Kilkenny's silver generation continue to confound critics

This summer marks nine years since Kilkenny last lifted Liam MacCarthy. Hardly an intolerable drought by any normal standard, it nonetheless equals the Cats' longest lean spell since RTÉ television started broadcasting games in the early 1960s.

From the outside, the level of hand-wringing and dissension doesn't appear to be at the same pitch as it might be in the case of other aristocratic powers in the midst of a barren run (Kerry, for instance).

Firstly, because Kilkenny fans were fattened after a decade and a half of incredible, unprecedented success, even by the standards of the Big Three.

It had all become very routine by the end. It was in the bowels of the Canal End after the 2015 All-Ireland final that this writer witnessed one Kilkenny supporter (approx mid-50s) greet another Kilkenny supporter (approx 80s) with the immortal words "Well Ned, another one chalked off."

While Brian Cody delivered his usual buck-lepping celebration with Mick Dempsey at the final whistle, the rest of the Kilkenny support very much took it in their stride. 'The Rose of Mooncoin', receiving its annual hearing over the PA, comfortably drowned out the cheers from the stands. There was no sense at this time that we were witnessing the twilight of the supremacy.

Secondly, the emergence of a historically great Limerick team has given this era an air of 'exceptional circumstances'.

By contrast, Kilkenny's last nine-year 'famine', between 1983 and 1992, occurred in a much more democratic era for the sport at the top end.

From '84 to '91, Cork, Galway and Tipperary all pulled in multiple All-Irelands, while then Leinster upstarts Offaly grabbed one in 1985.

In those years, Kilkenny couldn't even escape Leinster most of the time. Wexford, not exactly