Ah, January hurling.
For the players: boggy or frozen pitches and the ever-present threat of horizontal rain. But also the chance to play a proper match.
For the fans: Lots of warm layers, rain gear and the chance to get out of the house. Even if the enthusiasm at the return of inter-county action isn't always matched by the quality of the fare on offer.
The Munster Hurling League began on Tuesday when Davy Fitzgerald's first selection as Waterford manager (version 2.0) edged Liam Cahill's as Tipp boss. The game was played in Mallow as the pitch in Dungarvan was unplayable. Cork beat Kerry on Thursday and Tipp are back in action against Clare today.
The Walsh Cup, Leinster's top-tier pre-season equivalent, started yesterday, with Dublin's victory over Antrim, and continues today with Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Wexford all in action. The Model men have also sold 10,000 tickets for the visit of the Cats on Saturday 21 when the new floodlights at Wexford Park will be premiered.
The traditional curtain-raisers to the hurling year have always been seen as a time to try new players and build fitness before the Allianz Hurling League. But with the six-week break between league and championship that was in place in 2019 reduced to two weeks since the introduction of the split-season last year, is the January run out now that bit more important ?
Kieran Kingston completed his second stint as Cork manager last year. His side reached the league final in April but that run seemed to impact them in championship as they lost their first two games before rallying to qualify from Munster.
"With the congested nature of the season that we have now and where teams are in their own evolution, they will be looking at it very closely in terms of getting that timing right," he told RTÉ Sport. "Teams will look at 2022 and say 'hold on, look what happened'
"In hurling, more so than football, this time of year there is no similarity to what we see in May, June and July. It's all about trying to get your timing right and not to overdo it in these months, in this weather.
"The pace of the game in the Munster Senior League is probably 25% of championship, in my opinion. The league would be more like 50-75% depending on the stage of it.
"That extra 25% comes once championship starts and pitches are better, everything is faster. Can guys can adapt to that, not just physically but also mentally, in terms of decision-making, instinct and having the character to do it?
"We've often heard it said that the weather is a leveller - a heavy pitch levels the playing field. It happens in players as well this time of year where you could have a false dawn in assessing guys, then come three or four months' time it's a different game."
Kingston sees some benefits from pre-season but with the reduced importance of the league would like to see a longer championship campaign and less January action.
"The Munster League does give the opportunity for some guys to get 15 v 15 games into the legs, which some squads may have difficulty getting, with fellas or teams returning from holidays or club championship campaigns
"It gives a break from the slog of training and it gets a senior jersey onto some of the young fellas. So there is that benefit. But the month that is in it, between the Munster League, Fitzgibbon and pre-season, we're asking a huge amount of players at the worst time of the year for hurling. Especially the younger fellas.
"There is a strong case to maybe extend the championship into league or extend the championship when hurling is at its best, from the middle of February right up until July/August when we see the best players playing in the best conditions, more often than we do at the moment. Rather than in January when there is a huge amount being asked of them."
Laois man Seamas 'Cheddar' Plunkett, also fresh from a second stint in charge of his native county, would also be in favour of a longer championship, perhaps expanding the round-robin provincials to a home and away system.
"Wouldn't it be great to have that?" he agrees. "You always need a pre-season, it might just be a shorter one.
"The pre-season is really important in terms of getting aerobic work done and then moving on to other bits and pieces. Getting your base in.
"You’re not going to learn a huge amount from the matches but nonetheless they’re important. You would be looking at new players coming in, injured players coming back, new managements might have a different method of playing that they want the players to learn early. The first round of the national league is only four weeks down the line so getting games like that can be invaluable.
"You have very little room to recover over these six or seven months so you need to look at it in its entirety about what you want do. The conditioning people would say it's a really difficult one to get right, to try to peak at the key times.
"The bigger clubs might have four, five, six or seven players on a county team. How do you manage the 12 months of the year for those players in terms of pre-season, maintenance, strength work, power work? You need a lot of qualified people who know what it’s about to get that right.
"Every player now, you can never relax fully. You need to be ticking over in the down season. I think that maintenance work is going to ramp up even more in the next couple of years because of the split-season."
Even now, as we head into the second year of the divided county-club calendar, the All-Ireland club finals will spill over into January 2024, with the result that players from those clubs usually end up missing league fixtures.
"I would like to see some definite down-time for all players," says Cheddar. "Even those last couple of weeks of the year. Everyone needs a break, even mentally.
"Take TJ Reid for example, one of the best hurlers of any generation, over the last few seasons he is playing well into the year with inter-county and then into the following year with his club Ballyhale.
"You probably have to have a bit of flexibility in year one but I would expect the GAA authorities to tighten up with that.
"I do think some counties do have to slim down to 12-team or 16-team championships to have them run off properly in a calendar season. I can understand the reasons why some counties have a Senior B championship but clear out all that rubbish, make it Senior, Intermediate and then Junior 1, Junior 2 etc.
"I think if all counties had that it would be much easier then to schedule games to make sure that your All-Ireland club championship is going to be held on the second Sunday in December."
"The championship needs to be a bit longer, it's compressed a little bit too much"
Plunkett, who will take charge of Kilkenny intermediate club St Martin's next year, thinks the new calendar model is a move in the right direction but is far from the finished article.
"I think the split-season has been quite successful but I certainly wouldn't jump into it for the next 10 years without giving it really good thought about all the aspects," he says. "Particularly how you’re going to grow the game and keep it at the forefront for young people.
"Having it last year was really good because it gave us a sense of what it looks like. But what are we comparing that against? We would have to have, for example, a blended season or something to compare It with.
"I don’t know anybody that would support a county team over their own club team. But people with sense understand that the county competitions are really important to the future health of the GAA, in terms of finance but also interest. There is a lot of pressure from other sports.
"I thought the All-Ireland club semi-finals were very poorly attended considering the quality of player and teams that were there. I would be a bit concerned about that, that for six months a year you won’t have a huge amount of interest in some games, that I would have thought would have drawn any hurling person. At inter-county level they do draw the crowd and the television audience.
"So I do think the championship needs to be a bit longer, it’s compressed a little bit too much.
"If we’re saying that the club championship is going to take six months of the year then the GAA need to get in behind the club season in each county. Is it properly sponsored and promoted? Both locally, and nationally. Some of those matches are brilliant but they don’t get the exposure they deserve.
"There are a lot of things to be considered before you arrive at the best model, and you’re not going to be able to keep everybody happy."
Well it wouldn't be the democracy that is Gaelic games if everybody was happy. But the search for the perfect formula continues. And in the meantime, the more dedicated hurling fans can relish the return of inter-county action. Just don't forget that rain gear.
