At the dawn of the college hurling season, Galway's TJ Brennan is chasing a third successive Fitzgibbon title with UL, though it was recent headlines on the club front which hogged the agenda briefly this week.
Brennan's Clarinbridge went viral late in 2023 after a fearsome 'Players' Charter' was leaked on social media.
The charter, among other things, banned players from taking holidays past June, imposed a five-month alcohol ban during the club championship [unless approved by management and the 'leadership group] and outlawed soccer, rugby and, most bizarrely, golf from June onwards.
The public were shocked and bemused at the zealous list of restrictions and while the club itself was not initially named, it quickly emerged via a series of unsubtle hints that the 2010-11 All-Ireland champions were the relevant party.
A Clarinbridge official later told the Sunday Independent that the charter had been 'player led' and clarified a couple of details ["we weren't banning golf, it was more about lads not missing training because they've played 18 holes of golf"].
Brennan, a key player for the club and now entering his fifth year on the Galway senior panel, said it came across more starkly on the page than was intended in spirit.
"I didn't think it would get out at all in the first place and then when it did, I was shocked to see how far it went," Brennan told RTÉ Sport.
He insists the charter itself probably should be seen in the context of a disappointing season. Clarinbridge, a dominant force in the minor ranks in Galway in the late 2010s, have failed to topple St Thomas' at senior level and were dumped out the 2023 championship at the quarter-final stage by Loughrea.
"There probably would be a bit more give and take to be fair," says Brennan. "We probably hadn't put in a huge effort, we felt, ourselves, so we probably put it down a bit sternly. It was [written] down very sternly alright.
"But in saying that, we were only trying to improve ourselves.
"I think it was really meant to scare lads really.
"It was just to show ourselves that we're focusing on hurling - it wasn't to show anyone else. I'm not too sure about the golf!
"These things happen. Everyone's human. It's gone now, it's water under the bridge and we move on."
At county level, the Henry Shefflin regime enters its third year, with the 10-time All-Ireland winner eager to prolong his stint beyong the current term.
While Galway ended 2023 in the much the same place that they ended 2022 - losing an All-Ireland semi-final to Limerick, except by a considerably wider margin - Brennan argues that the team did evolve last summer.
"I think we did. I know we probably finished in the same place we did the year previously. But we left the Leinster final behind us. I thought we did a lot of good things throughout the year. We put ourselves in a great position against Limerick - but just didn't sustain it."
Galway led 1-12 to 1-06 after 28 minutes of last year's semi-final, a bravura spell which included Cathal Mannion's exquisitely constructed goal. Following their relatively scratchy - by their standards - Munster campaign, it appeared that Limerick may be finally vulnerable.
This proved a mirage. John Kiely's settled themselves and thereafter swatted Galway aside, dominating in practically every facet to run out nine-point winners. The subsequent final against Kilkenny followed a very similar pattern.
"It's impossible to pin it down to one thing," says Brennan, when asked to account for how the match got away from them.
"Limerick do so many different things [so well]. We probably just dropped off our intensity a small bit. They picked up theirs at the same time. They found their purple patch and we couldn't shut it down."
The completeness of Limerick's second half performance in the decider might have caused the chasing pack to throw their hands up in despair but Brennan reckons the rest do have grounds for hope.
"If you don't really believe you can stop them, you're probably going to be wasting your time going out there in the first place.
"Even talking to Mark Rodgers there, my own UL teammate, Clare have pushed them probably closer than anyone. They beat them in the round robin stage as well."
Brennan has plenty of dealings with Limerick lads at third level, with UL about to embark on their tilt for a third Fitzgibbon Cup crown on the trot, a feat which hasn't been achieved since UCC in the late 1990s.
The Galway defender is one of eight players going for medal number three, a grouping that includes Rodgers and Tipp marksman Gearóid O'Connor.
"I've got to know the lads really well over the last few Fitzgibbon campaigns. We've had great craic celebrating winning them. My Fitzgibbon career has definitely been a highlight of my hurling career so far.
"I live with Gearóid O'Connor and Brian O'Grady (Limerick). Last year, Dean Mason (Ballyhale Shamrocks keeper) was living with me as well.
"Playing with and against Mark Rodgers... we'd be playing Clare in challenge games all the time. I could be marking him and then the next day, I'm playing with him.
"We're all in the same boat. We're just trying to win a Fitzgibbon together. You'd nearly hold anything too harshly against each other."
