Cork manager John Meyler is convinced that teams who rely on a core XV won't be successful under the hectic new hurling Championship format.
The round-robin nature of the re-jigged provincial championships, and the compressed annual calendar, means Meyler's side will play four Munster games in five weeks, starting against Clare at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on 20 May.
Reaching the final would mean five games in seven weeks. In winning last year's Munster title, the Rebels played just three times in the same timeframe.
"The panel is going to be critical," Meyler told RTÉ Sport at the launch of the Allianz Hurling League.
"You're going to have to use the panel because we're out against Clare, Tipp, Waterford and Limerick, there's four competitive matches in five weekends.
"You need to be smart. Whoever adapts, and whoever has the strongest panel. I know the soccer theory is two players per position. That’s what it comes down to.
"I know you can only have 26, but it comes down to that. That depth. If there’s any doubt about that, that load factor. It’s critical."
Meyler, father of Hull and Republic of Ireland midfielder David, warns players will have to get used to the reality of squad rotation and more cautious injury management.
"There's nobody will play the five matches, I can't see it. If your corner-back, wing-back is injured, you've got to put in somebody who's as good if not better and I've learned that from my own young fella in England.
"Week in, week out you're not going to play all those matches. You are going to suffer injuries.
"The subs will be so important. It’ll be like rugby, like a prop - they can only play 60 minutes.
"There’s going to be calls made that if there’s anything at all wrong, you’ll be coming off. And I’d know that from David, he’d say I’ve a slight niggle and often when he’s at home he’d ring the physio. He has to report in injuries. You can’t feign anything.
"It's a case now if there's any doubt, you're not going to play them. Then you're going to put somebody else in instead of them and that's critical. It's all about building a squad of players to make them available."
Over-training is also a concern under the new calendar, which includes a break in April for club fixtures.
"At the moment the league is nearly starting, we'd hope that we'd have everything nearly banked by now," said Meyler.
"Then as we go along, it'll be more about recovery and analysis as distinct from pure training."You're going to have a gap then in April.
"We've started to analyse that and see where we're going to pick up. You'll have to monitor players as you go along in the National Hurling League and see how they are and then see your preparation for the Munster championship in April.
Meyler was Cork Under-21 manager and a selector under Kieran Kingston last year.
He admits surprise at his predecessor's decision to walk away after a campaign that raised both morale and expectations in the county.
"I thought he had done a really good job last year," said Meyler. "He brought through young lads and he re-energised and refocused the whole thing. I thought he’d stay on but he had work commitments.
"This time last year, Cork people were looking for a performance. That's really what they wanted and they got that during the Munster championship, and the All-Ireland to a lesser extent.
"So there's now a huge expectation on that Cork team to perform. The new stadium, Cork's first competitive match there against Kilkenny (on Saturday evening), so everybody will be expecting a performance, everybody will be expecting more than what was expected last year.
"That pressure is on the players so we have to try and take that off them as best we can and get them to play to another level again compared to last year."
Meyler, who also previously managed his native Wexford and Kerry at senior level, is a keen student of management styles in other sports, particularly, given his son's professional career, soccer.
"I used to love going down to Sunderland when he (David) was there, and going down to Hull when Steve Bruce was manager. I would’ve looked at all of their coaching sessions to have seen what they were at.
"I would've looked at Cork City sessions too, because they’re in the college (CIT) there as well. Just to see what they’re doing - like seeing coaching as distinct to training and physical training.
"A lot of it is (transferrable). A lot of it is that once the game is over, you move on, you see what’s next, you see how you can improve. Kilkenny is critical now, this Saturday. The following Saturday, it’s away to Wexford. The minute the match is over, you learn from it, and you forget about it, then.
"You go back to last year, we beat Tipperary in Thurles in the (Munster) quarter-final, and then four weeks' time we’ve Waterford. You spend the first two weeks talking, 'Jesus wasn’t it great to beat Tipp' or whatever. Now you don’t have that. You’ll forget about the match. That’s the difference in professional sport, it’s over, move on, forget about it."
Meyler believes that the the move towards more games in a tighter time-frame will help address the often complained about ratio of training to games in hurling and football.
"Professional sport is about Saturday to Saturday to Saturday. It's a different, they do all their pre-season training in July and August where a lot of (GAA) teams are training throughout the whole year and there's no need for it.
"We just need a structure of matches. I think with the advent of this league and the new Munster championship, there are going to be games so there'll be less time for training and more time for recovery and that.
"You've got to get a balance between your own life, if you're in college, and your sport and your social life. You've got to get a balance between all of those."
Follow the weekend's Allianz Football and Hurling League action from 4.30pm on Saturday and 1.30pm on Sunday - live on RTÉ Radio 1 with live blogs on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News Now App.
Watch live games on GAAGO (overseas only) and see highlights on Allianz League Sunday - RTÉ2 9.30pm
