You’re never entirely sure what you’re watching. The odd time you might experience an epiphany and say that, yes, this is the start of something significant – and you might be right. If you are, you remember the day; if not, it’s easy to forget.

If last Sunday's Waterford-Clare drawn league final yielded little in the way of revelation two things were none the less clear: both teams were genuinely contesting, regardless of the upcoming championship encounter and there was very little between them. There was no outstanding message to take away from Thurles but equally there was nothing to undermine the established belief that both will be contenders this summer.

The increasing relevance of the national leagues has been well documented in football but not as remarked on in hurling. This is because in football it’s been a radical change from previous eras when league success was often a contra-indicator of championship prospects.

That has tended not to be the case with hurling despite the memorable sequence in the 1990s during which five successive league winners not alone failed to impact on the championship at all but by the end of the year their managers had resigned.

Track record

Usually though, in hurling what you see is what you get. Much of the credit for that in recent years has to go to Kilkenny who play everything on its merits and have an immensely strong track record during the spring: eight league titles, six of which were turned into All-Ireland doubles by the following September.

Of the other counties who have won the league the track records aren’t as strong but only one in the qualifier era has made absolutely no impact in the championship that followed – Galway in 2004.

Because of Kilkenny it was always perfectly transparent what you were watching in one of their league finals. Even when they lost, in 2007 and 2011, they went on to win the All-Ireland.

The league itself is now taken very seriously by the counties in the top two divisions, either because of the pressures not to get relegated or to secure promotion. Managers in Division One A – Waterford’s Derek McGrath included – feel the strain of balancing the need for results against the need to rest some players or trial others.

Negotiating the league is a test in itself so why hold back in the knock-out phases?

Clare and Waterford are both coming teams. Their underage success denotes as much. This is important in hurling because the caste system is so strong. In the past 17 seasons only one All-Ireland has not spent time in the trophy cabinets of Kilkenny (mostly), Cork or Tipperary.

Other counties need confidence and underage competition is a reliable source. This criterion though emphasises that for all of their joint claims on being heirs apparent, Clare and Waterford are different cases. For a start Clare already have a senior All-Ireland and were it not for the disappointing failure to build on that achievement no one would be talking about the equivalence between the two counties.

The county also has a phenomenal pile of underage silverware: four under-21 All-Irelands in the past eight years. By comparison Waterford's minor All-Ireland in 2013 should be both too insubstantial and too recent a haul but it has been impressively husbanded to the point where minors from three years ago, such as Patrick Curran, Shane Bennett and Austin Gleeson, are already making big impacts at senior level.

Clare also have the living memory of the 1990s and the fire and fury of Ger Loughnane's team with its two All-Irelands and core of strong personalities. Manager David Fitzgerald carries that legacy from 20 years ago and has already delivered an All-Ireland. Tellingly he has reacted to the disappointment of the intervening years by bringing in strong personalities and diffusing the focus on his own.

Waterford have nothing to compare with Clare's modern status. They're the county that everyone wishes had won an All-Ireland in the last decade when they swashbuckled their way to Munster titles and a national league but calamity always seemed to befall them along the way to the game's pinnacle. Significantly Clare have played their part in that, spoiling Waterford's first Munster title in 39 years by beating them in the 2002 All-Ireland semi-final. It was whispered last week that Clare also feel they have the measure of the current Waterford generation – a sense bolstered as recently as last year's under-21 win over well fancied opponents.

Missed opportunities

You could read it either way last Sunday in Thurles. On the one hand Waterford survived a barrage of missed opportunities in the first half to come out after the break and nearly win the match and had the bottle to nail the equalising free with the last puck of the extended 90 minutes.

On the other hand Clare were missing key players and still proved resistant to defeat. The manner in which they built a movement in the dying seconds and managed to draw a foul was impressive and the free was by no means easy but Conor McGrath is such a phenomenal scorer that he made it look uncomplicated.

Ultimately it was hard to discern too much of a psychological dividend in the outcome. Even if next weekend’s replay continues to provide no epiphany both counties can be happy with the way the wind’s blowing.

smoran@irishtimes.com