Clare boss Brian Lohan feels his side are "in a good place" after landing the Allianz Hurling League Division 1B title by beating Dublin in the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Sunday afternoon.
With promotion secured prior to today's match, Lohan was pleased with their league campaign overall ahead what is likely to be an ultra-competitive Munster Championship.
He told RTÉ Sport: "I'm delighted to get over the line. It was a really good game against a really good opponent that are making serious strides under Niall Ó Ceallacháin, so fair play to Dublin.
"It was a really good performance by them and our lads stood up as well, we got good scores when we needed them. We're happy with that.
"We've got good quality, we've got to use maybe 36, 37 guys from our panel, so it's been a good league from that perspective. Everyone has an eye on the Championship, so we'll see how things go over the next few weeks."
Waterford are first up for Clare, at home in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg.
Matches on their own turf are likely to be crucial in the bid to advance to the latter stage of the season.
Lohan has acknowledged there will be a major importance to the opening clash on 19 April.
"It's a big game, a massive game. Any of these games in the Munster Championship are brilliant games to get, we're going into it in a good place.
"We look forward to it."
For Dublin, they rued a poor ending to the opening half which allowed Clare to extend an advantage to 10 points.
Despite starting with a flurry of scores early in the second period, and a third goal later, the attempt to overturn the lead failed.
Ó Ceallacháin recognised it was the first-half showing which proved telling.
"It was fairly obvious the game was lost in the first-half there," the Dubs boss explained. "The lads showed great heart in the second half.
"But our first half, it just wasn't good enough. Not where it needs to be. I thought we got a hold of the thing in the second half. Our intensity and aggression in and out of possession was just far, far better in the second half. But you can't be playing for halves."
The Dubs can now move on to their Leinster campaign with the signs good under Ó Ceallacháin, who is in his second year at the helm..
"Listen, the league is the league at the end of the day," he said on their season so far.
"We've got loads out of the league. We're in 1A for next year. We've fallen short there today. We certainly wanted to win that game, but we've learned a lot from that as well."
