Billy Drennan has already made a big impact in his first senior season with Kilkenny.
In the absence of talisman TJ Reid, new manager Derek Lyng made his former U20 All-Ireland winner the free-taker, and that faith has already been repaid with a 1-52 haul (1-12 from play) across five games, the third highest tally in the Allianz Hurling League's Division 1.
The Galmoy sharpshooter could add to that when the Cats face Cork in a league semi-final on Sunday. But he is also still eligible for the younger grade, and following a recent rule change at Congress, his team-mates are hopeful he will also be able to soldier with them over the next couple of months.
"Billy is going very well with the seniors," said Paddy Langton at the launch of the ONeills.com U20 hurling championship.
"We'd love to have him back. The rule is one game a week, isn't it? Hopefully we get him back. He's doing a job up there (with seniors) as well, he's doing it for the county.
"He's great. I'm in the backs, you'd always be looking for an option. Some lads like it low or high, he likes it any way. His free-taking is really good. You could trust him hitting anything, he could come out and hit it from the far 65 or whatever, in on the 21, he'd hit it over."
Could Langton see Drennan holding his place with the seniors come championship?
"You wouldn't be taking it for granted. You have the likes of TJ, Adrian Mullen and a few of the [other] Ballyhale boys still to come back.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he was playing, he's a very good hurler."
The champions will begin the defence of their Leinster crown away to Wexford (date TBC) and should have a number of other senior panellists among their ranks.
"From U-19, you have Killian Doyle and Gearoid Dunne and then U-20 you have Denis Walsh, Timmy Clifford, Billy Drennan, Niall Rowe and Sean Purcell.
"We haven't got everyone back just yet, we're kind of getting them back every few training sessions.
"We got a few boys back last week, hopefully now next week we'll get a few more and we'll start to build a relationship and get the system going."
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