Michael Lyster, the Jarvis Cocker of RTÉ, likes nothing better than getting down with the common people, it seems.

The hows and whys of Mayo’s success in a moment – something to do with being able to sort things out as you go along, basically – but first, the headline news from Croke Park yesterday: Joe Brolly failed to detonate.

Forget the misgivings about the hype in Limerick, forget the five-week break, forget the tactical gyrations.

They’ve always had each other. When Clare produced their finest team in two decades to beat Cork and Tipperary in 1955, it was a young and unconsidered Limerick outfit, Mackey’s Greyhounds, who tripped them up in the Munster final on an afternoon of sub-Saharan heat on the Ennis Road. When Clare produced their next successful team two decades later, the bunch that won two National Leagues in the late 1970s, the big championship rivalry was with Cork but – all politics being local — the rivalry with Limerick wasn’t far behind.

AT the final whistle a great roar erupted from thousands of Leeside throats and rumbled around Semple Stadium. But only at the final whistle.

Want to know how Cork will play it tomorrow?

As the heatwave continues, so does the hurling wave. Here are the most recent bringers of joy

And so with one bound they were free, these cornered, scalded felines.

A fantastic night in Portlaoise.

“I’ve always said that any team can beat any other team on a given day” — Brian Cody