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
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