Laois, Offaly and Westmeath start their summer this weekend.
The Leinster Hurling Championship kicks into gear this weekend alongside the Joe McDonagh Cup.
There's three huge contests across Saturday and Sunday to get the juices flowing locally.
Westmeath welcome an improving young Kilkenny side in the image of Brian Cody to TEG Cusack Park in Mullingar, looking to take the confidence gained from promotion back to division one of the Allianz Hurling League and put it to good use.
It'll be manager Joe Fortune's first championship fixture as manager and he knows that after capturing the Joe McDonagh cup in 2021, it's very important that the lake county solidify their status in the provincial championship.
Laois themselves are up against it, travelling to Parnell Park to face a Dublin side who genuinely believe they'll be in the shake up at the business end of the All-Ireland Championship.
We all know the history between the O'Moore County and Dublin in the Leinster Championship. Eddie Brennan masterminded one of the famous days in Laois hurling's proud history and fans will be hoping this year's panel can roll back the years and claim another championship scalp.
Cheddar Plunkett has had a couple of weeks to assess the health of his panel and strategise, so it will be interesting to see how Laois line-up on Saturday evening.
The round-robin format returns so both counties will have five games to test themselves in the coming month.
The oddsmakers will have Laois and Westmeath chalked up in a relegation scrap but just one upset win could change the balance of play for both sides.
Is either up to it at this stage in their progression? That's the big question.
Offaly are on somewhat of a fact-finding mission in the Joe McDonagh Cup.
If you take their Christy Ring and Allianz Division Two dominance on bare form, they will be a cut above the majority of these teams. However on the opening weekend they come up against an Antrim team who will be most people's favourites, especially given their recent victory in the relegation playoff in the league.
Michael Fennelly has question marks to answer about the make-up of his defence and the system in place as they continually shipped multiple goalscoring chances during the league, albeit against some of the best teams in the country.
That trend continued against the Saffrons last time out however and despite having a number of weeks preparation time, it's hard to see how too much will have changed in the game-plan.
With that said, you'd expect an uptick in performance levels from the faithful county and nothing can be ruled out in championship hurling.
Fixtures:
Saturday:
Joe McDonagh Cup
- Antrim v Offaly - Corrigan Park - Online Facebook audio stream - 2pm
Leinster Hurling Championship:
- Westmeath v Kilkenny - TEG Cusack Park - Commentary - The Saturday Beat - 6pm
- Dublin v Laois - Parnell Park - Commentary - The Saturday Beat - 6:30pm
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