The great thing about the hurling just having finished is that it’ll soon start all over again — sort of.

Ger Loughnane said of him: “There are men, then there are men, then there’s Sean McMahon.” The totemic Doora-Barefield defender retains that innate honesty that inspired a generation of Banner hurlers. Now he wants the new wave of stars in the county to write a fresh chapter for Clare hurling.

When we think of the joys and wonders of this joyous and wondrous hurling year, they aren’t confined to just the senior championship.

Ger Loughnane was right. Last Sunday night he called on one of the rich phrases from his beloved Gaeilge to suitably articulate what had transpired earlier. ‘Lá dar saol a bhí ann.’

Pádraic ‘Podge’ Collins is part of a new breed of hurler to have blossomed in recent times.

We’ll be there in Croker tomorrow, like Cork, back for the first time in a while, but you can hardly say he’s new to the place.

A little over a week after the 2005 All-Ireland football final, this writer received an email from a fairly irate Kerry supporter.

On the school bus, the bullies at the back once threw his shoes, shirt and jumper out the window outside his house.

This hurling championship has been afforded a lot of plaudits this summer and rightly so.

No other sport throws up tragic figures quite like boxing.