I was 23 when first nominated for an All-Star, the Sparrow, Ger O’Loughlin, and myself heading to the Burlington together for one of the biggest nights in the GAA calendar.

At around 4.15am yesterday morning, some boy-racer thought the Ennis-Kilrush road was Siverstone or Mondello Park. The car started doing donuts, the screeching tyres laying assault to my eardrums. I had to be up at 6.30 anyway to meet the Limerick minor bus at 8 but that was my night’s sleep done and dusted.

Pound for pound, Tipperary just look that bit stronger and better, says the double All-Ireland winning Clare captain. Which is some statement to make with Kilkenny in the other corner...

Selecting the man of-the match on The Sunday Game last weekend was an easy enough decision, to a point, a straight shoot-out between Pauric Mahony and Austin Gleeson. We went for Mahony but nobody would have argued if we had gone for Austin. Richie Hogan also made the shortlist but if you were to stretch that long-list even further, the results would have shown how off the pace Kilkenny really were.

I was walking out by Barry’s Hotel after yesterday’s All-Ireland semi-final when I came across a group of Waterford supporters, broken up and beaten down by the result.

I saw an interview with Ken McGrath during the week where he expressed the hope Waterford would just go for it tomorrow against Kilkenny.