And now we head for our winter of decrying discontent.
This morning brought the first of the hand-wringing over 'Player Power', that insidious act known as the moment amateur players who believe in their ability stand up for themselves.
In today's Irish Independent, Martin Breheny writes of Davy Fitzgerald's departure from Clare, and how the manager is an "easy target" since someone has to take the blame for failure. Breheny writes of how winning an All-Ireland title and a National League sometimes "isn't enough", for the players, admitting that this is the "brutal reality of the modern-day relationship between manager and players". I'll quote one further line:
Irrespective of the circumstances, they are usually deemed to be right and since there's safety in numbers, there's little a manager can do except step back. Players don't even have to explain publicly why they are unhappy with the manager.
This is not just to have a go at one writer. There is a general consensus around player power that rears its head when a bunch of players demand a change of management. We saw it last year regarding the Mayo footballers and the Galway hurlers: Noel Connelly, Pat Holmes and Anthony Cunningham were ousted from their posts as it was the desire of their players.
It is never a good thing to see undoubtedly hard-working and decent men lose a job, and in an ideal world, it would never happen. And sometimes the departure of a manager is more due to rancour and ill-feeling than it is to do with ambition.
But this is not the case in Clare: the Clare People report that relations remain good between Fitzgerald and the players, but that some players have indicated their desire for change.
To paint player power as an unkindly and selfish obfuscation, a conjuring of another's failure to deflect attention from your own, is plainly wrong.
It may be considered a cowardly act to trust the idea of "safety in numbers" as a reason to axe your coach or manager, but in reality, it is the opposite. A group of players coming together, telling themselves and each other that they are good enough to win an All-Ireland, and demanding a coach who can help realise their ambition is about as brave a declaration as a gang of players can make.
In fact, it is more cowardly to recognise a manger's limitations and not speak out; to use his failures an excuse for your own underperformance. The Galway hurlers ousted Anthony Cunningham and pushed Tipperary closer than Kilkenny could. As for Mayo: despite some prime blithe Brolly bloviating, there are fewer teams in the country who have shown more character and mental resolve over the last five years.
In Davy's case, the delivery of the All-Ireland in 2013 was superb, and the National League victory impressive too, but the reality is the past three seasons have failed to live up to expectations. The fact that Podge Collins first trip to Croke Park after the 2013 All-Ireland was a football quarter-final three years later embodies that. These Clare hurlers are among the county's most talented ever, and they are used to winning: three Under-21 All-Ireland titles is testament to that.
Davy is a great man, and I'm of little doubt he will find success elsewhere. But sometimes, things draw to a natural conclusion, and his time with Clare had reached this end.
Were 'player power' (its true name is ambition) not a fact of life, then the Championships would not be worth watching.
Some will cloak the departure of a manager following agitation on the part of the players as a great act of betrayal. Were it not to happen in certain cases, the players would betray themselves.
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, but it is Judas who writes the biography.
The players who choose to write their own destiny are to be admired.
