Davy Fitzgerald and Donal Óg are hurling’s manna-gerial duo from heaven

All winter we’ve waited for the man. The January competitions provided a temporary fix, but that was solely for the hopelessly addicted. This weekend it’s the real stuff, the pure drop, that hits the streets at last. The man has come around.

Two men, actually. The Clare manager and the Clare coach. The manna-gerial duo from heaven. Granted, there’s a Division 1A to be played too, but what percentage of the hurling public will be overly bothered about that while two of the biggest personalities in the sport, having pledged their mutual respect and plighted their medium-term troth, shack up together? Will that dressing room be big enough for the both of them? And who’ll be the eagle-eyed photographer who gets the money shot: Davy and Donal Óg arguing with each other on the sideline at some stage of the proceedings?

Sniff if you wish at the undeniable element of vaudeville here. But please don’t sniff too loudly or disparagingly. Hurling needs an element of vaudeville and after the 2015 championship, an exercise in the banality of banality, it’s screaming for it. It needs colour. It needs personalities. It needs the occasional silly squabble. It needs Ger Loughnane’s “nutters” fulminating on radio phone-ins. It even needs the odd moment it makes the front pages for the wrong reasons.