The pursuit of superb physical fitness, high-level conditioning and supreme pace are goals which are shared by coaches and trainers up and down the country.

Whether it is at school, university, club or county level, the desire to parade teams that are the embodiment of these three qualities is ongoing for the greater part of the year.

The days of lapping playing-fields, engaging in rather meaningless practice games and performing only the most basic of physical exercises are long gone.

Instead, detailed fitness programmes are diligently prepared and followed rigidly both on an individual and collective basis.

Yet there is one other attribute that is absolutely necessary if real progress is to be achieved and that is hunger.

A teams appetite for success can be quickly gauged from players body language during games and often opponents, sensing chinks in their armour in this context, can overpower them without necessarily playing with greater poise and panache.

Hunger has been clearly rampant on more than one front this year.

Cork revealed a high-intensity attitude during the National League to collect their third title on the trot, while Donegal underlined their yearning to be eventually regarded as a great team and not just a good team by winning back to back Ulster titles.

Perhaps the greatest level of hunger was exhibited by Kilkenny both as a unit and on an individual front.

I cannot think of any player in any code who best encapsulated the real meaning of hunger this year than Noel Hickey (pictured).

More here:
Joe Kernan: Success built on hunger games