For even the most ardent hurling fan, the continued debate around the scheduling of the All-Ireland championship must be slowly growing arduous.
The arguments over whether the GAA have done right by hurling stretch back to last summer and, if anything, they have only grown in intensity this year.
With four of the ten Munster hurling championship games broadcast on the paid GAAGO streaming service, the expected pontificating came from the expected sources.
As we approach the All-Ireland quarter-finals, however, the debate has been exacerbated, with the Tailteann Cup semi-finals being dragged into a frenzied debate on hurling scheduling.
The Tailteann Cup last-four ties have long been set for this Sunday in Croke Park, as part of an agreement on how best to promote the second-tier football competition.
However, the failure of Leinster to reach the URC rugby final meant that Croke Park was now available for both Saturday and Sunday, leading to a motion to swap the hurling quarter-finals to Sunday and hold the Tailteann Cup semi-finals on Saturday.
The motion was ultimately defeated, and we have since heard lines from the likes of Dónal Óg Cusack suggesting that the GAA's scheduling is starving hurling of "oxygen."
It has been a hugely messy period. On RTÉ's coverage of Saturday's hurling quarter-finals, it was only natural that the topic of the game's timing would be broached by host Joanne Cantwell.
All-Ireland winner Anthony Daly spoke perfect sense on the matter, saying that it was farcical that this debate had only surfaced in the last week while the schedules have been known for over a year.
The Clare man did, however, admit that change was required for 2025 - and pulled a brilliant one-liner to host Cantwell while discussing the other sports RTÉ and the GAA have seemingly prioritised in recent weeks.
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Anthony Daly gives measured take on hurling scheduling saga
'Wexford are frustrated and annoyed' - the panel debate the scheduling of the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals for early on Saturday
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Speaking on the issues which have dominated hurling spheres in recent weeks, Anthony Daly said that the feeling in his native county was that a solution was urgently needed for 2025.
Daly spoke perfect sense, admitting that the scheduling was problematic but presenting the bigger picture that changes could not reasonably be expected until next season.
I know that first meeting, it was the Monday night after the Munster final...it must have been hard enough to be there.
It was to do with structures for next year. I think our representatives completely stood up and said, 'Playing a National League final here [in Thurles] in April in the dark was not conducive to promoting hurling.'
And also, then, that the quarter-finals were going to be down for a Saturday. They said, 'Can we look at this for 2025?' That's firmly what I've heard our delegates believed leaving the building.
On the 27th day of May, the Tailteann Cup, the last round of games had to be played. No-one in the Tailteann Cup would have been complaining about playing today.
I doubt if they approached the 16 teams still involved at that stage and said, 'look, it'll be on in Croke Park, it'll be on live TV.'
Both Daly and ex-Limerick man Shane Dowling would defend Clare manager Brian Lohan, whose county were allegedly a major dissenting voice against moving the hurling quarter-finals away from their original date of Saturday.
Much of the frustration around the hurling schedule has centred around the perception that other major events such as the United Rugby Championship or EURO 2024 have been prioritised over the All-Ireland championship.
Anthony Daly made reference to such controversies in brilliant fashion with a one-liner to host Joanne Cantwell - who was in Semple Stadium just over 12 hours after hosting RTÉ's coverage of EURO 2024 from Montrose on Friday night.
Okay, now we're after bringing a rugby game in [to Croke Park]. What do we want to bring in?
Do we want everything to be ahead of us? I know the EUROs are on and it's massive and we're looking at you [Cantwell] there discussing the Polish back four and stuff like that every day. It's great!
But, look, at what stage is the Aviva not good enough for a UFC final - or, what's it called, URC is it?
It's hard to imagine that the scheduling of the All-Ireland hurling championship and Tailteann Cup will not be reviewed ahead of the 2025 season.
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