Cork looked to have rediscovered some of the mojo from last year. On the other hand, where are Waterford? In that context, nobody really has any clue where Cork are at

John Kiely will also have been upset and annoyed at the incident last Sunday night when a Limerick player got involved with a Tipp opponent

When Colm Bonnar assessed the cards he had to work with last October, there’s no way he could have envisaged how that hand has fallen asunder in such a short time-span.

If last week’s Clare-Tipperary game was big, tomorrow’s Clare-Cork match is a monstrosity. The gorilla suddenly becomes King Kong.

Throughout the week, numerous people were talking Tipp up in the bar, that having pushed Waterford so hard in Walsh Park they’d be hard to beat, especially in Thurles.

This is a far less experienced Tipp team than the one Clare beat in Thurles four years ago, whereas most of these Clare lads played that day.

In the week of a championship game in my time the build-up and all the discussion around the match really added to the intrigue and debate

Kieran Kingston has so many questions to answer now ahead of Limerick in 13 days’ time

It’s still always about the All-Ireland for Cork but their attitude around the league had to change when they’ve now gone nearly two decades without an All-Ireland. Over the last few years, you were still wondering if Cork would show any interest in the competition, but they’ve almost been bullied into embracing it now.

The other semi-final was a non event given the complete no-show from Wexford.