I’d love to have been in both dressingrooms at half-time yesterday because I can almost picture both scenarios. 

On Thursday, Stephen Sheedy and I went up to Athenry to have a look at the greyhounds and drop off a few tickets to Gerry Holian.

All summer we’ve been waiting for this championship to fire. It had been damp. Lifeless even. Nobody could manage to generate the faintest spark.

On the way home from Dublin last week, Niall Gilligan stopped off to break the journey in Francis Loughnane’s old pub in Roscrea, which is now run by John Carroll.

The dressing-room that Waterford found themselves in at half-time is a place I know so well in a big game in Croke Park. You’re giddy. Excited. 

When we won Munster with Clare in 1995, the county went bananas. 

My day got off to a bad start. The Limerick minors were beaten by Galway. It was disappointing but we could have no real complaints.

Traditionally, a bit of a crew from Clarecastle always go to Galway for the Monday of race week — when hurling and life allows, of course — which often seems to coincide with another Galway hurling post-mortem.

Yesterday in Thurles was my first time involved in a Munster final since I captained Clare in the 1999 decider against Cork.

THERE are times when you go into a big game as manager knowing the gun is to your head, when you can almost feel the cold steel pressed against your temple.