This year's All Ireland hurling final provides a platform for traditionally the greatest team of all time - Kilkenny - against Limerick, the side that has elevated the modern game to heights never before attained in the 139-year history of championship fare.
It means that when both teams head to the pitch of battle at Croke Park on Sunday afternoon next, the occasion will be charged with an atmosphere the like of which has never before been experienced.
In essence, the two sets of teams will be seeking their own version of immortality as Kilkenny in victory will win their 37th title while Limerick will join an elite band of three by becoming four-in-a-row victors and a five-time winner over the past six seasons.
So, the dizzy heights await the conqueror, while the vanquished will suffer the gnawing feeling of being so near, yet ending up so far away from the spotlight and the celebrating crowds.
What makes this collision of juggernauts all the more intriguing is the fact that they met in last year's final.
Brian Cody's last game in charge - when a make-shift Kilkenny team came within a puck of the ball of upsetting the applecart and beating John Kiely's vaunted warriors.
This time around, there will be no need to size-up each other or go a number of sparring rounds before the release of haymakers from both sides becomes de rigeur. The gloves are on (or off) early and expect these Titans to go for the jugular from the moment Wickow whistler John Keenan throws in the sliotar.
Last year Limerick won a slug-fest against a less talented side who simply refused to bow the knee at times when it seemed their opponents were about to rip them apart. It was by no means a classic encounter but we witnessed a passion play. Kiely’s team got the perfect tonic at the start with Gearoid Hegarty’s green flag rocket. It would have shook a lesser team, particularly as Limerick were landing missiles over the black spot from way off the normal radar.
Kilkenny fought and fought so that by the time we were heading down the final straight, the game was back in the melting pot with everyone realizing that a two-point lead had seismic possibilities. Cleverly though, Limerick managed those last vital seconds deep in Kilkenny’s half, not allowing the opportunity of a sucker punch of a late goal from their opponents, the sort they delivered to Galway in this year's Leinster Final thanks to the quick wrists of sub Cillian Buckley.
While Cody's colt didn't win, it was something of an heroic failure, one with sufficient charge to help Derek Lyng regroup the squad and get them back, if anything a better bet, to take the prized scalp at the second time of asking.
And that is precisely what makes the run-up to this game so intriguing for neutrals. While the new manager has somehow managed to change little yet improve a lot, his rival manager has had to endure a falling off in standards among his Treaty ranks.
True, the loss of Sean Finn at corner-back removed one of the best defenders from his team while Declan Hannon's injury hampered their preparation for the semi-final. Losing those two as well as patiently waiting for the return after injury of Cian Lynch meant the level of performance inevitably dipped. However, what Kiely had not factored in was the loss of accuracy among his outfield scorers such as Gearoid Hegarty (a shadow so far this year of last season's colossus) and to a lesser extent Tom Morrissey which has allowed other teams to stay in touch on the scoreboard where previously they were blitzed from all areas of the field.
Yet even with those disadvantages, Limerick, with the exception of the Clare loss in the Munster Round-Robin, found a way to eke their way to victory in tight games against Waterfor, Cork and Clare again when the occasion demanded it at the provincial final stage.
That is such a gift to a team - the knowledge that you don't have to play at your best to be best on a given day. While it is a more welcome route than losing, you can tell that Kiely, his coach Paul Kinnerk and their backroom team would much prefer if the old Limerick would stand up and win games without the series of heart-stopping denouements they have experienced in June and July.
There is little doubt that other teams are gaining on the champions. Teams have made up in terms of strength and conditioning and overall fitness while an understandable dimming of hunger in the Limerick outfit has made the current championship a much more engaging cocktail for players and fans alike.
For every team on a long run of success - and remember this will be Limerick’s fifth title in six years should they win it - there is the element of trying to keep the group up for the challenge and keep staleness at bay. Kiely, like King Canute, has kept that tide at bay, despite a few leakages which threatened to become more of a torrent.
Many great managers across different sports have maintained this is the hardest trick of all to conjure up year after year. You are saying the same things, you are adhering to the same regimes which have proved successful in the past, but here and there you see that you are losing vital inches. The hope is you can make up for those through superior experience of how to handle adverse big match situations - something it must be said the Limerick hierarchy have managed to do.
Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng. [Inpho/Evan Treacy]
However, if there is one team capable of exploiting a weakness, it is Kilkenny. Lyng's greatest managerial feat in his short reign has been an intelligence not to make changes for the sake of doing so. Instead, he has taken a look at what worked for Cody with limited resources and used his own inputs in changing midfield at attacking positions to get more out of the collective.
