IT’S funny the things you overhear at matches.

FOR the first time that I can recall, there’s been more talk this year about the Leinster hurling semi-finals than about Munster.

On the way into Semple Stadium yesterday I met three fine Waterford men, Tony Wright, Michael O’Donnell and a man with a great Clare name but who assured me he was all Waterford, Paddy McNamara.

AFTER all the excitement of last Sunday’s game between Cork and Tipperary – and fair dues to both teams for that – I’m beginning to wonder if there is any game at all on this weekend in Munster?

I was one of the many who would have liked to have seen one or two more changes to the Cork starting 15, but I did wonder if those players were out there, if Cork did in fact have anything better.

WHAT were the Leinster Council thinking when they fixed this game for 7pm on a Saturday evening in Kilkenny?

A FANTASTIC league final in Thurles yesterday, and great credit to the players on both teams for that, but the first people I want to talk about here are the Galway management team of John McIntyre, John Moylan, John Hardiman and Joe Connolly.

IT’S always been said that the National League is a secondary competition; well now we know that is true.

FOR the second year in a row we end up with a situation where the last round of the league is more or less meaningless, everything decided bar who is to be relegated.

I WAS in Páirc Uí Chaoim hearly for this match yester-day, and as the music played, a rich selection of Cork songs, the thought struck me – is this the only county in Ireland where the people are homesick even when they’re at home?