Laois are through to the semi-finals of the EirGrid Leinster U-20 championship this Saturday after a dramatic penalty shootout win over Westmeath last night.

Cork hurling coach Ger Cunningham has recommended free entry to Sunday's league clash at home to Limerick for the small band of Cork die-hards who followed the team to Mullingar last weekend.

The Cork hurlers will be without first-team regulars Sean O’Donoghue, Damien Cahalane, and Conor Lehane for this weekend’s Allianz league visit of Limerick to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Michael 'Brick' Walsh, Ger Cunningham and Eoghan Cormican join Anthony Daly to review the Allianz Hurling League weekend.

They will take to the field in black jerseys honouring Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney.

Derek McGrath joined Justin McCarthy and Davy Fitzgerald on WLRFM earlier today in hailing the Stradbally man after informed Liam Cahill at the weekend that his inter-county career has concluded.

Michael Walsh’s appearance in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2017 was, including replays, his 12th on that stage.

How long can a county player give his county nowadays? Waterford hurling captain Noel Connors is inclined to think that eight years is becoming the cut-off point.

Mallow in early January will never be mistaken for Broadway, and the chill in the north Cork evening made it a testing venture for the 2,021 spectators in attendance for Cork and Waterford in last night’s Co-Op Superstores Munster SHL clash.

The Super 8 is the advent of a form of professionalism in inter-county football but “true Corinthians” like Waterford will have to soldier on, says former manager John ‘Jackson’ Kiely.

Last year this writer went to a training session for the Waterford hurlers to discuss access for GAA Nua, an upcoming documentary. 

Shortly after my wife and I took up a pair of seats about four rows from the back of the covered stand in Cusack Park last Sunday, I could hear a young fella behind me asking his father: Is that Tony Browne?

Cork 0-21 - Waterford 1-13: So, Cork remain in Division 1A and Waterford are relegated to the second tier. A springtime of false dawns and second comings came to some sort of crescendo in the snow flurries and foot-stampings and hand-rubbings in Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday, where the home side’s tús maith was bookended by a críoch maith.

Michael “Brick” Walsh is set to line out for a 16th season with Waterford in 2018, Austin Gleeson has revealed.

As David Burke was finishing his speech last Sunday, I was making my way along the Hogan Stand touchline for a piece with RTÉ when I felt this urge to go over to the devastated Waterford players and management still out on the field, says Tony Browne.

Donal O’Grady gives his tactical breakdown of an intriguing All-Ireland final.

The ramifications from one cuppa.

In Saturday’s Irish Examiner, Michael Moynihan posed three key questions ahead of second All-Ireland semi-final. So how about some answers?

Here’s a rough head count of items on the agenda this morning.

Ken McGrath and Conor Phelan were part of the Waterford and Kilkenny panels that contested an All-Ireland semi-final in 2004. McGrath captained Waterford to that season’s Munster title. Then a student at Waterford Institute of Technology, Phelan now works there as GAA development officer. Both men have also suffered serious health issues. They chatted hurling and heart problems...

Derek McGrath reckons the five-day training camp at Fota in preparation for yesterday’s Munster semi-final played a major role in their progression to a second successive provincial decider.

Prior to the weekend certain question marks hung over the Waterford camp.

Waterford selector Dan Shanahan has warned that Tipperary will be “very keen” to make up for their late defeat to Kilkenny in the last round of NHL games.

In our weekly 'Getting To Know You' feature, Waterford hurler Noel Connors talks Netflix, movies, food and endorses the great GAA love affair with Marty Morrissey.

Tipperary hurler Padraic Maher is unsure whether his shoulder will hold up during Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

Twenty months ago, Dan Shanahan agreed Waterford were the fifth team in Munster. “Maybe ninth or 10th in Ireland,” he says now of that period. How times have changed, writes John Fogarty.

James Barry knows the opposition in next Sunday’s Munster SHC final well. The Tipperary full-back lined out in some tough Harty Cup battles in 2008, when current Waterford boss Derek McGrath was managing De La Salle.

The most experienced Waterford man in Semple Stadium this weekend will be easy to spot.

This ride on the white and blue merry-go-round. Where is it going to end? When are Waterford actually going to lose a match?

Over time it all tells. It might take time, or in hurling it might take games, as Eamon O’Shea pointed out in these pages last Saturday. 

Liam Dunne insisted that there was no panic in the Wexford ranks when Waterford came from seven points down to lead during the second half of this evening’s All-Ireland senior hurling championship qualifier at Nowlan Park.

The only bit of entertainment I got out of the two games this weekend was meeting the renowned Effin’ Eddie from YouTube fame in the middle of the field at Semple Stadium, writes Tony Considine.

What marked out the great Waterford team of the last decade was the way they approached the game, a swashbuckling side of freestyle players blessed with the full range of hurling’s skills.

Cork are Nicky English’s value-for-money punt for the All-Ireland title this summer but he’s not discounting Waterford as both teams enter Sunday’s Munster SHC quarter-final with little fanfare.

Eight points separated Clare from Waterford when the sides met in Munster last summer.

Waterford 0-22 Galway 1-13

Tipperary 2-13 Waterford 0-16

An analysis of the All Star hurling selection indicates the selectors got it close enough — but there are blatant inconsistencies. For me, two players stand out, one who hasn’t been selected and one who has.

When the great boxing trainer Eddie Futch stopped Joe Frazier from going out to face Muhammad Ali late on in Manila all those years ago, he had good reason.

You can talk about development squads, you can talk about managers, you can talk about coaches, you can talk about backroom staff, but no one will ever do as much for hurling as the players.

How much has the victory over Tipperary taken out of Kilkenny?

Munster championship time is finally here again, and finally also, championship weather. I can hardly believe my eyes!