CLARE
Manager: Davy Fitzgerald (3nd season). Titles: Munster 6 (1998), All-Ireland 4 (2013). 2015 championship: Beaten 1-19 to 2-15 by Limerick in Munster quarter-final. Recovered to beat Offaly 3-26 to 0-15 in qualifiers but knocked out by Cork on a scoreline of 0-17 to 0-20.
How it unfolded
With the smoke cleared from all the spring’s shemozzling, Clare emerged in a better state than most imagined. The Davy O’Halloran row was a macro issue, more a philosophical bust-up than a hurling one. The bald truth is that of all the players who’d left the Clare panel, Podge Collins was by far the biggest loss. Without him, the Clare attack lacked an X-factor – that edge prove critical in the Limerick defeat, and even with the return of Colm Galvin they didn't have enough against Cork.