Richie had to be moulded into a Cody player... Cody put manners on him, says Adrian Ronan.

In the mind’s eye, he will always have a hurley in his hand.

A sequence from an All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Tipperary – and no, it’s not the moment you’re thinking of.

"Substitutions are a consequence of how you read the match. You cannot predict them before the game because it is unpredictable" – Jose Mourinho

The future visited Derek Lyng when he was in Limerick.

Munster 2-14 Leinster 4-15

“Davy isn’t going to rethink his grand plan, of course. He’s invested too much time, thought and faith in it. So, even though the current margin for error is too wide, Clare readers tempted to howl in anguish when passes go astray tomorrow shouldn’t bother.

Has the era of the hurling behemoths passed? Over the last 13 seasons of Kilkenny dominance the increasing size, strength and power of hurlers was becoming more and more of a factor.

Drico ‘an All-Black in other colours’

What a weekend of hurling awaits.

For those who were hoping the recent spate of retirements would cause a little slackening of intensity within the Kilkenny panel, Sunday’s demolition job on Tipperary in the opening round of the 2012 Allianz Hurling League is bad news.

The conversation with Noel Connors of Waterford took an odd turn early on.

Eamon Dunphy and George Hook kissing each other.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has spoken out about the retirements of John Dalton and Cha Fitzpatrick from the Kilkenny panel — and expressed his wish to see Lar Corbett back on the playing field.

“It’s an epidemic,” said Michael Kavanagh yesterday, as news that John Dalton — citing work commitments — became the latest Kilkenny player to retire from the 2011 panel.

Irish boxing has gone from strength to strength over the past decade and more, medals galore won at European, World and Olympic level.

ONE of the pleasures of writing in these pages this past year was the opportunity to get an extensive one-to-one interview with Henry Shefflin.

YOU wouldn’t have caught it on the telly, the director either choosing to go to a replay or onto something else, but when Henry Shefflin scored his first point from play on Sunday and later shouldered a Tipperary back over the sideline for a Kilkenny lineball, he gave a little jump and animatedly fisted the air.

I HOPE we’ll have a continuation tomorrow of the kind of entertainment we saw between Limerick and Cork in the Munster U21 final on Wednesday night.

USUALLY players are castigated for turning down the chance to play for the senior county team. It becomes a death knell for their career and the controversy usually doesn’t relent.

BACK a couple of years ago, when that ‘If Teams Were a Pop Star/Item of Clothing/Car’ concept beloved of newspaper sports sections was at its height, someone — it might even have been yours truly — declared that if Kilkenny were a film character they’d be The Terminator.

IT’S almost unfortunate Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh isn’t commentating on Sunday’s Allianz HL Division 1 final. He would have been in his element reciting the native counties of the Dublin players’ parents.

SOMETHING strange happened at Croke Park last Thursday week. Five points up and sucking diesel approaching half-time in the All-Ireland club final, O’Loughlin Gaels were blown out of it in the second half and eventually lost by 12 points to Clarinbridge. In doing so they became the third Kilkenny team to lose an All-Ireland club final in recent weeks.

KILKENNY came to Pearse Stadium yesterday looking to preserve the only 100% record in the top division of the Allianz Hurling League, and after an explosive opening four minutes they were very much on track to do exactly that.

FIVE turned out to be an unlucky number in Kilkenny again as reigning champions Ballyhale Shamrocks were dumped out of the championship courtesy of a late goal by Niall McEvoy in a thrilling second semi-final at Nowlan Park yesterday.

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.

IT was a grey day in Croke Park yesterday for this All-Ireland hurling final, damp and dull with light rain sporadically falling on a stadium already shrouded in mist – that’s for the weather-watchers however.

ALL-IRELAND final, and in my usual habit I visited both camps.

1. Kilkenny Goals

ONE thing Galway can’t complain about going into this Leinster final is a lack of games – in fact they have more big matches played than Kilkenny, three to one.

“I’M back, flying fit, top of me form actually at the moment.”

MAYO boss John O’Mahony has dropped full-forward Aidan O’Shea as he hands out four championship debuts and makes five changes in personnel from the NFL Division 1 final loss to Cork, for Saturday’s Connacht SFC quarter-final against Sligo in Markievicz Park.

HOW did Portumna change so much from their last three appearances in Croke Park?

WHATEVER about the quality of the match – and it wasn’t the classic generally forecast – let no-one be in any doubt about the quality of this Ballyhale Shamrocks team, nor their right today to call themselves the best hurling club in Ireland.

WHEN IS a five-point margin not a five-point margin?

FOR Cha Fitzpatrick and his colleagues on the Ballyhale Shamrocks hurling team who take the field in Croke Park this afternoon against Portumna, February 22, 2009 is a day of infamy in this proud and hurling-mad Kilkenny parish.

A THIRD win for unbeaten Cork in the National Hurling League, a second defeat for Kilkenny – is hurling witnessing a turning of the tide?

WHAT an outstanding advert for the National Hurling League this was.

AND STILL we learn, as Goya said.

Tomorrow: All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final: Newtownshandrum (Cork) v Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny), Thurles, 2.30pm.

MOST people may be counting down the days to Christmas, but Cha Fitzpatrick and Ballyhale Shamrocks are already looking beyond the festive period to the New Year and a shot at redemption.

ANOTHER Leinster final, another trophy for Kilkenny.

THAT green and gold machine keeps rolling on.

THE Kilkenny SHC final certainly didn’t live up to its top billing before 8,000 spectators at Nowlan Park yesterday.