The officer class in Limerick has been re-jigged for the 2025 campaign.
The most decorated captain in the history of hurling has handed over responsibilities - Declan Hannon passing the baton to Cian Lynch.
The 32-year old centre-back may have repetitive strain injury from lifting so much silverware over the past seven years, after an unprecedented six Munster titles on the trot and five All-Ireland crowns.
Now, Lynch has formally assumed the captaincy, though Hannon insists the changing of the guard has minimal impact.
"Every year, to be honest, you go back in January and just get flogged running around the field. So that hasn't changed," says Hannon, who was speaking at the launch of the 'eir for all' Poc Tapa Challenge.
"Sure, look, no better man than Ciano to take on the captaincy. He's been in a leadership role anyway for the last number of years, as well as many of the lads.
"There's not much of a difference, to be honest. You still want to contribute as much as you can, on the field and off the field. It's probably just the right time, I think, for the group for there to be a fresh person in that role."
The change-up comes ahead of the first championship since 2020 where Limerick don't enter as All-Ireland champions. John Kiely's side are in a position akin to Kilkenny in 2011, after Tipperary had halted their bid for five-in-a-row at the final hurdle.
With Clare suffering relegation and forced to do without Hurler of the Year Shane O'Donnell, Cork have hogged all the attention in the early part of 2025.
The 2024 All-Ireland finalists hit 13 goals and conceded none in their final three games of the league, though Hannon himself has not been poring over the tapes of the new bookies' favourites.
"I don't watch matches, to be honest with you," he tells RTÉ Sport.
"Like, people asked me last year and in years before about games and I just don't watch a whole pile of matches. Because, we're training four or five nights a week and when you have a day off, maybe it's important to take that day off and not spend it doing more stuff related to hurling.
"Because you need to switch off at times as well. But, yeah, I've heard reports and seen the scorelines. And Cork are clearly the form team at the minute.
"Tipp had a really, really strong campaign as well in the league, to be fair. It was probably the two best teams in the league that met in the final."
Aside from not watching the games, Hannon didn't play a second of what was a fairly humdrum league campaign for Limerick, which concluded with two wins, a draw and three losses.
The centre-back was initially named to start for the dead-rubber home game against Wexford on the final weekend but dropped out of the match-day panel altogether on the day of the game.
Limerick's league campaigns have been of very limited use as a predictor of how their championship season would go over the past half-decade.
They won the league in both 2020 and 2023, while barely breaking into a gallop in the two campaigns in between. In each year, they finished as All-Ireland champions regardless.
"In 2022, I think we had a really bad league campaign and 2021... I'm not sure if it went overly well either.
"We never go out to perform badly in a league game or anything like that. It can just happen.
"We a number of bodies were missing with different niggles in most of the games. It gave players an opportunity who were new to the group to get competitive game-time and that's a real positive.
"I suppose we'd have been disappointed with two or three of the performances there. They're probably not at the standard that would have been acceptable in the Limerick setup."
Limerick begin their latest Munster title defence against Tipp in Semple Stadium in just under a fortnight's time, in what will be Hannon's 15th championship season.
The landscape of hurling was very different back in 2011, as was Limerick's self-image.
A year earlier, the county had been forced to put out an uncompetitive third string side, with an unresolved year-long strike against Justin McCarthy's management resulting in the season being written off.
The wider hurling world shrugged their shoulders at this sorry event, given that Limerick weren't considered genuine contenders at the time.
As a reminder of those times, in April 2010, in celebration at a judicial decision to lift the Good Friday drink ban for a Munster-Leinster game in Thomond Park, commemorative T-shirts were unveiled bearing the message - 'We have no bishop, no minister, and no hurling team but we can drink on Good Friday'.
Hannon, then a forward and the main free-taker, made his debut as a 19-year old under Donal O'Grady's management back in 2011 - "we lost the All-Ireland quarter-final to Dublin. I think Ryan O'Dwyer scored 3-03 on the day."
Back then, the notion that Limerick of establishing a dynasty within the span of his career would have seemed surreal.
"Nobody could envisage that.... I would never have dreamt of winning seven Munster Championships. I would have taken your hand off for one years ago, do you know what I mean?
"But things can change quickly. We played in 2017, we had two championship matches. Lost to Clare and lost to Kilkenny and the year was over. So even then, you couldn't have envisaged collecting six Munster Championships. So we don't take anything for granted anyway."
Hannon was still chief free-taker when Limerick abruptly ended a 17-year wait for a Munster title back in 2013, sparking scenes of delirium in the Gaelic Grounds.
There followed a provincial final loss to Cork the following year and then a lull before they come from nowhere to win the All-Ireland in 2018. Since then, they've had a monopoly in Munster. Of the seven provincial medals in his pocket, which of them stand out?
"I think 2013 was the first time Limerick had won in a long, long time. And that was at home to Cork in the Gaelic Grounds and there was pandemonium after the match.
"I was 21 or 22 maybe so that was amazing. Obviously, it was the first one and I had dreamt about winning a Munster Championship for years. When it happened it was class so that one will obviously stand out.
"But then there's the one against Tipperary in 2021 below in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, where I think we went in eight or nine points down at half-time.
"But, geez, like you could talk about them all, the extra time one against Clare.
"They've all been very, very tight like. But amazing experiences and touch wood we've come out on the right side of them."
Watch Kilkenny v Galway in the Leinster Hurling Championship on Saturday from 3.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Clare v Cork in the Munster Hurling Championship on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to updates from around the country on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
