In a lot of ways, this has been a frustrating season.

It’s far from over, but I think it’s fair to say that Munster’s record at home this season has been… frustrating. Hopefully, that changes in the last two games in Limerick and Cork before seeing what, if anything, comes afterwards. I’ve been to a ton of games this season, all at home, and I’ve stormed back to the car more often than I’d like, for a few different reasons.

I’ve never regretted going. Sure, I’ve been steaming mad, stomping, practically, back into Limerick or to the Black Ash Park & Ride, especially this season, but by the time I’ve picked up some Chicken Hut or a sneaky Supermacs in Mallow, my mood is usually better. That’s the thing with going to Munster games, whatever about anything else, you leave feeling something. Maybe it’s elation, maybe it’s frustration, but that’s what you get when you’re part of something bigger than yourself.

It’s because if you’re reading this, Munster matters to you. Deeply.

It’s season ticket renewal time right now and money is tight; I know it well, myself. I know I get into these games through the press box but this season we’re getting two season tickets at home because I love this club. It has changed my life. I want my money – your money, that you give me for TRK – to help this club because I know well through Three Red Kings that a yearly sub is better than month to month because it allows you to plan. I want Munster to plan.

When I thought about a season ticket like that I asked myself, do I want to subscribe to Munster for the year? And the answer was yes. Some of the best days of my life have been in Thomond Park – both before and after setting up Three Red Kings – and when I know that my season tickets can be part of something larger, it was a no-brainer for me.

Now I also know that it isn’t as simple as being frustrated with some poor performances this season or in general; the decision to move one European Cup game to Pairc Ui Chaoimh – should we qualify – has been controversial, as has the decision to package that potential game with the Limerick games.

Some people from North Munster have no intention of going to Cork for any game, be it a Champions Cup in the Pairc or URC in Musgrave Park. It just isn’t going to happen, and I understand that. Nothing I say will change your mind.

I have more detailed thoughts on both the movement of a potential European home game and the history of the split in games between Cork and Limerick here, but my main takeaway is this;

Because this is the thing – in the next year, you get a chance to get in on the ground floor with this team, be it in Thomond Park, Páirc Uí Chaoimh or Musgrave Park.

Clayton McMillan was one of the most sought-after coaches in world rugby this season, and he came here, in part because of what he saw at Thomond Park back in November, but mainly because of the potential of this team. I mean, and the money from the IRFU too – we can’t forget that – but you don’t get a guy like that with just €€€s, either. The project has to be one that he feels can launch him to the All Blacks job.

He feels he can do that here.

Why?

We have some of the best talent under the age of 24 in Europe, who are almost all ready to roll in McMillan’s first season as head coach: Evan O’Connell, Brian Gleeson, Ruadhan Quinn, Ben O’Connor, Alex Kendellen, Edwin Edogbo, Sean Edogbo, Michael Foy, and others. There are guys like Gene O’Leary Kareem who didn’t get a chance to showcase what they can do during the 20s campaign this year, but who are genuine top-level talent. There are more on the way into the academy this summer, including two or three guys who I feel can be generational talents for this club.

He’ll have a settled, elite half-back pairing that will – or should – be starting for Ireland inside the next two seasons, and both are two years off their prime. Casey looks like a potential captain, among other young lads who are all pushing to be leaders and big characters.

He’s got an underrated group of players in Ahern, Coombes, Kendellen, Daly, Nash, Jager, Milne, the no-relation Barrons, the relation Wycherleys, Loughman, Kilgallen, Nankivell, Abrahams, Farrell to name a few with a World Cup winner in Jean Kleyn and one of the best locks in the game in Tadhg Beirne. Next season, he’ll have Dan Kelly and JJ Hanrahan to round out some depth issues in the back, as well as large elements of our issues in the front row addressed.

We’ve seen in La Rochelle that when this team clicks, even with all its faults, they can reward your emotional investment in them ten times over. This is a squad who have had the heavy lifting of transition done over the last two seasons, in part due to budgetary cutbacks, but who are maybe two or three players away from tangling at the top end of Europe once again. They just need elite-level coaching and, in Clayton McMillan, they have that.

Get in on the ground floor.

Yeah, the road up from Cork or Kerry or down from Limerick, or across from Tipperary and Waterford is a nightmare. Driving down from Dublin and elsewhere in the country is a dose. It takes two hours but feels like three. You know that. You drive those roads every day, and not just for rugby. But the road is part of this thing of ours; the stopping for diesel on the Dock Road, the chicken roll in Charleville, the backrooms ambience of the Hospital road, the Munster gear packing out the Supermacs in Mallow, the buzzy drinks in Flannerys and the walk out to Thomond Park that’s both longer and shorter than you remember. It’s the cold, the wet, the drizzle. It’s losing yourself for 80 minutes and then braving that road again. In silence, poring over the win or the loss, but doing it together and part of something bigger.

Make sure you get back to where you belong this renewal season. You won’t regret it.