The appeal of the Munster Hurling Championship is not being replicated elsewhere. 

Whatever about the gross shortcomings of the football championship structure, whatever about the imbalance between the Leinster and Munster hurling competitions, Sunday underlined, in all its ugliness, that the GAA calendar is broken.

The Déise caught Cork cold on the opening weekend of the hurling championship. 

How many of the five Munster SHC managers would survive failing to qualify from the province?

It really is death by a thousand cuts for the provincial championships in their current guise.

Also, the optics of two of the five volunteers on the CCCC working with the very people they are entrusted to keep in check are not good.

Also, referee decisions had a critical impact on promotions and it's clear that Brian Lohan wants silverware for Clare.

None of its stakeholders have the space to appreciate the value of a league final

As they digest their demotion from hurling’s league elite, the question for Waterford manager isn’t where and how it went wrong. That much he and his group know.

Listening to the tributes of former players, it is clear just how valuable Shane O’Hanlon was to the Dublin cause.