Leinster Hurling Championship: Ian O'Riordan talks to Dublin captain Kevin Flynn who is optimistic for the future of the game in the county.
On Saturday evening the Dublin senior hurlers start out on another championship campaign, and behind the scenes it seems like everything has changed: new manager, new full-time director, and a new sense of ambition.
It seems too like everything is still the same: try to get out of the preliminaries, and then live on hope and a prayer.
And just watch the footballers steal all the headlines.
Team captain Kevin Flynn has now seen eight championship seasons come and go, and all sorts of changes that have gone with them. Yet he feels there is something happening in Dublin hurling that will bring about a new direction, even if that means waiting another few years.
"There is a lot of money being pumped in right now," he says, "and that will put a lot of new structures in place. But we're not going to get the benefit of that tomorrow. It's two or three years down the road, when the structures will be there for the younger players coming through
"But we still need to do everything and anything that can promote the game in Dublin. Getting kids' pictures in the paper, anything to keep them interested.
"I know we are still seen as the poor relation to football, but that's only because the footballers, in fairness to them, are still the only ones lifting the silverware."
The summer starts against Westmeath, who came within a goal of Dublin last year. They've already eased past Kildare and will cherish the chance of beating Dublin on their home turf of Parnell Park. Yet Flynn has to think bigger than that.
"The goal this year, like any other year, is to be make the Leinster final. But what we really need is a good championship run. That means getting through the preliminaries, and getting a good result against Kilkenny.
"The league was definitely an up and down experience. There were highs, especially beating Waterford and Offaly, but then lows, like the defeat to Limerick.
"But no one was reading into that defeat too much. We went down with a third-string team because of the club championship. But overall I do think it was an improvement on previous years."
Flynn sees other areas that no amount of money can improve. The dual player issue remains a thorn in the side of Dublin hurling, and will remain so as long as football holds the spotlight.
"There's no doubt we have lost a couple of promising players over the last couple of years. Players that had been perceived as better hurlers than footballers. And you can't blame them for wanting to be part of a team that are lifting silverware. But I still think if it was totally up to the players they would still want to play both."
One thing will be different in 2003. Since coming into the senior panel in 1995 Flynn has never remembered a closer, more enthusiastic bunch. For that he can only point in the direction of new manager Marty Morris.
"This year more than ever it feels like a club team. There's a lot more crack. It helps that most of the team have grown up together at minor and under-21 level, and that shows on the field in the way the players back up each other.
"But most of that is down to Marty. He has definitely brought more enthusiasm. He's like a real players' manager, more than the authority type. Other than that I can't quite put my finger on it, except that he has fitted in very well."
The team for Saturday will be announced after training this evening, and Morris's main injury worries are over Keith Horgan and Tommy Moore.
Free-taker Mossy McGrane is ruled out for personal reasons, and also ruled out is Kevin O'Donoghue and David Sweeney, although both Shane Martin and Conal Keaney are fully fit after some recent injury problems.
