In September last, Kerins O'Rahilly's lost their third successive group game in the Kerry senior football championship, winding up with a points difference of -35.
Just a few months later, and they're bound for Croke Park for a meeting with the All-Ireland favourites Kilmacud Crokes.
The idiosyncrasies of the Kerry club scene are no secret at this stage and a source of some fascination to outsiders.
By the start of the Kerry SFC in early September, Kerins O'Rahilly's had already booked their spot in the final of the club championship - a separate eight-strong event restricted to senior club teams, excluding divisional outfits - where they would face the Spillane-powered Templenoe in mid-October.
East Kerry's borderline absurd strength in 2022 meant there was always a strong likelihood that the O'Rahilly's-Templenoe victor would provide the Kerry representative in the Munster club. (Indeed, O'Rahilly's very heavy defeat to East Kerry in their opening group game may have made their mind up for them as to where to place their focus for the remainder of the season.)
Key figures returned to the set-up. Both Jack Savage and Cormac Coffey, based in Dubai since August and absent for the county championship, returned in time for the Templenoe game.
With all that in mind, O'Rahilly's re-grouped, edged out the Spillanes et al by a point in the Kerry club final, before scraping hard-fought wins against Éire Óg and Newcastlewest to win their first ever Munster club title. In the process, they became the first Kerry club to win the province after not winning the senior county championship since Dr Crokes in 2006 - Castleisland Desmonds performed the feat twice in the 1980s.
The re-jigged calendar certainly helped matters, says O'Rahilly's totemic inside forward Tommy Walsh. Prior to the split-season, the club championship was run off in May, leaving a six month gap until the Munster campaign commenced.
"It probably worked well this year for our situation," Walsh tells RTÉ Sport.
"I think previously the club championship was held in May. So, if you had won the club championship and then a divisional team had won the county championship - which had happened before - there was such a huge gap.
"You're talking about winning a club in May and then maybe playing a Munster semi-final or quarter-final in October/ November. And then you're training during the county championship even though you might be knocked out, not knowing whether you were going through or not.
"But we knew going into that club final - because of the way the season was structured - that if we won that final, we were going through. It probably made things a bit easier for us.
"When Kerry finished and had won the All-Ireland, it was straight into the club championship at that stage. From a club player's perspective, we were gearing up for that during the second half of the summer.
"The county championship, of course, is the most important. But it's (club championship) is the next best in Kerry. And with the strength of East Kerry at the moment, a lot of clubs might have felt that it was the best chance of winning silverware and/or progressing into Munster.
"Thankfully, we were able to time our run and get a bit of form in the club championship, get to the final. Obviously, the county championship is only starting between the semi-final and the final. We were able to regroup, got through a couple of injuries, get guys back for the final. Thankfully, it paid off."
O'Rahilly's manager William Harmon admitted as much in an interview with The42.ie in December that they had put "all their eggs in the club championship basket", though Walsh points out that Dingle could have scuppered these plans, coming within a point of East Kerry in the last-four.
"If you look at Dingle this year, they nearly beat East Kerry in the semi-final you know so it wasn't just a foregone conclusion. I suppose during the club championship, you probably did feel that there was a better chance you were going to progress due to the fact that they (East Kerry) were there in the county."
For Walsh, nearly 35 and having retired from the inter-county set-up in 2021, the Munster triumph was one of the most emotional of his long career.
The two-time All-Ireland winner and former Young Footballer of the Year struck goals against both Munster semi-final and final opponents, Kerins O'Rahilly's getting home by a point on both occasions. (Testament to their mental strength, their last championship wins have been won by the minimum).
Walsh's famed aerial ability has been a central weapon in their arsenal - he punched home the only goal against the Clare champions and registered a few points from marks. His decorated county colleague and long-time friend David Moran - though sent off in the semi - has provided him with plenty of ammunition.
"I think there's only six clubs in Kerry that have won it (Munster club) ever so it's obviously not an easy thing to do. It was brilliant.
"My Dad's been going to our games for a long time obviously, with limited enough success. Not just my father obviously - he's a staunch Kerins O'Rahilly's man - but there's a lot of guy's fathers or mothers or brothers or sisters have been heavily involved in the club over the last while.
"Just to see the emotion coming from the stand, that what makes it really special. Because you can see how much it means to them. Obviously, it means a lot to us because we've been involved with it.
"That's what makes club football different to any other type of football. It's the people that you grew up with it and you see people that have been involved in it so heavily over such a long period of time. Days like that are so rare for 99% of clubs so for us to get over the line in a Munster final just before Christmas was brilliant.
"On the day, I wasn't able to describe the feeling. And I still can't. You just bottle it up and release it another time."
Outsiders might deem Sunday's game a 'free-shot' for the Munster champions, coming up against the heavy All-Ireland favourites Kilmacud Crokes, the Dublin juggernaut who cantered through Leinster and gunning to make amends for their agonising defeat in last year's decider.
Walsh, however, is quick to point out that these opportunities crop up rarely and alludes to the fact that, with himself, Moran, Barry John Keane and Jack Savage in their ranks, they won't exactly overawed by the sight of Croker.
"You could say we're in bonus territory. But the reality is we might never get to this position again so you want to take the opportunities that are in front of you," says Walsh.
"Yes we're playing a really strong team in Croke Park on Sunday, heavily fancied and deservedly so. They've performed better than we have up to this stage. But we've a lot of quality footballers on our team.
"So if they (our players) strike form, they could do damage, and that's our goal going up there. To play a good game, for lads to play their team role, to get enough guys playing well and I think if we can, we have a real chance.
"Over the last couple of games, we haven't played to our potential - it's good that we snuck over the line - but we feel if we can get guys playing well, that we've a real shot.
"When we run out on Croke Park on Sunday, it'll be one of the best days of my sporting career by a distance, whatever happens after that.
"Because I'll just be so proud to be running out there with those guys, guys that we've battled with over the last couple of years, through really, really bad days. And some good days.
"It'll be a great occasion. But the most important thing is that we get a performance out of ourselves and we do ourselves justice on the day."
