Stopping the runaway train that is the Limerick senior hurlers may not be a one-man, one-team or even one-county job. It's up to everyone to close the gap on the most dominant force in the game, reckons Cork forward Shane Kingston.
Fresh off a hat-trick off All-Irelands which means they have bagged four of the last five titles, John Kiely's rampant Treaty side have a stranglehold on the small-ball game that they seem to have no interest in relinquishing anytime soon. Kingston and his Rebel team-mates know that waiting for Limerick to come back to the pack would be a hopeless endevour.
"Limerick are extremely dominant. Any team that wins four our of five All-Irelands is extremely dominant, similar to Dublin footballers a couple of years back," Kingston said. "But that's the challenge to every other team, not just Cork, to put in that extra graft and get up to that level.
"It's hard to pinpoint it really, it's probably just an element of everything. You have to get that bit slicker with the hurling, that bit stronger, fitter and hopefully when you combine it all it might just get you over the line on the day.
"Limerick have been so dominant recently, but it's just up to us to train that bit harder over the next couple of months and hopefully get the chance to play Limerick again on a big stage and hopefully come out with an All-Ireland medal at the end of the day."
Cork will have a new man in the hot seat after Pat Ryan took over the reins from Kingston's father, Kieran, who has been in and around the Rebel camp for a decade.
"My old man was involved with Cork for eight out of the last 10 years, so obviously it's a change for everyone not just me," Kingston stated. "He left in 2017 and I think he felt he had something left to give. But I think he's happy enough to part ways and let a new voice come in.
"Delighted to have Pat involved as well because he was involved in 2017 and he's had great success with the U-20s the last two years so it's happy out now."
"They won the two 20s in a row so obviously the talent is there. Everyone develops differently so we'll see how fellas get on over the next couple of months. Hopefully they can settle in, cement a place in the team and bring us up to that level. It's still a big stepping stone from U-20 to senior as well.
"Davy Fitz gone back in with Waterford, he's had good success with them. He had a good bond with them from a number of years ago. And then Liam Cahill is gone in again with Tipp, obviously he's had success there, he won an All-Ireland... but I wouldn't really be analysing inter-county teams too much this time of year, we'll just be worrying about ourselves."
"Dad was gone in '18 and '19 when we were under John Meyler. He was happy to call it a day. He treated me the same as everyone else - maybe a bit harsher, but that's your parents! I was delighted to have him involved over the last number of years."
The structure of the 2022 championship not only split the season, but split the opinion of fans and commentators alike. The players themselves, for the most part, appear to have found the reconfiguration quite refreshing. Kingston is in that camp.
"I don't find it much different to the other one. You play inter-county for seven, eight, nine months, and then you go back to the club same as every other year," he said. "You just don't have that one game in April or whatever. Once the inter-county season ends and you get that week or two or three off, you're kind of motivated to go and have a crack with the club.
"It's great for club players as well. You can go away for four, five, six weeks in May and June and still have two months training before you go play club championship. So it's better for everyone, really.
"When you get a long break, all you're doing then is looking forward to getting back into it. All you really want is one or two weeks and then you feel the belly coming along and the muscles fading away so we're only delighted to be back training, to be honest.
"You'd miss the fellas as well, you know. You go from being together four or five days a week to not seeing each other at all."
Kingston received praise for a gesture he made to the family of Tipperary hurler Dillon Quirke, who passed away suddenly earlier this year. Kingston was in possession of a jersey he had swapped with wingback Quirke after their Munster championship match in May. The young Tipp man would tragically pass less than three months later. Cork forward Kingston felt it fitting to return the precious shirt to Quirke's family.
"He was marking me for the game. The game ended... and we were just talking at the dressing rooms and we exchanged jerseys. He passed a few weeks after that.
"I hadn't actually worn the jersey yet, and I just saw it there in my room. I got on to a buddy of mine who'd be close to Nicky English - who I'd know a bit myself - so I just said I'd bring the jersey up.
"It was kind of an awkward one. I didn't really know how to go about it. I didn't want it getting out either, but obviously it did. I think the family were aware that I had the jersey and I think they were delighted to get it back. It was about Dillon and his family so if that put them at ease in any way, the best thing to do was to get the jersey back to them."
