Gold Cup winner ridden by some girl. Big deal. You’d swear a woman had never won the Gold Cup before. It’s hardly going to make tomorrow’s front pages. 

So adios, then, Marcelo Bielsa. Isaac Newton was right. In the end gravity will always make the apple fall and bonk you on the head.

Maybe we should stop the hurling year now. Quit while we’re ahead. A first All-Ireland club senior title for Waterford. A first All-Ireland club intermediate title for Kildare.

Because most of John Kiely’s troops are in the sweet spot agewise, may they – a jarring thought for the pack – get even better before the onset of rust?

What casket of delights awaits in 2022 is a question to be answered in the general rather than in the personal because nobody ever gets everything they want from the sporting year. Nobody ever gets even the half of it

The longer 1951 remains the date of their last All Ireland triumph, the more their story cuts right to the heart of the questions that still matter in sport. Is it the outcome or the struggle, the destination or the journey?

Serial winners are by definition shape-shifters. Limerick went from being a point scoring team in 2020 to one who scored eight goals in four games

Limerick don’t hit long balls, they hit long passes; a world of difference lies therein. They’re fast but they never hurry. They’re focused but never frantic. They do everything at pace but simultaneously in their own time

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.