It seems like only yesterday that the ball was thrown in for the start of the championship, and now we're at the finish line. With the microwave season, it's hard to get perspective. The games keep coming.
Every drama gets forgotten by the start of the next episode. Kilkenny beat Antrim by 32 points that first day. The next week, Antrim beat Wexford. Later, Carlow drew with Kilkenny. But it was Carlow that ended up dropping back to the Joe McDonagh again.
Wexford finished strong to make third place in Leinster. The Dubs petered out in the Leinster final, so many threads to pick up on.
Munster was the usual magic and madness.
For a while it looked like Davy brought the magic back to the Déise, now he's gone.
Liam Cahill brought Waterford to a league final a few years ago. Back in Tipp now, he must be wondering where his magic has gone.
In Cork, the magic and the madness arrived together the day the Rebels beat Limerick.
Clare's long march continued amidst hope and heartbreak, and Limerick looked like they'd sweep the board for the fifth year running.
In the distance, we could hear drums as Offaly continued to stir.
And now, here we are with still so much to pick apart, but a final to play. Cork and Clare are two counties ready to explode with excitement. More about that later.
Hurling is in a very odd place. The game itself has never been better. The season gives us so many games for the ages that the ages need more storage space.
Irish people in every corner of the world will gather to watch the match this Sunday. But it feels like here at home, the GAA doesn't know what to do with hurling.
We had the GAAGO row again this year. People are entrenched but it seems to those who love the game that for a small amount of money the GAA is prepared to sacrifice the chance to promote hurling in favour of promoting a joint business venture.
The Taoiseach and others say that they are concerned about the unique cultural asset that is hurling. There must be opportunity there. Let them sit down with the GAA and work out the basis for funding a 10-year plan for the game. Let GAAGO return to what it was intended to be, a service for the massive Irish diaspora.
Proper money and imagination is needed to give hurling the respect it deserves. People will say, 'what about other sports?' There's no reason why other sports should suffer. Hurling is a unique part of our heritage. It exists in a landscape where a couple of the world's greatest professional sports fight very effectively for hearts and minds.
Hurling deserves our respect. It's been a great season, but next year's championship has never been further away than it is now.
Let's enjoy Sunday, but by the time the ball gets thrown in next spring, let's have a map for where hurling is going. A plan that means that no matter what other sports, a Roisin or a Rhasidat, a Michael or a Mohamed play, that they all have the chance to experience hurling.
But onto the action. For the last few years, this preview and prediction business in All-Ireland final weekend has been fairly handy. This might happen, that might happen, and then Limerick would win.
This year, it's not as certain.
On paper, Clare have been knocking on the door for a few years.
Brian Lohan's team have been in a long war of marginal gains, seemingly getting a little bit closer every year, before suffering a bad blow, but coming back again. They go well in Munster, but we got to worrying if they would ever beat Kilkenny in Croke Park, let alone Limerick.
And now they're here. They've beaten Kilkenny, and Limerick are gone.
We can look back to the Munster Championship shootout, which Clare won by two points, having been seven down at one stage, and six up at another. We can look back, but we won't learn much.
Cork back in April, were in the habit of reducing themselves to 14 men. For the second week in a row, they finished short-handed. Clare were coming off the most traumatic of defeats against Limerick the previous week.
Cork missed a hatful of goal chances. No green flags before half-time, six evenly divided in the second half. Cork's full-back line looked exposed, Shane O'Donnell did what he started inter-county life doing, he ran riot against Cork.
It was a mad afternoon, as were the two games in Clare's win in the 2013 All Ireland final.
And so, we imagined Sunday would be the same, mad shootout style game. Cork's coverage at the back has improved. In the forwards, although they scored three goals back in April, they cut Clare open often enough to have scored even more.
If Cork leave three inside, and Alan Connolly can rediscover the form of earlier in the season, Clare will need to get their match-ups right, or they risk being overwhelmed.
The biggest difference this time around though, might be confidence. Cork have got to finals before and lost them, so confidence isn't always a trump card, but few teams get a shot to the system like Cork get when things start going well.
Since that April day, Cork have beaten a team going for five-in-a-row twice. Things don't go much better than that.
Clare have the hurlers, and they have the scars. They are a serious team, but they've been more methodical than creative this season. They will look to grind Cork down.
We haven't seen an awful lot of Tony Kelly this year, and what we have seen hasn't been the best of him yet. He did grow into the game against Kilkenny in the second half, but how much influence he has around the middle third will have a big effect on Clare's chances.
David Fitzgerald was taken off the last day out, but he has the potential to be as dangerous to Cork as Kelly could be.
What can Cork do about Shane O'Donnell? He's in the leading pack for Hurler of the Year and it's hard to see him being contained. Cork's best hope is damage limitation.
If Shane is closing in on Hurler of the Year, he has Darragh Fitzgibbon breathing down his neck. Both players' influence on those around him will be critical.
Sunday will be fast and loose. It'd be no surprise if either team wins, but the momentum is with Cork, and we believe that will propel them up the steps of the Hogan stand.
We wish both teams the very best, and thanks to all for listening to Hurling Nation again this year.
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