THE three games in Croke Park last Saturday showcased the lower tiers of hurling and were most entertaining.

WHEN I landed in Kerry airport last Friday, the plan was to turn left for Killarney and home.

PAUL Galvin and Roy Keane have a lot in common.

HOW close we came to a third game between Cork and Kerry in as many weeks in the Munster Championship.

SO the provincial championships have lost their lustre?

EVER since the draws were made for this year’s championship, two games stood out immediately – Cork v Tipp in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Cork v Kerry (once Kerry had overcome Tipperary) in Killarney next Sunday.

IN the week prior to the start of this year’s football Championship, all the talk was about the fairness or otherwise of the provincial formats, not the games themselves.

THE championship is underway in earnest and from here until the end of September, our lives will be filled with all the emotional ups and downs, thrills and spills, winners and losers of this great, uniquely Irish, sporting phenomenon.

LAST Saturday, in my capacity as President of the GAA in Belgium, I attended the very first Euro League Tournament to be hosted by the Association’s arm in the country at Louven.

COLM BONNAR set the ball rolling early this week and not before time.