Doubts about Kilkenny’s All-Ireland credentials in the wake of mass retirements proved a key motivation in their eventual success, according to star defender Paul Murphy.

Henry Shefflin rolled back the years with a vintage display as Ballyhale Shamrocks sealed a place in the AIB All-Ireland senior club hurling final this afternoon.

Another week, another huge haul from TJ Reid and, predictably, another big victory for star-studded Ballyhale Shamrocks.

ALL-IRELAND SHC FINAL REPLAY:

Kilkenny, who play Offaly in the Leinster SHC at Nowlan Park tomorrow (7pm), have made three changes from the league final win over Tipperary.

St Patrick’s weekend, 2014 will live long in the memory of Caithriona McGlone as the Lismore forward netted three times from play in the AIB All-Ireland intermediate club camogie final replay win over Ballyhale Shamrocks (3-8 to 0-7) at the Clonmel Sportsfield yesterday.

Carrickshock 4-14 Shamrocks 2-14

“Every game is an All-Ireland” is Kilkenny captain Brian Kennedy’s mantra as he leads the county into this evening’s Bord Gais Energy Leinster U21 final against Wexford at Wexford Park (7.30pm).

Henry Shefflin is expected to be fit for Kilkenny’s National League campaign after scans revealed his ankle injury isn’t as bad as first feared.

Ballyhale Shamrocks 1-17 O’Loughlin Gaels 2-10

IT was a contented Nickey Brennan that greeted the media in the foyer of Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel the Monday morning after Ireland’s emphatic first Test win over Australia.

JAMES STEPHENS collected the Kilkenny SHC title at a damp Nowlan Park yesterday, where 8,742 spectators saw an entertaining replay after last week’s draw disputed by two fully committed sides – sometimes too committed, as evidenced by the second-half sendings off of Jackie Tyrrell, captain of the new champions, and Ballyhale’s Colin Fennelly.

ALL SQUARE at Nowlan Park yesterday, with 6,974 spectators seeing favourites Ballyhale Shamrocks level the Kilkenny SHC final deep in injury-time, depriving underdogs James Stephens a famous victory.

LOOKS like it was a cracker, doesn’t it, 36 scores in a 60-minute game between two of the premier clubs in the game over the past several years?

BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS (Kilkenny) 2-13 BIRR (Offaly) 1-11, Nowlan Park

FIVE minutes into the second-half of the second Kilkenny SHC semi-final in yesterday’s double-header at Nowlan Park, it looked like a shock (pardon the pun) was on the cards as Carrickshock took a surprise if well-merited one-point lead.

GAA President Sean Kelly has voiced his backing for the historic new Belfast stadium proposal.