Noel Connors can view the 2020 hurling championship with a relatively detached eye but says he hasn't shut the door on the possibility of returning to the Waterford set-up.
The three-time All-Star winner, who turned 30 in May, was appointed captain of Waterford by Paraic Fanning at the beginning of the 2019 season.
That summer's championship turned out to be a hideous disaster for Fanning's team, the county's worst since they were eliminated by Kerry in 1993.
Waterford lost all four of their championship matches, three of them by double digit margins, and Fanning was gone not long after the campaign.
Following him, shortly afterwards, was Connors.
The decision to proceed without a celebrated defender was a dramatic call by incoming manager Liam Cahill.
"It was a shock," Connors says of the phone call in late 2019.
"I was the captain in 2019 and that, but look, that was Liam's decision. It was just a conversation on the phone one October night as far as I can remember. He just asked me if I was going to retire and I kind of said 'no, why would I?'
"Obviously, like, I’ve missed two matches in 11 years, one through injury against Laois when Derek started and one against Cork last year when we didn’t have much to play for and it was a complete change of the 15 and that was it really."
"I would have got a couple of texts off the lads, wondering was it true and that but look it is what it is.
"Look to be honest, it was just something that completely hit me by surprise, it wasn’t something that I was expecting obviously.
"I don’t know Liam, I’ve never met him before, it was the only conversation I’ve ever had with him. I was just after coming back from a camogie match at about 8.00, my little cousin was playing club camogie county final and I came back and the phone was ringing.
"Generally I don’t like answering the phone late at night but it was Liam, just a brief conversation, asking me if I was going to retire and I said no and he just said you’re not in our plans going forward."
The first summer since 2008 that Connors wasn’t involved with Waterford and… there was no championship at all.
For all the talk about the rigours and demands of juggling an inter-county career with a professional career, Connors found himself busier overall in 2020 than he was at any stage of his playing career.
"It’s funny. I was actually talking to one of the lads yesterday who would have played with Waterford for a good few years, Stephen Roche. Stephen is a teacher in St Paul’s up the road, and I’m obviously in WIT lecturing.
"We’re actually busier now than we were when we were playing, because when you know when you’re playing, you are solely focused on playing and making sure that you’re going through your process and your routine. You just have one thing to focus on.
"Now you’re focusing on your career, you’re looking at research in my instance, I’m getting married next year, I’ve an 18-month child at home. So your perspective completely changes. But you find so many other things. I find myself busier than I was when I was with Waterford."
Given the circumstances and the squashed nature of the calendar (which never has many gaps at the best of times), the hurling championship has reverted to something akin to the system that prevailed in 2017.
This realisation could spark some positivity in Waterford. At least they get some respite from the system which has tortured them for the past two championship campaigns.
They lost seven of their eight games in the Munster round robin in 2018 and 2019, the other one ending in a draw, the infamous game in the Gaelic Grounds when a shocking umpiring howler gifted Tipperary a late goal.
"I think it is liberating for us. Maybe that’s from the perspective that we haven’t done particularly well in the new system!
"It’s the teams that are very well developed and have a large squad that will do well in the round robin. Because you can catch a team potentially on one day but if you have four games one after the other, it’s generally teams that have a better squad that will win matches."
Waterford had a positive league campaign, winning all their home games – though league form proved terrible misleading in 2019 – but perhaps the biggest boost that Liam Cahill’s team has received this year has come out of left-field.
Former Brighton & Hove Albion footballer Dessie Hutchinson has returned home, spent last year playing for the Benji Whelan’s inter-county football side, and has shone for Ballygunner in the Waterford hurling championship. Now, he’s part of the set-up.
For Connors, he’s reminiscent of a certain Waterford attacker, at least in some respects, who collected All-Stars by the bucket-load at the end of the last decade.
"He has massive potential. Coming from a base of playing professional soccer, your mechanics develop well. So, he's coming from a very high base and training with Waterford will advance him as well.
"He has been phenomenal for Ballygunner, he has definitely been their best player for the last two seasons. And I think he can add something different to Waterford.
"The last person who had his speed and guile is probably Mullane. And you're not comparing Dessie to Mullane obviously. But he's probably the last person that had that acceleration and ability to get onto breaks.
"So, it'll be interesting to see how he develops over the next couple of weeks. But he definitely adds a completely different dimension to what we've had over the last number of years."
Donning his impartial hat, Connors is firm in his assessment of who is the strongest team in the country at present.
"I think it's probably Limerick, if I'm being honest. And that's just from watching them over the last couple of years. And it's probably looking back to their underage structure - who's winning Harty Cups, who's winning minor championships, who's coming close, who's developing U20s and 21s.
"But you have other teams in the mix. Wexford, I think, are going to be very good. Davy is definitely after thinking over the last couple of months about what he can add to it.
"You have teams like Galway who people aren't talking much about. You have teams like Cork who have a lot of young lads coming through, where they're winning minors and competing in U21s and even if you look at their schools, you have CBC and Midleton last year in the Harty Cup final. And they'll all add value to Cork.
"Even Dublin, where they're known for being athletic, strong and physical players. That will also become more important over the next couple of weeks as the ground starts to slow down, the hurling starts to slow down."
As for Connors, could he part of a future Waterford set-up?
"I don’t know would I close the door. I think if you ask any player who has played for Waterford or any county team in the past, you know, if they were asked would they play with their county again, I don’t think too many would say no.
"At the end of the day, you grow up wanting to play for your county and it’s obviously been a dream and I don’t think any fella would turn their back on their county. It’s basically an extension of your club and you’d never turn your back on your club really."
Electric Ireland is celebrating the seventh year of its landmark #GAAThisIsMajor campaign, with the return of the Player of the Week initiative and the Minor Star awards.
