Leading Question: How well are Sunday’s finalists set for Championship 2015?

Yes, you read the headline correctly and no, we’re not trying to subtract the urine. If we’re putting the cart before the horse it’s only by a few days, because rest assured that — hurling folk being hurling folk — within a couple of hours of the final whistle next Sunday the supporters of both teams will be already turning their attention to next year.

Fans of the losers will waste no time in identifying what weaknesses will have to be corrected for 2015; fans of the winners will be almost as quick in specifying which positions need upgrading if the MacCarthy Cup is to be retained. In the words of that noted hurling pundit Voltaire, the sweets of life do not remain sweet for very long.

It goes without saying that Kilkenny face the bigger construction project irrespective of the outcome on the day. With Brian Hogan 33 and JJ Delaney 32 a spinal transplant in defence will be the first item on the agenda; Jackie Tyrrell, also 32, is the likeliest of the trio to stick around. Nor is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the Leinster champions will finish the game with a further four thirtysomethings — Henry Shefflin, Eoin Larkin, Aidan Fogarty and Tommy Walsh — in the other half of the field.