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.

ANOTHER weekend of hurling, but with all due respect to Cork and Antrim, everyone is talking about Tipperary and Galway.

AND we thought last Sunday was dramatic!

Munster SHC Final Replay

A FANTASTIC Munster hurling final on Sunday, and yet all the talk yesterday and today, and probably all this week, is about yet another terrible call by a referee.

The replay? I’m really looking forward to that, though I doubt we’ll see the same two starting line-ups the next day.