Clare’s Jamie Shanahan has been ruled out of the Munster senior hurling championship after undergoing surgery to alleviate a long-standing back issue.

We are a week into Munster Championship Lent. The 40 days and 40 nights before the start of the Munster SHC on May 12 commenced last Tuesday.

Shane O’Donnell has rejoined the Clare senior hurling panel following his return from Harvard University last week.

If truth be told, Colm Galvin is more concerned about the keenness to stamp out thrown passes than the directive to referees to get tougher on high tackles, which Tony Kelly seemingly fell foul of last Saturday week.

The scoreline suggests a rip-roaring contest but that is a false reading.

At the end of the match yesterday, I shook hands with Michael Lyster. It may be my last time doing a live TV game with Michael, who retires from RTÉ at the end of this year, and I wanted to acknowledge his help to me, and his absolute professionalism, over the years.

Corner-back on Clare’s all-conquering teams in 1995 and 1997, but now resident across the border in Oranmore, home of Galway centre-back Gearóid McInerney, Frank Lohan is well-placed to tackle the main questions heading into tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final replay between the two counties.

He’d know plenty about it already but the last couple of trips up the M18 from Ennis have given Louis Mulqueen great insight into the Galway psyche.

Clare were poxed to get a draw with Galway in the 1999 All-Ireland quarter-final. 

Is it us? Is it Galway? Is it six of one and half a dozen of the other?

Some hurling matches resonate far more than others, with a draw doubly eloquent.

Over half a century ago Harold MacMillan reduced all of politics to those four words. Even now it’ll have to do as a description of Galway-Clare on Saturday evening.

What an amazing spectacle in Thurles yesterday and James McGrath can believe he contributed to it, writes Brian Gavin.

The Munster crown weighed heavy on Cork’s head last year but it shouldn’t be a burden this time around.

There was a delay in Cork’s return to proceedings after half-time yesterday. They had gone in four points behind, but it could have been more. Cork used the time well at the break and were a different outfit in the second period.

Let’s get the moany bits, all the more relevant after the week that was in it, out of the way quickly.

David Reidy is also named to start having had his controversial red card from the Limerick game rescinded.

There’s a touch of the 2013 momentum building behind Clare and Cork will need to thread extremely carefully in Semple Stadium next Sunday as they attempt to retain the Munster SHC title.

Of all the big stories that have emerged from the new look Munster championship in recent weeks, Clare haven’t been one of them.

ON Wednesday, Seánie McMahon, Liam Doyle and I sat down with John Fogarty, of this parish, in Dromoland Castle. We rolled back the good times, regaled ourselves with old stories and rekindled those magical flames which burned in our hearts throughout our Clare careers (the details of the conversation appear elsewhere on the Irish Examiner website today).

The Munster SHC will boil down to whichever team has put in place the most effective recovery programme for between games, Clare joint-manager Gerry O’Connor has insisted.

Jamesie O’Connor believes the GAA has scored an own goal with their decision to play the Munster and Leinster senior hurling finals on the same day this summer.

Meanwhile, Tipperary hurling manager Michael Ryan has handed a first league start to corner-forward Cian Darcy.

That’s why this league is about more than just accumulating points. Because accumulating lessons and experience is often just as important, writes Anthony Daly

Clare 0-23 Cork 0-19: First of all, disregard the scoreline. This was anything but a four-point contest.

Clare 4-17 Cork 0-18: The Munster Council have brought forward the Munster SHL final between Clare and Limerick by one week to avoid the counties meeting on successive weekends.

Derek McGrath has criticised the “sweeper” characterisation of Waterford on RTÉ’s Up For The Match programme on Saturday.

Derek McGrath has criticised the “sweeper” characterisation of Waterford on RTÉ’s Up For The Match programme on Saturday.

Today’s game is all about the opposing full-back and full-forward units, writes Donal O’Grady.

Lacking immediate inter-county action to contemplate, I got thinking about tangles subsumed under the heading ‘tactics’. 

Cork manager Kieran Kingston must be very pleased with this Munster Championship win. The final was a different game to the earlier wins by the Rebels.

Having Dónal Óg Cusack on board is a big advantage, especially with Clare’s need to shut down Anthony Nash’s puckouts, particularly to Conor Lehane, writes Anthony Daly.

Two memories from the night of the 2005 All Stars. The Fat Frogs and my hot date.

Tomorrow’s encounter with the Banner will be a horse of a different colour to the previous two outings and will be the Rebels’ toughest game to date, writes Donal O’Grady.

If there’s a message Clare want to get across, it’s that they know their support will be outnumbered on Sunday.

Five Things We Found Out

The eternal tension arises between tradition and innovation. What we’ve always done, what we need to do now, and the trouble encountered in moving from one of those positions to the other.

Nobody knows our troubles but God. Not exactly the words of Clare co-manager Gerry O’Connor after this game but close enough.

A superior Clare qualified for their first Munster final in nine years but not without difficulty as a combination of poor shooting and Limerick’s tenacity made them sweat until the end.

Limerick are as skilful as the rest, however in championship speed is king, writes Donal O’Grady.