Our writers pick out the main talking points from the weekend’s Allianz League action.

There was no handshake between the managers when this ended.

It’s not that Clare’s opening salvo in this year’s National League was a box-ticking exercise, but as soon as the final whistle sounded to signal this facile 16-point victory it’s safe to say that everyone of a saffron and blue hue was moving towards next Sunday’s mouth-watering clash with Wexford.

It was no surprise that new Clare hurling boss, Brian Lohan, picked a player in his own likeness as captain for the year ahead. John Conlon may inhabit a different end of the field than the Banner legend did during his playing days, but the differences between the two end there.

Kilkenny full-back Huw Lawlor wants to see his side get their NHL campaign off to a winning start against Dublin this weekend.

Clare star John Conlon says the panel has been energised by the arrival of new manager Brian Lohan, though he feels the outgoing management team of Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney were “disrespected”.

Almost all of Tipperary’s 2018 hard luck stories disappeared into the ether last Sunday.

Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird has always acted as a sounding board for my thoughts on management and life in general.

Cork manager John Meyler says preparations are complete for tomorrow’s Munster SHC clash with Clare — so what are his Saturday evening plans?

There’s so much to be taken from those famous lyrics to the adopted Munster anthem ‘Stand Up and Fight’.

For our purposes this game should have been played at High Noon, because all week we were hearing that this would be a western classic.

The Clare roar was nowhere to be heard yesterday as the relative silence of Cusack Park in the second half was eventually broken by chants of “Tipp, Tipp, Tipp”.

I’ve had better weekends. Spurs and Clare. Big dreams. Big plans. All ending in dust.

After the same county lifted the MacCarthy Cup on seven occasions in the noughties, the decade that followed was always going to be more democratic.

Waterford manager Páraic Fanning is adamant their Munster championship campaign is far from over, even though the Déise will likely need points from their remaining three games to finish in the top three.

Such was the good form of Donal Moloney at the finish that the Clare joint-manager even had time for a parting joke.

With The Sunday Game 40 years old this year, I was asked to pick my highlight for a short clip which was aired during yesterday’s live show from Cork.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

Castlelyons’ Niall O’Leary is the new face in the named Cork team to take on Tipperary in Sunday’s Munster SHC Round 1 clash as John Meyler goes with 13 of the team that were defeated by Limerick in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

Clare's hurlers will be without three key players for the Championship.

Clare’s Munster and All-Ireland hurling ambitions have been significantly compromised by the loss of a trio of players for what appears to be the entirety of the championship season.

When Henry Shefflin talked up Limerick’s All-Ireland credentials earlier this week, he kept referencing the spine of their team.

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.

Yesterday in Cusack Park was a pick ‘n’ mix of everything the league can give you. High scores and stirring comebacks, spectacular goals, and lapses in concentration. Something for everyone in the audience.

For those spilling out of Páirc Uí Rinn as the rain closed in on Saturday evening, one question dominated conversations.

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

Clare hurling joint manager Gerry O’Connor has identified a trio of national league games that he thinks will prime the Banner for a tilt at the Munster championship next summer.

There’s usually less debate about the hurling All-Stars than you get with the football All-Stars.

On Monday evening just past, probably after a few of them would have seen footage of a brawl below in Kerry on their Twitter feed on their way out the door, the 2018 Clare senior county hurling champions Ballyea returned to the Local Inn, where for the second consecutive night they were welcomed by a special constituency of people.

YESTERDAY’S events in Thurles told us more about a man who wasn’t on the field than one who was. If anybody was in doubt about the Westmeath man taking charge of the All-Ireland final, they aren’t now.

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.

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.

In this era of marginal gains, the GAA has made its own with the implementation of HawkEye. There can be little doubt it had a valuable impact to the feast of hurling produced last weekend.

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.

Éamonn Fitzmaurice shipped some criticism last week when he reintroduced Paul Geaney against Monaghan after a disappointing initial foray for the Dingle man.

Some of the talking points from this weekend's GAA action.

Enda McEvoy look at the key takeaways from the weekend's action...

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

First All-Ireland quarter-final win in five years. First time heading back to Croke Park in five years. Redemption for a Munster final that didn’t go to plan. Visible progress — at long, long last.

For 2018 to be deemed a progressive and successful year for the Clare hurlers, then an All-Ireland semi-final has to be reached, according to Frank Lohan.

They hadn’t even put the cup in the front of the bus when John Meyler began sizing up Cork’s next assignment.

Stephen Barry picks out three talking points from yesterday's Munster final in Thurles...