I WAS left disappointed by the glamour games in the top two visions on the opening weekend of the Allianz Hurling League.

I AM probably an exception to the rule but I’m not a lover of hurling under lights.

AFTER so many months of doom and gloom, of recession and depression, it is great to see the real hurling season starting again with the Allianz Hurling League this weekend.

WHAT a difference two weeks makes. A couple of Sundays ago, in the semi-final, the Tipperary champions put their bodies on the line, gave everything possible to get the win over Kilmallock, in Kilmallock.

THE most striking difference between Thurles Sars and De La Salle is the number of county titles won — Sars have 31 in Tipperary and are top of the class, De La Salle have only two in Waterford.

THERE were 21,110 people in Thurles on Saturday night for the All-Ireland U21 final and they came for a night of celebration.

THERE was a song sung by Tipperary substitute Pat Kerwick at the end of the game yesterday, The Galtee Mountain Boy – I think it was about the famous Tipperary revolutionary, Dan Breen.

TALKING to a very neutral individual early in the second half of this All-Ireland semi-final yesterday, at a time when Waterford were mounting a comeback, he said to me, “I hope this doesn’t last, because if it does we won’t have an All-Ireland final.”

DUE to circumstances beyond my control – and beyond my understanding, because why any hurling county would schedule its own championships on a day when the All-Ireland semi-final was taking place is baffling – I wasn’t in Croke Park yesterday.

IF people had believed what I wrote on Saturday we might have had a real crowd in Croke Park yesterday for the meeting of Tipperary and Galway, the kind of crowd a game like this deserved.