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.

Tony Considine analyses the Cork lineup ahead of tomorrow’s Munster SHC showdown with Tipperary

I HEARD a lot of complaints in recent weeks from Clare and Limerick about being in Division 2; on the basis of what I saw in Ennis on Saturday, both counties were where they deserved to be this year.

FROM Biddy Early to Biddy Mulligan — this is a story of Dublin but it’s also a story of Anthony Daly.

EVERYONE in hurling, no matter what county you follow, must congratulate Dublin’s hurlers on reaching their first league final since 1946.

FOR the thousands who went to Galway yesterday in hopes of a hurling contest there was one consolation – it was a beautiful day in scenic Salthill.