I don't agree with the sentiment that the league matters any less than before. The league has always been used as preparation for championship
I think there are enough intriguing questions to be answered and puzzles to be solved by players and managers, so the league will be key to help answer those.
The run-in is short, so do managers stick to the tried and trusted? Or will they gamble, or maybe be forced to gamble on youth, in the knowledge the return on investment might not even happen in their term?
I think it will be fierce interesting to see how the players have come through the pandemic.
Has their time away from the game made them long for it more? Have some players used their free time to sort out the bodies?
In some cases, have players been wondering how they ever found the time for it and maybe the appetite has waned?
Throw into that, how will Davy Fitzgerald’s last dance in Wexford go? Is Mattie Kenny in last chance saloon with Dublin?
Are Galway rising or falling? Has the conveyor belt of talent in Kilkenny stalled?
Will this be the season that Cork end the famine? We all talk about how it’s so long since Cork won Liam MacCarthy, but it’s 1998 since there was a league title was brought back to Leeside.
Liam Cahill had a great season last year with Waterford, but second season is always challenging. How will it go for him?
What Tipperary will we see? There’s a lot of talk about good, young players coming through, but we haven’t seen them yet. The Premier men never seem that far from their last summit, or their next cliff.
Brian Lohan is facing into his second season in Clare, and then you have champions Limerick. Has the disruption been good for a team on the go for a good few years? Can they win three league titles in a row?
That would be a fair achievement, but they have a bit to go to match the Limerick team of the 30s, who actually won five titles in a row, a record held to this day.
RTÉ hurling analyst Dónal Óg Cusack was speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme
