BEFORE I go into the match analysis, I want to comment on the admission price to get into Semple Stadium yesterday — €20.

THIS was a day that highlighted the beauty of the club championship.

This was the first time in my long association with the Irish Examiner I had predicted a draw in a game, and, for a while, as the game was coming to a conclusion, it was beginning to look like I might be proved right.

THE greatest sign of any game is when you see people hanging around long after the final whistle, talking about what they had just witnessed.

I HEARD a conversation in Croke Park yesterday between a Dublin fan and a Kilkenny man.

APART from being close friends, Anthony Daly and Davy Fitzgerald have much in common this weekend. Both are managing teams (Dublin and Waterford respectively) attempting to get their championship challenge back on track after heavy defeats in their respective provincial finals.

WITH two crucial games in the qualifiers this evening and the Leinster final tomorrow, it has the makings of a great weekend for hurling.

BEFORE the game in Tullamore I met Michael Daly, Anthony’s brother, and he had the typical Daly confident smile.

WE have three hurling games this weekend with Cork, Laois, Dublin, Galway, Tipperary and Clare in championship action.

A FEW weeks ago we had the US president here, Barack Obama, and he left us with a new catch-cry — Is Féidir Linn.