Twenty years ago a high proportion of the press participants would stay over wherever the function was and exchange whatever GAA gossip tended to ensue. Those days are gone. They will never return. Pity

Maybe the simple fact of it not being another winter championship has helped too. Sun on our backs, short sleeves on our shirts, smiles on our faces. Maybe.

For Tipp to win one All-Ireland after getting murdered by Limerick in the Munster final was fortunate; for them to win a second All-Ireland after getting murdered by Limerick in the Munster final would be pushing it

Today’s qualifiers take place under the shadow of Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday. The All-Ireland series will take place under the shadow of Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday. Every championship fixture Limerick fulfil for the remainder of John Kiely’s tenure they will in a sense fulfil under the shadow of last Sunday and that second-half performance.

It’s Croke Park in July so it must be the Leinster final and it must be Brian Cody. Hurling’s longest running residency.

If Kilkenny face an intellectual challenge, Cork face both an intellectual challenge and a physical one

Laois and Antrim take to the boards on Saturday and if the bill of fare is nothing more exotic than provincial quarter-final action they’re not complaining about that

The only team other than Limerick who can be like Limerick are Galway. Everyone else will have to be themselves

By teatime tomorrow the giant primal scream therapy session that masqueraded as the 2021 National Hurling League will have ended, give or take a final that - aptly for a competition which only half-existed in the first place – may or not be held. Life will be sane again. Phew

Lar Corbett’s second goal against Kilkenny in as comparatively recently as 2010? Wouldn’t happen now