Nobody's season will be over after tomorrow’s provincial hurling finals.
But for the Leinster and Munster winners, the prospects of ultimate glory will be rosier - seven of the last 10 All-Ireland titles have been won by provincial champions.
Of course, Limerick have slightly skewed those stats, even if their breakthrough triumph in 2018 came through the back door, and they could become just the fourth team to win a Munster five-in-a-row after the Cork sides of 1901-05, 1975-79 and 1982-86.
A four-in-a-row for Kilkenny in Leinster would be their fourth overall, and first since the seven consecutive crowns clocked up between 2005 and 2011.
Last year’s All-Ireland champs and runners-up will doubtless still consider themselves in the hunt regardless of how this weekend pans out.
But do Clare and Galway need to end provincial droughts of 25 and five years respectively to be deemed genuine contenders?
"I think it would be huge for Clare to win it," says Darach Honan, full-forward on the last Banner team to lift Liam MacCarthy.
"You don’t want that term of 25 years to extend to 35 or further on. You want to win as much as you can and this is a great chance for them to win one.
"It’s probably more important for Clare to win than Limerick. Limerick have won four Munsters in a row now and know that they’re capable of winning All-Irelands whereas this Clare team haven’t gotten over the line yet.
"We didn’t win Munster in 2013 but the majority of All-Ireland winners over the last 15 years have won their provincial title. It’s a good indication of you’re where you’re at.
"There will be massive atmosphere. The stadium will be sold out so if you can perform under that pressure and get a win it’s a serious indicator of how good a team you are to potentially challenge for an All-Ireland.
"While we’ve had close games with Limerick over the last few years, crucially they have won the ones that counted. For Clare to win this would give them a huge sense of belief of what they could go on to achieve later in the year. "
Galway’s record since joining the Leinster championship is underwhelming for a team that is usually in the All-Ireland conversation - the Bob O’Keeffe Cup has only crossed the Shannon three times since 2009.
Johnny Coen started those final wins, in 2012, 18 and ’19, and lost deciders in ’15, ’16, 2020 and ’22 - all against Kilkenny.
"I think they definitely need it," says the recently retired Tribesman of tomorrow’s rematch with the Cats. "We’re getting there a lot of the time but you have to be finishing it out.
"We haven’t won Leinster now since 2018. Even at that it took us a replay, we were the better team in Croke Park and we ended up playing Kilkenny in Thurles and got a result that day.
"In the Covid year, 2020, there was a game under lights in Croke Park that we should have seen out but Richie Hogan and TJ Reid got two goals in the space of a minute and we never really recovered.
"There was euphoria around the county in winning the first one. It was historic but it took us a good long while: only 2012, ’17 and ’18, that was it.
"You want to be winning those marquee games because they are the ones people remember."
The Loughrea man believes the Leinster triumph of 2017 – after hammering All-Ireland champions Tipperary in the league final – paved the way for Galway to end a 30-year All-Ireland drought that September.
"I know people will say it’s all about winning the All-Ireland but you want to be winning every game that’s in front of you," he says.
"We beat Wexford in that 2017 Leinster final and it really was the stepping stone to greater things ahead.
"The league that we won [against Tipperary] probably had a bigger impact but if we had lost in Leinster it could have derailed the whole thing.
"All these things were building blocks. When the team was going well, you felt that the more games and titles you won, the ultimate prize wasn’t too far away."
Henry Shefflin led Galway to a championship win over his native county at the first attempt in last year’s round-robin but Kilkenny turned the tables in the Leinster final.
Galway needed a last-minute equaliser to secure a draw in this season's group game.
Coen doesn’t think the colour of the opposition’s jerseys are any particular motivation for the manager but suspects the players will want to atone for last year’s provincial final failure.
"Henry is gone from Kilkenny and he’s the Galway senior manager. He didn’t portray anything that he wanted to beat Kilkenny or get one over on [Brian] Cody or anything like that," says Coen.
"He’s there for the greater good of Galway and in fairness to him, he’s doing a really good job. He has been blooding new players and trying out new things.
"You would be hoping in his second season as manager that it would be a good stepping stone if he was to win on Sunday.
"We put huge emphasis on winning Leinster. Winning breeds confidence and you want to be taking the direct route to the semi-finals.
"Last year, a lot of us didn’t perform on the day. Kilkenny had their homework done and they nullified a lot of our setups.
