Johnny Ryan is in line to referee next month’s All-Ireland senior hurling final. The Tipperary man is understood to face competition from Wexford’s James Owens.

Waterford delegates are set to support the one-on-one penalty motion put forward by the Hurling 2020 committee at GAA Congress in Cavan later this month.

The GAA will undertake a recruitment drive to increase the number of inter-county hurling referees.

I only caught up with the Setanta Sports series about referees recently, and it was well worth the effort.

Davy Fitzgerald claims he has been inundated with messages from outside Clare expressing criticism of referee Brian Gavin’s performance in Sunday’s All-Ireland drawn final.

August 18 will go down as the day Hawk-Eye went down in Croke Park and it could turn out to be as historic as the day it was debuted in June.

As the heatwave continues, so does the hurling wave. Here are the most recent bringers of joy

Michael Collins has become the second Cork referee to be dropped off the GAA’s championship panel.

Three high-profile hurling referees have been dropped from this year’s championship panel.

Tipperary 2-17 Kilkenny 1-19

Kilkenny 4-16 Limerick 1-16

Limerick 6-21 Laois 1-11

Cork selector Ger Cunningham says players and managers are looking for hurling referees to be more consistent in their officiating.

New-time arrived in sun-splashed Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday, the clocks all gone forward an hour, but it felt almost like old times as a young Cork side managed by Jimmy Barry-Murphy and hurling with skill, pace and intelligence, raised the spirits of a near 8,000 crowd with a hard-earned but well-deserved win over the old enemy, Kilkenny.

UCC, the hosts and favourites, booked their place in today’s Fitzgibbon Cup final and in the process set up the first all-Cork college decider in the history of the event.

LIMERICK’S new hurling manager is set to be ratified in time for next Tuesday’s county board meeting.

THERE were several shocks around the country yesterday but perhaps the biggest was in Limerick where Na Piarsaigh claimed their first county title with a 2-18 to 0-13 win over Ahane at the Gaelic Grounds.

WEXFORD have upped their campaign to introduce the clock/hooter motion to the GAA.

RECENT meetings against Tipperary in the U21 grade have been painful experiences for Cork with extra-time defeats in the last two years but the memories of those clashes were erased courtesy of a powerful winning performance in last night’s Bord Gáis Energy Munster U21HC semi-final in Semple Stadium.

Limerick 1-22 Wexford 2-13

FERMANAGH captain Barry Owens has sensationally claimed there were county board officials wishing the team were going to be beaten by London in last Saturday’s All-Ireland qualifier.

JOE CANNING has said the former Galway players who slammed the current team were wrong to question their mental fortitude.

IT’S hard to see anything funny about a proud hurling county and proud hurling men being disparaged as Galway and its manager and players have in recent days.

Dublin 0-19 Galway 2-07

KILKENNY paid a heavy price for their ill-discipline in last Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final when two of their players were hit with suspensions for unsavoury incidents during the Croke Park game.

WEXFORD clubs are likely to step up their campaign to have the hooter introduced into gaelic games after the county board’s monthly meeting this evening.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody spoke out in support of Eoin Larkin following his sending-off in yesterday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final at Croke Park.

WELL, Emerson said the best period to be born in is when the old and the new stand side by side (Ralph Emerson, by the way; not Hughie).

BRIAN CODY last night defended his Kilkenny team’s discipline in the face of Eoin Larkin’s sending off and a couple of other extreme exchanges involving his players during their 0-22 to 1-7 defeat to Dublin in yesterday’s Allianz Hurling Division 1 final.

UL 1-17 Limerick IT 2-11

Cork 1-20 Offaly 1-15, Pairc Ui Chaoimh

IT MAY have taken a late quality point from full-forward Keith Hogan to save UCD’s bacon in this thrilling Fitzgibbon Cup game at WIT’s Carriganore venue yesterday, but it was well deserved on a day hurling itself was the real winner.

2009 All Stars 10-8 2010 All Stars 9-11

DE LA Salle stormed to a second Waterford senior hurling title yesterday, reversing their group stages defeat at the hands of Ballygunner as they ran out easy winners in Walsh Park.

IT WASN’T just the slate-grey skies and buffeting wind which created the chilly, sterile atmosphere that followed Sunday’s All-Ireland final in Croke Park.

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.

WATERFORD’S Michael Wadding last night expressed delight after his appointment as referee for the All-Ireland SHC final between Kilkenny and Tipperary on September 5.

The GAA has confirmed the referees and match officials for the All-Ireland Senior and Minor Hurling Championship finals at Croke Park on September 5.

Carlow 1-19 Laois 3-12, Dr Cullen Park

UCC 0-19 Limerick 2-9

PRIDE restored and his own record of never having lost a game in Wexford intact. However, as euphoric as the Limerick hurling manager was in the aftermath of this hard-fought qualifier win in terrible weather in Wexford Park on Saturday, Justin McCarthy’s experience in the game was alerting him to bigger challenges next weekend.