The start of the new inter-county hurling year is just around the corner and, as we continue to get used to the era of the split season, distance has certainly made the heart grow fonder.
Hurling took a leaf out of football's book - Armagh's Sam Maguire glory was the fourth different big ball winner in four seasons - in 2024 with a new county claiming the ultimate prize.
Clare's triumph last July has given every county that feeling that '2025 could be our year' after the end of Limerick's domination of the sport for the previous four years.
The hurling year that was - a look back on 2024 with @shanemulrennan reading the words of @EndaEndamac95 #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/0R04R10h5W
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 21, 2024
The All-Ireland championship is wide open with three Munster sides - Clare, Limerick and Cork - the favourites before a sliotar has been hurled in anger.
But Kilkenny will feel that last year was a let down and, facing into their longest run without an All-Ireland since the 1950s, they'll be determined to put things right.
Of the rest, there has been much change in Tipperary, new managers in Waterford and Dublin, year two for Keith Rossiter in Wexford, the return of a certain Davy Fitzgerald to the Leinster Championship - this time as manager of Antrim - while Micheál Donoghue has swapped the capital for his native Galway to see if he can repeat the wonders of the last decade, when he guided the Tribesmen to All-Ireland glory.
New league format leaves little room for error
Before all that, the Allianz League starts at the end of January, and we've a new format to look forward to in 2025.
Division 1A will be a proper top tier, with seven counties involved, while Division 1B - ostensibly Division 2 in any of the other codes - has two clear favourites for promotion.
The top tier will be cutthroat, with not one but two counties facing automatic relegation at the end of March. On paper at least, that's two of Galway, Tipperary and Wexford, with the other four counties - Clare, Cork, Kilkenny and Limerick - having made the All-Ireland semi-finals.
The format guarantees each county three home and away games, but also a weekend off during the competition (All-Ireland champions Clare, as an example, play the first weekend but then don't play again until 8 February).
Dubs and Déise favourites in promotion race
With the league giving a reasonable indication of Liam MacCarthy potential in the last decade (Clare 2016 and Waterford 2022 aside) counties will take it more seriously than their Division 1 football counterparts.
On the other hand, Munster counties, in particular, have to balance being competitive in the league with timing your run for the start of the provincial championships, which are due to commence on the weekend of 19/20 April this year.
Dublin and Waterford are the clear favourites for 1B as Niall Ó Ceallacháin and Peter Queally look to hit the ground running in their new managerial roles. Both counties could afford a couple of the "poor performance due to a heavy training week" defeats and still finish in one of the promotion spots.
That said, Antrim, with Fitzgerald in the dugout, as well as 2024 Joe McDonagh Cup finalists Laois and Offaly, will feel that second spot is a realistic target to give their year momentum.
Counties aiming to lower the Banner come championship time
The Banner come into the new year as defenders of both national titles so the challenge for a county that enjoys relatively little success will be around motivation to do it all again so soon.
That question of motivation for Limerick is there too. They're clearly the most talented group to ever emerge from Shannonside, they matched the records of any of the great sides that have come before them, but, having failed to create hurling history with a fifth Liam MacCarthy on the bounce last year, will they have the same drive to come back and pick up one more Celtic Cross ala the Dublin footballers in 2023?
Cork, based off their 2024 form, would be the other serious contender at this remove. They beat Limerick twice last season, and the county has appeared in five All-Ireland Under-20 finals since 2018, winning three of them.
This year marks seven years since they last landed Munster, while you have to go all the way back to 2005 for the last time the Liam MacCarthy Cup wintered on the Lee; followers of the Rebels enter 2025 with expectation.
Cats lead the chasing pack
Of the rest, Kilkenny look the most dangerous, although 2024 was definitely a step back for Derek Lyng and his players. The team failed to make the All-Ireland final for the first time since 2021, so there's that sense of it being a defining campaign for Brian Cody's successor.
What can Micheál Donoghue do with Galway after a disastrous 2024 which saw them lose to Wexford and Dublin in Leinster? Local media reports suggest that he's chopped and changed his squad ahead of the new year, with the same being true of Liam Cahill in Tipperary.
Cahill is having to plan for 2025 with the retiring Patrick 'Bonner' Maher and Dan McCormack. Last in Munster in 2024, the Tipp manager will know that there can be no such repeat this time around, even allowing for the fact that it's a county in transition.
Moving further down the list of challengers, Peter Queally will look to do what no Waterford manager has done, and take the Déise to a top-three finish in Munster round robin.
On the east coast, Dublin and Wexford's annual battle for a top three spot in Leinster pits two sides who may have missed the boat against one another. The Yellowbellies' trip to the All-Ireland semi-final in 2019 - a match they led by five points with 20 minutes to go - feels like ancient history to the current side, while the Boys in Blue haven't been able to build on the promise of the early part of the last decade.
Antrim have Davy Fitzgerald in charge, someone who is guaranteed to create headlines and provide talking points, but it would take an astronomical shock for the Saffrons to finish in the top four in the province.
All told, however, there's plenty to look forward to in the year ahead.
