As Gerry Murphy once memorably put it, the clubs are generally left sucking the hind tit of the season. Even so, the next two Saturday's back-to-back programmes of AIB League matches constitute a feast for them after the relative famine so far this season.
It is a measure of the crumbs left over for the clubs that St Mary's will today have their trio of international forwards, Malcolm O'Kelly, Trevor Brennan and Victor Costello in harness for the first time this season - and this on January 22nd.
Indeed, if any game can scale the heights of European weekends, then today's Garryowen-St Mary's tie has the ingredients. For beginners, there are nine internationals on view, and 18 representative players all told.
With four members of the senior 25-man squad announced in midweek playing, and another three from the A squad, needless to say the Irish coach Warren Gatland and the Irish manager Donal Lenihan will be amongst the attendance.
As Gatland is on record as saying that the second-row, loose forwards and midfield are his primary areas of selectorial thought, it is clearly a big game on a personal level for Malcolm O'Kelly and Trevor Brennan, as well as David Wallace, Dennis Hickie and Peter McKenna. To add to the intrigue, there will be others itching to show their wares, noone more so than the discarded Costello.
But they are sub-plots amid the thickened main plot. Ever presents in the top flight, the meetings of the star-spangled sky and the dark blues have generally been amongst the highlights of the AIL campaigns, and a reminder of the special links between the two clubs is that today's game is played for the annual Shay Deering Memorial Trophy.
Victory has tended to go to the home side, which of late has been particularly irksome for St Mary's, who have yet to win at Dooradoyle. Two years ago, a largely self-inflicted 13-12 defeat there was their only blemish on a surging eight-game run-in, thereby effectively costing them a home semi-final and ensuring they encountered Shannon.
Last year took the biscuit though, their self-destructive 1917 defeat - even allowing for Garryowen's typical never-say-die spirit - coming from a 17-0 interval deficit against 14 men.
They're bound to be still feeling sore about that one.
This then is a chance to exorcise nightmares and lay old bogeys to rest. Not, of course, that Brent Pope sees it that way, especially as he wasn't involved in either of the St Mary's nadirs of the last two campaigns.
"I don't see it quite that way. Any time you come to Munster there's a psychological hurdle to overcome. But the teams have levelled out so much in recent years that it's the same for any team coming to Dublin, for teams going up north, or Ballymena and Dungannon coming south."
Nevertheless, Pope has impressed upon his players that this is a chance for them, and only them, to become the first team from St Mary's to break that Dooradoyle duck. Not that it will be remotely easy.
"They're not going to give us any quarter. I'd imagine it will be nip and tuck between two pretty good sides. Garryowen may have home advantage and a psychological edge, but they're arguably under greater pressure to win as a a defeat would leave them two losses behind us," added Pope, endeavouring to pass the pressure onto his opponents.
Garryowen suffered for Munster's involvement with a makeshift side over Christmas against Cork Constitution but are back at full strength and looking fresh again, with Tom Tierney, Jeremy Staunton and Killian Keane relatively idle of late.
Hence, with eight members of the Leinster squad who've recently scaled Euro heights, St Mary's could be the ones suffering from a mental reaction. But that would be more likely in a low-key, humdrum, poorly attended affair. That scenario seems less likely for this one, with so much baggage attached to it.
In fact, it's probably the best type of fixture St Mary's could have faced.