Certainly, TJ Reid is a bigger threat to opponents the closer he gets to goal while Eoin Reid has that Eddie Brennan ability to put the fear of God into rearguards when he runs at them.
The other great Kilkenny talent is their ability to work harder and longer than any other group. This was especially evident against Clare when they ran riot in the first half. Even when Brian Lohan went man for man and Kilkenny were outscored by 0-9 to 0-2 in the first 17 minutes of the second half, it was that doggedness in the Cats which turned the game. Billy Ryan spotted a moment of indecision and robbed Rory Hayes and his flick to TJ enabled the talisman to issue the finest of passes to Cody to score the goal that changed the course of the game.
Once the Cats smelt the blood with that cut, they never let up and despite their best efforts, Lohan's boys could not find a way back after that.
Whether by accident of design, Lyng also proved in that match that he had done something which will help equalise the previous advantage that Limerick have had over the years in how they use their bench. Last year Kilkenny got something but not enough out of this replacement rearguard; in the semi-final, it was the introduction of young Cian Kenny which wrestled control back around the middle of the park and he also chipped in with an important point. The arrival of Richie Hogan too was a boost while Walter Walsh, although not on this occasion, has a habit of making his huge presence felt to the benefit of the black and amber brigade.
There is no doubt that there is a better feel about Kilkenny's first 20 players this time around as the likes of Cillian Buckley and Padraig Walsh can be added to Walter, Cian Kenny and Hogan as players who will make a difference if given a run.
Kilkenny will provide him with a totally different type of test as they will not be found wanting for giving 100 per cent or in the scoring department where Reid and Cody are as good a pairing as there is in an inside line. My guess is that while they were pushed to the pin of their collar before eventually winning last year's All Ireland final, there is a lot more to come from Kiely's team who have blown hot and cold in all their matches so far this year.
He will see this as the ideal opportunity for the team to come as one to win their fourth title in a row. Indeed but for that glitch against Kilkenny in 2019, they could be eyeing a record breaking six All Ireland titles on the trot.
But that is for the history books and now the Treaty men will concentrate on beating Derek Lyng's formidable foe - a team that has nothing like the class of previous Kilkenny teams but have the guts and the never say die spirit which carries groups a long way in the hurling game. As Limerick will be motivated by that four timer, Kilkenny will also want to avoid the moniker of three time final losers since their last win in 2015.
You can make a case of either team but I think Kilkenny have a few too many passengers at this level and consequently give a hesitant vote to Limerick to throw off indifferent form and come good on Sunday. That statement is predicated on one or other of Gearoid Hegarty or Cian Lynch hitting the heights - something that has not happened so far this term.
THREE KEY PLAYERS FOR KILKENNY
Eoin Murphy
Club: Glenmore
Age: 32
Height: 1.8 m
All Stars: 3
All-Irelands: 4
Kilkenny titles: 1
Position: Goalkeeper
For a goalkeeper who has been making jaw-dropping saves at intercounty level for close on a decade, Eoin Murphy appears to be an overnight sensation as a netminder thanks to his unbelievable save from Clare's Peter Duggan in the last minute of last Sunday week's All-Ireland semi-final which denied the Banner drawing the match with almost the last puck of the game.
To those who play in front of him - be it his own defenders or opposition attackers - the Glenmore man has been something of a magician in the way he can use his wrists to divert seemingly goal-bound shots away from danger. He is considered the best at this facet of the No 1 game and his distribution has improved exponentially too over the years. There is no doubt that if Derek Lyng's charges are to win, Murphy will probably have to do something big to thwart the Limerick bid for four-in-a-row.
Eoin Cody. [Inpho/Evan Treacy]
Eoin Cody
Club: Ballyhale Shamrocks
Age: 22 years
Height: 1.85 m
All Stars: 0
All-Ireland Titles: 3
Kilkenny titles: 5
Position: Corner-forward
If you were to go back in time and ask how many of the current crop of Kilkenny players would make it on Brian Cody's '06-'09 team of greats, this year's captain is one of arguably four current players who would make it into a combined starting XV.
A nephew of the legendary Henry Shefflin, Eoin has had to grow up quickly in the black and amber at a time when the talent coming along the conveyor belt has been slacker than at any time in the past few decades.
It is to his credit that although still only 22, he has assumed the mantle of team leader along with TJ to the point where his 1-5 against Clare was almost expected as much as hoped for by followers of the Cats.
