As the league wrapped up, the League Sunday panel of Donal Óg Cusack and Ursula Jacob took a stab at predicting who will emerge from the provinces, which commence in a fortnight's time.
Cusack, in particular, took issue with the claim that Tipperary were coming in "under the radar" and suggested there will be a huge push for the champions to win their first back-to-back Liam MacCarthy since 1965.
"As long as I'm involved in hurling, I think they [Tipperary] can rise very fast but they can also fall faster than anyone else," said Cusack.
"The battle cry coming out of Tipperary, ever since the All-Ireland last year, is that Tipp are going to do back-to-back for the first time in a long time, since the 60s, in fact."
The two pundits differed on the Leinster SHC, with Jacob saying that Kilkenny have question marks hovering over them in the wake of the league, while Cusack argued that they may be under-estimated heading into the summer.
"We're really intrigued as to what Kilkenny is going to show up," said Jacob.
"They won't forget that game against Galway a few weeks ago where they got hammered. That was so un-Kilkenny-like.
"They showed no fight, no leadership in so many areas. There are question marks around so many of their positions. They're going for seven-in-a-row in Leinster.
"I think Galway are probably the happiest in Leinster after the league. I'm so excited to see [some of their players]. Aaron Niland is lighting it up at Under-20 and his performances throughout the league, he has been one of the standout players for me."
Cusack said he believed that some were writing off Kilkenny prematurely.
"I think it'll be fascinating to see about Kilkenny. I think Kilkenny are a team that a lot of people are writing off. Do I see them not getting out of Leinster? No way.
"Galway? At this time of year, all the time, more people are talking about them than actually when the championship starts.
"They've got a brilliant manager in Micheál Donoghue. They've got class players coming, the likes of [Jason] Rabbitte, we saw young Niland, his performance at the weekend. But it'll be really interesting to see can they see it through."
