Waterford wakes up to 2013 without one of its greatest sporting heroes.

You go up the stairs to the bar in the Mount Sion clubhouse, turn at the landing, and you face a large photograph by the doors at the top.

There was a time within living memory when the Railway Cup was a big deal.

FRANKIE WALSH was a high-scoring half forward on a magnificent Waterford hurling team but though his honours are great, they are not the whole man.

Tommy O’Connell was chatting to a couple of friends in the Croke Park Hotel an hour or two before last year’s All-Ireland final when Jimmy Magee passed by. One of the friends buttonholed Magee and, pointing to O’Connell, asked him why this man had a place in hurling history.

JUST imagine what it is like to be singled out on a regular basis as being the last man to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup for your county.

IT’S 50 years since Waterford won an All-Ireland. I didn’t see that one, but I did see many of those Waterford players, the likes of Tom Cheasty, Larry Guinan, Philly Grimes, Austin Flynn, Frankie Walsh, Ned Power, Seamus Power, Martin Óg Morrissey – they were big men, in every sense, great hurlers, part of a great hurling team.

BELIEF is the thing, isn’t it? Belief comes before everything. Is there anybody out there who would genuinely back against Kilkenny winning the All-Ireland hurling title tomorrow.

THERE are those who say we’re in enjoying a golden age in hurling now, but it’s not the first.

TRACTON made it hat-trick of wins over Carrigtwohill in the county Premier IHC with a deserved two-point victory over the East Cork side in a keenly contested first round tie at Páirc Uí Rinn last night.

GAA President Sean Kelly said yesterday he would not rule out the possibility of hurlers switching from stronger to weaker counties in an effort to raise the overall standards of the game.

THE GAA is optimistic that the Government is prepared to give formal recognition to the game of hurling by grant-aiding it as a separate entity from Gaelic football.

FORMER All-Ireland SHC winning captains will be presented with magnificent Waterford Crystal replicas of the Liam McCarthy Cup at a function next month.