"There was a huge amount of disappointment after that game last year, and whether they will be speaking about it or not, a lot of the players who played that night will be thinking about it and wanting to right the wrongs of 12 months ago."
"You'd be hoping their first-half display against Dublin won’t reoccur anyway"
Galway topped the group again this season but only after digging deep to fight back and draw with Dublin in the final round of fixtures.
"There would be huge optimism in the sense that they’ve come back from 12 points down and still found a way to get a result. You would be hoping that if we don’t concede too much early on, there will definitely be a kick in us in the second half.
"They have a few new players. Liam Collins has come in a bit and Declan McLoughlin as well, he got to start the last day. Kevin Cooney has been a good find as well. But you’re still kind of looking at the older guard: Joseph Cooney was really good in the Leinster final round, he kept them in the game for long periods against Dublin.
"Dáithi [Burke] came up with the goods getting the goal but he was also instrumental in driving the team forward. He won a lot of puck-outs and he was catching ball, commanding and dominating. [Conor] Whelan would have had a quieter day than normal and for his own sake you would hope he would be a little bit better in the Leinster final."
"You’d be hoping their first-half display against Dublin won’t reoccur anyway. Jason Flynn and Seán Linnane came on and contributed handsomely to changing the tone of the day. If there was a trial match on at the weekend, people would definitely have been putting their hands up for a starting jersey.
"There’s obviously a lot of talent in Kilkenny. Some of them are star-studded names and we know all about them but there’s a younger group of players coming too. The likes of Billy Drennan, who has been playing very well. Whichever 15 line out against Galway will have huge desire and the bit through their teeth to win the trophy as well."
Clare would be many neutrals’ pick as the most impressive championship performers so far but despite beating Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds in the group stages, Honan thinks they need to repeat the trick to truly believe they have the Treaty’s number.
"That was a big win but I don’t think it would carry the same weight as a Munster final win," he says.
"It wasn’t that much of a knock to Limerick, they still went on and qualified. Clare still have a lot to prove after last year’s Munster final.
"Limerick have been so far ahead of everyone the last few years. They have probably dipped off a little bit but they are still as good if not better than everyone else, even with the little dip that they’ve had. Having got through the round-robin and into a Munster final, I think they’d have to remain fairly strong favourites for the All-Ireland.
"These two teams know each other very well. Limerick have been the best team over the last five years and Clare have been nipping at their heels but not necessarily getting close enough. If they could get a victory here, I think it would be huge.
"I think it will be a really entertaining game and the fact that it’s on in Limerick will add a lot to the atmosphere and drama as well."
The closeness of the recent Clare-Limerick encounters suggest an All-Ireland final rematch is not out of the question.
But the Banner’s season unravelled after their extra-time Munster defeat last year as they scraped by Wexford and were crushed by Kilkenny in the semi-finals.
"Coming from a massive Munster final loss it would be a tricky situation to be in, you would be a little bit vulnerable"
The Munster losers will expect to face Dublin (barring a shock defeat to Carlow) in two weeks’ time, likely more battle-weary than the Leinster runners-up will be against Tipperary or Offaly.
The provincial champions get a month to recover in addition to the psychological boost of victory.
"I think it was probably a fatigue thing," says Honan of Clare’s trail-off last year. "They might look at tweaking training but I don’t think you have any option but to go as hard as you possibly can when you’re playing championship hurling.
"Even though I think Clare are a better team than Dublin, coming from a massive Munster final loss it would be a tricky situation to be in, you would be a little bit vulnerable.
"At the moment, Munster is more competitive than Leinster. It’s an attritional campaign, it takes a lot to get out and a lot to win. But we saw last year that there was an underwhelming Leinster campaign and then Galway and Kilkenny were very competitive in the All-Ireland series.
"Clare and Limerick emptied themselves in that Munster final. Clare went down to Wexford and played very poorly, Wexford probably weren’t good enough to capitalise on that. Limerick only got over the line against Galway by three points. There wasn’t much in the All-Ireland final either [v Kilkenny].
"There’s a long way to go before a potential match-up again but from our point of view, we’d love it if we could get back to an All-Ireland."
Tipperary might argue the case but the two finals probably feature the top four performers to date. We'll have a better idea by tomorrow evening in what order.
Watch a provincial hurling final double-header on Sunday, Limerick v Clare (1.45pm) and Kilkenny v Galway (4pm), follow a live blog on all matches on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to updates throughout the day on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
