing. And where.
James Young remains the class player of the group, although there is talk that Camross prodigy Zane Keenan may be elevated to the senior ranks for the summer sessions. League form was poor and Dinny Cahill will be looking first to fill the holes in a leaky defence before he worries about the fancy stuff.
Laois have hovered at roughly the same level of attainment for so long now that it's difficult to be optimistic in the short term. Face an improving Offaly side first time out. Then, most likely, it's the qualifiers. Yikes.
Limerick
Manager: Joe McKenna (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 7 (1973), Munster 18 (1996).
Last year: Beaten in Munster semi-final replay by Tipperary (2-13 to 0-18), beaten in All-Ireland quarter-final by Kilkenny (0-18 to 0-13).
NHL position: Second in Division One B, beaten in final by Kilkenny.
Put all the namby pamby "boys just gotta have fun" stuff to the back of your head. Limerick are an old-fashioned example of what changes can be wrought through discipline and elbow grease. A long unbeaten run ended in the league final against Kilkenny, but there was no shame in that and a lot of useful work was done along the way.
The dual stars have their heads right. Mark Keane is back in harness. Only the ongoing absence of Peter Lawlor perplexes the outsider. Down the middle, Limerick are strong if not especially fast. That, indeed, is the motif for the team. They need to make up their minds about a goalkeeper, but otherwise Limerick's new-found liking for doing the simple things well suggests good things are ahead.
Andrew Shaughnessy is beginning to show us why he got that "Best In Show" rosette pinned on him as a young lad and if Brian Begley gets his game in line with his stature there'll be plenty of pickings around the square. The path through Munster looks tough, but for once everyone else seems to be in more disarray.
They'll be there when there's just the "Big Eight" left on the dancefloor and after that . . .
Offaly
Manager: John McIntyre (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 4 (1998), Leinster 9 (1995).
Last year: Lost Leinster semi-final to Kilkenny (6-28 to 0-15), Third in All-Ireland Qualifier Group B, lost to Waterford (1-26 to 1-15), Clare (1-2 to 1-11), and beat Dublin (2-15 to 2-14).
NHL position: Third in Division One A, lost quarter-final to Tipperary (2-21 to 3-14).
Twelve months on, things are looking up for John McIntyre's developing team, back from training camp in Portugal and reportedly working very hard. Offaly were always going to be better playing in Division One than somnolently marking time in the lower regions, but performances have outstripped the obvious expectations.
Defeated only by table-toppers Clare during the regulation fixtures, they qualified for the quarter-finals and lost a blazing match to Tipp - an achievement necessarily qualified by the latter's crash and burn against Kilkenny. A place in the Leinster final is eminently achievable, but this is a very young team - as many as five likely championship debutants and teenagers at full back and full forward - and an All-Ireland quarter-final place looks the likely limit for this year.
Tipperary
Manager: Babs Keating (first year).
Titles: All-Ireland 25 (2001), Munster 37 (2001).
Last year: Beaten Munster final by Cork (1-21 to 1-16), beaten in All-Ireland quarter-final by Galway (2-20 to 2-18).
NHL position: Third in Division One B, beaten league semi-final by Kilkenny.
Squeaked through to the knock-outs after a moderate league, the highlights of which were Babs' extemporaneous post-match comments. They then got such a hiding from Kilkenny that the benefits of the extra game were lost.
Some say Babs should never have gone back. Others say he's playing it cute and keeping all the good stuff for championship. The smart money looks at Tipp's underage record and says, dice it or slice it, the players ain't there. Shane Long is playing soccer at Reading and he was the best of the recent crops. The gloom is unalleviated by Eoin Kelly and Micheál Webster's lack of match practice. Séamus Butler is also recuperating, but not quickly enough for tomorrow.
Questions, questions, questions. How long since Tipp beat Cork or Kilkenny in championship hurling? Can Diarmuid Fitzgerald be recycled as a forward? Limerick tomorrow are a more immediate worry for a team that needs a boost in confidence.
Waterford
Manager: Justin McCarthy (fifth year).
Titles: All-Ireland 2 (1959), Munster 7 (2004).
Last year: Lost Munster semi-final to Cork 2-17 to 2-15, and All-Ireland quarter-final, also to Cork, 1-18 to 1-13.
NHL position: Third in Division One A and beaten in quarter-finals by Limerick 0-14 to 0-21.
Seldom have prospects tumbled so comprehensively in the weeks before a championship. The absence of Eoin Kelly, John Mullane and Ken McGrath robs the team of three major talents for the Munster semi-final and perhaps longer. On a welcome, positive note Declan Prendergast has returned to the panel and is a strong possibility for the problem full-back spot.
From a position early in the league when the team was flying, there is now fearful speculation that the county might struggle to reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Although the back door remains open, the qualifier route hasn't been a success for Waterford in the past, whereas they should have reached the All-Ireland final in both years that they won the Munster title.
All told, a daunting challenge for what is presumably Justin McCarthy's last year in charge.
Westmeath
Manager: Séamus Qualter (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 0, Leinster 0.
Last year: Won Christy Ring Cup and promotion.
NHL position: Second in Division Two B, lost semi-final to Dublin 0-11 to 1-15.
Not the time for an injury crisis. Westmeath face into their first season in the elite 12 considerably affected by player unavailability. Neither of the long-term absentees, Killian Cosgrove the teenage star of last year's Ring Cup win, and Dermot Curley will be back for the championship.
On top of that a number of the side that troubled Dublin for the first half of the promotion semi-final are currently struggling. Séamus Qualter's immediate ambition is to beat Dublin and try to get Kilkenny down to Cusack Park, but ultimately he knows that he'll end the season spinning a bottle with Laois or Dublin for a return to the Ring Cup.
Wexford
Manager: Séamus Murphy (second year).
Titles: All-Ireland 6 (1996), Leinster 19 (2004).
Last year: Leinster finalists beaten by Kilkenny 0-22 to 1-16, lost All-Ireland quarter-final to Clare 1-20 to 0-12.
NHL position: Fifth in Division One A, beat Laois in relegation semi-final 2-31 to 3-14.
Allowing for the county's capacity to strike from the shadows, this is looking a stagnant year for Wexford. Once again there was little sign of progression in the league - with maybe the exception of an overdue win over Clare and we have recently seen the now familiar decamping of a few players.
Furthermore, the retirement of Adrian Fenlon, although expected, removes a hurler of real stature as well as someone whose speciality was fast ball into the forwards. Darragh Ryan's eternal injury problems are an issue, but no more so than usual.
The inability to develop beyond sporadic displays of defiance has established a very thick glass ceiling on the county's ambitions. Right now, they look as likely to lose the habit of one stunning display a year, rather than build on it.