There is no doubt that if the Leinster champions are to upset the applecart and come through this major test, then young Cody will have to deliver a goal or two alongside TJ's normal avalanche of points.
TJ (Thomas Joseph) Reid
Club: Ballyhale Shamrocks
Age: 35
Height: 1.9 m
All Stars: 6
All-Irelands: 7
Kilkenny titles: 11
Position: Full-Forward
This ageless wonder is not just a star of his own era but is now mentioned in the same breath as Eddie Kehir, DJ Carey and Henry Shefflin as one of the best of the past half century.
TJ could in time be seen as not just a great player for what he himself contributed on the scoreboard but also for the way he managed to bring less gifted players into games and boost their confidence in the process.
If Limerick can hold this man to single level point scoring and negate his ability to pop up with an important green flag, then there is little doubt there will be four-time celebrations on Shannonside come Sunday evening. An eighth Celtic Cross will copperfasten TJ's status in the world of hurling while possibly giving him the fuel to see action into 2024.
THREE KEY PLAYERS FOR LIMERICK
Nickie Quaid
Club: Effin
Age: 34
Height: 1.83m
All Stars: 2
All-Irelands: 4
Limerick Inter titles: 2
Position: Goalkeeper
Few doubt that Limerick have changed the course of how the game of hurling is played and a little like Stephen Cluxton for Dublin in football, Nickie Quaid has been the top man in terms of how he restarts play from his end of the field.
He is the orchestrator of the course the green ship takes further out the field and his awareness of when and where to place the sliotar invariably manages to give his teammates that vital yard or half a second advantage on their opponents. Such is the awe in which he is held by opposing teams that hours of video analysis is spent on trying to work out how to minimise his effectiveness over the 70 minutes play.
On top of that he has that big save in him to bail out a defender who slips or is caught in possession. The odds are that there won't be a Rory Hayes moment in the Treaty defence in how they dally on the ball but should it happen, don't discount the two-time All Star from making a game changing save to spare their blushes.
William O'Donoghue. [Inpho/Ryan Byrne]
William O'Donoghue
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Age: 29
Height: 1.96
All Stars: 1
All-Irelands: 4
Limerick titles: 5
Position: Midfield
William is one of those players every team possesses that often get the sobriquet 'unsung hero' for the unselfish work they do on and off the ball that can largely go unseen by spectators in the cauldron of big match situations.
The Na Piarsaigh midfielder could also operate under the name of 'Mr Perpetual Motion' such is his ability to tread on every blade of grass over the course of battle.
When John Kiely was faced with the problem of losing his captain and on-field lieutenant Declan Hannon for the All-Ireland semi-final game against Clare earlier this month due to injury, it was to O'Donoghue he turned to to fill the huge boots at centre-back.
That the 29-year-old did so with aplomb and was called out on television for the numerous attacking chances he created from mid-defence is testamount not only to his versatility but also his hurling intelligence. A big man, he plays with pace, power and particular understanding of his role which is to link defence and attack while all the while minimising opportunities for other teams to advance into the danger areas of his own defence.
Aaron Gillane
Club - Patrickswell
Age: 27
Height: 1.83 m
All Stars: 3
All-Irelands: 4
Limerick titles: 2
Position: Corner-Forward
In a year when Limerick have huffed and puffed at times unlike the previous years when they dominated opponents, Aaron Gillane has been one of the few players in green to up his standards over the course of the championship summer with the sublime array of his play. Suffice it to say that should Limerick win, he is the bookies overwhelming favourites to collect the cherished 'Hurler of the Year' award.
You know a player is on the top of his game when he can play on arguably the best full-back of our time - Galway's David Burke - and make his opponent look like a novice to the big occasion. In particular, the way he rose above a bigger opponent to cleanly catch a ball before despatching it to the Galway net showed that the marriage of confidence, creation and cool-headedness in the cauldron of a throbbing Croke Park meant he was un-markable once more.
Derk Lyng's biggest problem in the coming days is deciding who to put on the Patrickswell star come Sunday afternoon - Huw Lawlor has the strength and the height while Mikey Butler has the 'divil' and the confidence, having destroyed Clare's Tony Kelly in his man-to-man duties in the last two semi encounters between Kilkenny and Clare.
Heaven help either man should that be their duty as Gillane's accuracy and cuteness combine to make him one of the few who can stick or twist with his opponents only hope to beat him to the ball. The risk of trying to do so is obvious - win it and you get a momentarily cheer for clearing the ball, lost it and chances are your grandchildren will be told how you allowed this most hallowed to opponents to carve up a team single handed.
