This squad can rewire what it means to be a Tipp hurler

Hurling’s last big day, even though a league day, colours summer’s start, writes PM O'Sullivan.

So many years, the hue sits light and bleaches soon as first championship sliotar is thrown in. April is the hurling cynic’s month.

True, dismissal of league form’s significance eroded over the past two decades. There you have one facet, via Kilkenny dominance on two fronts, in which 20th century and 21st century hurling differ. But you can still hear a hard blitheness about vernal implications.