Changing dynamics - but Clare's main focus is on April

It's very much a case of all change, changed utterly in this GAA season of 2022. The championship comes hot on the heels of the conclusion to the Allianz Leagues. The men's All-Ireland finals will be played in July. The sun the highest it has ever been for the awarding of Liam and Sam.

Clare hurling star Tony Kelly, who is hoping to return to action soon after undergoing ankle surgery, spoke about the changing dynamic at the launch of new Irish protein cookie brand 'In the Zone', a joint partnership between the GAA and the GPA.

He said: "It changes the course of the season in that usually when you're going back you'd have a good few months of just maybe conditioning, gym-work, and running.

"You're probably looking now, in the middle of February, and you're trying to ramp up the hurling side of things. You're trying to get sharpness, get your game-plan going, get it working in the league. Whereas in years gone by you would have used the league to get fit, used the league maybe for a heavy block of training and trying to throw in a couple of lads to see if they're good enough for the panel or the grade. But as it is now you probably have three games left in the league before you have a semi-final or final in the league so you're ramping things up a lot earlier."

Clare, he adds, are very much focused on the Easter weekend, when the Munster round-robin series begins.

"Some teams may approach it differently. I know from our side of things that a lot of our focus is on April and I would imagine that the majority of teams, if not all of them, are in the same boat.

"Especially when you're going back to the round-robin, you've four championship games so they do come thick and fast. It's not a case where you have the back-door system.