Enda McEvoy: On a stale menu, Cork have never been more badly needed 

Cork are not the hope of the neutrals, they’re not the hope of anybody but themselves, yet they’ve never been more badly needed.

THE NEXT BUS? Cork's Patrick Horgan arrives for the preliminary quarter-final with Offaly. Are Cork the team to take over from Limerick? Pic: ©INPHO/©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Having hypothesised a few weeks ago about which counties would have benefitted had the current All-Ireland champions never existed, here’s one for ya that is not only considerably less nebulous but will also disgorge a proper, inarguable, non-nebulous answer in a few years’ time. When – admittedly a concept horribly difficult to grasp right now - Limerick stop winning, what county will be there to inherit the earth, or at any rate to pick up the pieces?

Leaving aside the tiny matter of precisely when that “when” will be, among the subtexts of the summer was - still is - the issue of who if anybody would blazon themselves as the coming team. The championship of 2009 ended with Kilkenny completing the four in a row and, scarcely less notably, Tipperary announcing themselves as their obvious successors. The championship of 2023 ended with Limerick completing the four in a row and, scarcely less notably, absolutely nobody announcing themselves as their obvious successors.