Anyone wondering whether an Allianz Hurling League winners' medal carries much weight or not should listen to Clare forward David Reidy’s opinion on the matter.
The 30-year-old has one already in his possession having lined out in the middle of the park for the thrilling two-game saga with Waterford in 2016, but that was the county’s one and only success since 1978 when Noel Casey’s stunning goal and a two-goal salvo from Martin McKeogh saw off Kilkenny.
That team of '78 was welcomed home by thousands of supporters and paraded through the streets of Ennis on an open-top bus as bonfires were lit across the county, and while a win against the Cats on Saturday evening won’t spark similar scenes, it will still be an important moment in both Clare - and this team’s - history.
"If you look back at Clare’s history we don’t have enough medals. As a Clare team we don’t have enough silverware so it’s a big opportunity for us to get national silverware in our back pockets," the Éire Óg man said at an Allianz event to promote Saturday's decider.
"We don’t have too many of them in Clare so we’ll be going all out to win on Saturday against Kilkenny."
"At the start of the year we said we’d take it game by game and see where that leaves us, and it brings us to an Allianz League national final," he continued.
"We took it game by game, we haven’t lost, we drew one and a couple of wins under the belt so we’re looking forward to it. We met Kilkenny earlier on in the year at home in Cusack Park [a game they won by three points] so it’s something to look forward to so close to championship - a championship kind of feel before going into the Munster championship."
There was much discourse around the league semi-finals, maybe even more than there will be for Saturday’s Semple Stadium clash, mainly due to Limerick’s poor performance in their 3-17 to 1-15 loss to Kilkenny.
"There might have been eight points on the scoreboard but it was 16-20 points in reality," Treaty boss John Kiely said afterwards.
They were so far off their normal standards that many surmised that it was all part of the plan to help preparations ahead of the beginning of their Munster campaign.
"The inescapable conclusion is that in losing, Limerick got the result that they wanted," former Limerick boss Tom Ryan said in his Irish Daily Mail column.
While Reidy wasn’t involved in that match, instead helping the Banner County demonstrate a ruthless scoring streak that opponents Tipperary sorely missed in the second semi-final the following day, he can’t subscribe to the notion that other players wouldn't want to be where he is this weekend.
"Very happy, to be honest. It’s a final, why wouldn’t we be?," was his reply when asked about the extra game heading into the Munster series.
"If you’re not in the final you’re going to be training anyway, and you’re probably going to be training hard enough at match pace.
"We’ve a big opportunity to play a game to get us ready for another game.
"We took every game one step at a time and our focus is on Saturday. Once Saturday is over, we'll recover Sunday and will have a two-week lead-in into a Munster championship, so it’s still all focus on Saturday evening in Thurles."
That ‘another game’ is the visit of Limerick to Cusack Park for a highly-anticipated provincial opener on 21 April where, no doubt, the question will be asked – can Clare deal with Limerick’s physicality and size?
For Reidy, he’s not so sure the right question is being posed when probed about Clare’s size in comparison to the five-in-a-row chasing All-Ireland champions.
"If you look at the whole team and the whole panel, we definitely have a good blend of smaller lads, stockier lads and then a few big units as well. I think that blend is important.
"Even if you look at that Limerick team, there is a blend. The media’s persona of them, I suppose, is that they’re all 6’5", 6’6"; yes some are like that, but there are smaller lads as well."
That’s for then though, right now for Reidy's focus is on Saturday and adding a second league medal to his haul and just a fifth for the county overall.
"If you look back at Clare’s history we don’t have enough medals for the talent that’s there.
"No one is just going to hand you a medal so we’re going to have to focus and take learnings from the last couple of games and bring it into Saturday.
"We’re going all out for it and it would be great to get an league medal by Saturday night. Then we can park that, but it would be something good to look back on when you’re finished."
Follow a live blog on Kilkenny v Clare in the Allianz Hurling League final on Saturday from 7.15pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live updates on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Monaghan v Cavan in the Ulster Football Championship on Sunday from 3.15pm on RTÉ2, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates from all matches on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Follow a live blog on New York v Mayo in the Connacht Football Championship on Sunday from 8pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
