They were able to celebrate together in the days following the game before the third lockdown commenced but Finn feels the absence of a homecoming and the subsequent cup visits has given them the group more impetus going into this season.

“You hardly even heard or spoke about the All-Ireland final three weeks later because you weren’t meeting anyone, only your family,” he recalled at the Allianz Hurling League launch. “They were sick of talking about it.

“In one sense it was good because it doesn’t even feel like you had won it, so you were coming in this year now and you are kind of fresh, whereas in 2018 there was three or four months of kind of going to schools, going to clubs, going to different occasions with the cup, or even just going as a guest.

That can be tiring as well. That can take its toll on players as well when they are being pulled and dragged. There was none of that this year.

If the pandemic has taught the GAA something, Finn hopes it’s to cut down on the length of pre-season.

“The days of the four-month pre-season, I don’t think there’s a place for it anymore. To get fit, I think six weeks is plenty long enough if you apply yourself right. Of course there’s going to be exceptions if some lad is prone to putting on weight and stuff over the couple of months but you can tailor programmes.”

As the 2021 season was delayed from its original start date in late February, Finn and his girlfriend relocated to her family house in Doonbeg. “Spent three or four months there, spent a lot of time in the sea swimming. Well away from a hurley and sliotar.”

It wasn’t until the beginning of last month that he reacquainted himself with ash. “I just found a break from exercise and the whole training regime was as beneficial as actually going out training myself.

That has definitely stood to me over the last couple of weeks when we have turned our attention to going back training. I’m looking forward to going back rather than having laboured the last couple of months.

Speaking of ash, it is what Finn is playing with at the moment but he could yet return to a bamboo hurley having previously favoured it.

“I think there is very little difference between the ash and the bamboo at the moment and I do think it has a place in the GAA in the next couple of years. I know Gearóid Hegarty uses it quite a lot.”

Meanwhile, Wexford’s 2019 All-Star Diarmuid O’Keeffe has admitted embarrassment at the county’s poor attempt to defend their Leinster title last year. The heavy semi-final defeat to Galway followed by a similarly disappointing qualifier exit to Clare has left a sour taste in the mouths of the players.

“It was as tame an effort to retain a Leinster title as probably anyone has come out with,” said O’Keeffe. “We just didn’t perform at all. It was flat, they were stale performances. You were really trying to get back into the mindset of challenging yourself of 2019 again, and trying to lift yourself a little bit more, and trying to dig in that way.

“In ways, on a personal level you just want to forget your performances, they were so below par. I expect so much more from myself and I know the lads do as well as a team. (The aim is) to try and rise above that, and come good again this year.”

A combination of dual club championship commitments and expecting the inter-county season to return earlier was behind Wexford’s below-par displays, O’Keeffe believes.

“Probably the standout thing was we probably anticipated games to be coming back sooner than what they did. So we were trying to keep our fitness levels up during the lockdown, probably a bit earlier than other teams might have had.

“As a result when games did come back, we were greeted with club championship first. Some of the lads probably reckon they had a better campaign with their clubs than they did in their county campaign, and hit form earlier in the season than when the Galway and the Clare games came around.”

O’Keeffe’s St Anne’s club reached an intermediate football final in October, weeks after inter-county training had resumed.

Serving two masters at the same time was no good for him or their two other county representatives, Liam Óg McGovern and Aidan Rochford.

It’s very challenging trying to keep both camps happy when you’re running in two different directions and pushing for things. That might have been a factor as well, trying to manage all of that.

“It’s no different than that April club period before, just coming off the back of the league and championship is around the corner and clubs are playing league games and championship games and trying to manage (inter-county) training as well.”