By last Wednesday, John Meyler needed to rinse away the weekend. Extra-time. Defeat to Limerick. The long hours on the motorway back from Croke Park.

Despite winning 32 Cork senior hurling titles, Blackrock have only won four county U21 championships.

It started out over a decade ago as a plan to expose youngsters in West Waterford to an elite standard of colleges hurling.

IT is always an unenviable and invidious exercise to compare teams and players of different eras.