Ballygunner are almost unbackable favourites but I give Clonlara a much better chance than the bookies and most neutrals.

Na Piarsaigh have some brilliant players but I was struggling to understand their gameplan yesterday for long stretches.

Enjoy the night lads. Whether I won an award, or didn’t, I always made sure I did anyway. For me, that was nearly always the best part of the All-Stars.

The north Tipp men showed incredible resolve throughout, especially after going behind so early.

If anyone saw me in my sitting room yesterday, they’d have thought I was a stockbroker on Wall Street trying to keep up with anything that moved.

I had nothing but respect for Jimmy. When he finished his playing career with Sarsfields, he went straight into refereeing, which is a great sign of a man, especially someone who was a decorated player.

Limerick have been experts at timing their run but all those years of conditioning have turned them into a machine that, eventually, just wears and grinds teams down

Being honest, I never thought I would see a better team than Cody’s Kilkenny in my lifetime but here they now are on their doorstep.

Clare lost with huge pride on Sunday. Galway lost with zero honour the previous day. Clare came home Sunday night on their shields. Galway came home on Saturday without them

In lots of ways, it was a wonder Galway were so close at the end when you consider how poorly they started and how much catching up they left themselves to do