Clare 3-26 Offaly 0-15

Members of the Clare hurling panel are asked to inform Davy Fitzgerald when they are going on a night out, the 2013 All-Ireland winning-manager has revealed.

Seoirse Bulfin spent a dozen years on the sideline with Davy Fitzgerald in Limerick Institute of Technology, so when Fitzgerald took Waterford over, he brought Bulfin along. Now Bulfin coaches Clare, another Fitzgerald-managed side.

If he’s sick of hearing about 2014, he hides it well. Colin Ryan collected an All-Ireland senior hurling medal with Clare in 2013 but last season the Banner couldn’t raise a gallop.

Alone, Shane O’Donnell may well stand as Clare’s sole full-forward line representative in Thurles on Sunday but as he showed in the relegation play-off in Kilkenny last month when he gave no less a defender than Paul Murphy a long afternoon it suits him to a tee.

Brendan Cummins isn’t just an emerging coach with his work with the goalkeepers of Laois and Kerry; he’s also one of hurling’s younger and more insightful analysts.

The longest-standing proponent of the one v one penalty in hurling insists it should only be awarded if a referee adjudges a foul has denied a certain goal.

A defiant Davy Fitzgerald claimed Clare were too good to be relegated and were the better team in Nowlan Park yesterday.

Apart from being pointless after three games, if Clare ever needed a win they were never more desperate for a result after Davy O’Halloran’s comments in a newspaper interview on Saturday morning.

Clare 2-20 Waterford 0-17

Clare have included just two of their All-Ireland winning team in their side for tomorrow’s Waterford Crystal Cup quarter-final against Limerick in Sixmilebridge.

Sixmilebridge 1-11 Clonlara 0-11

He will go down in the All-Ireland hurling final annals alongside Joe Canning but, in all honesty, Domhnall O’Donovan didn’t know much about his point that was heard all around the hurling world.

While lesser lights will be hoping to get back in the big time, Cork and Clare are fighting to stay there

Tipperary 3-19 Clare 1-14

Building, building, building, that’s Clare hurling over the last few years under Davy Fitzgerald, according to midfielder Nicky O’Connell, as a new generation of top-class hurlers are coming through.

Coming into this game I gave Clare a great chance to win for two reasons: I didn’t think Kilkenny were impressive against either Tipperary, Galway or even in their win against Waterford; Kilkenny were missing so many front-line players.

The last time Cork hurlers appeared in Páirc Uí Rinn they served up champagne style hurling when defeating Tipperary.

Clare 1-22 Cork 1-16

CLARE boss Davy Fitzgerald has set training limits for his players in a bid to keep them fresh.

Clare have been hit by an injury crisis as they prepare for their first game back in the top flight of the National League this weekend.

Waterford Crystal Cup semi-final: CLARE 0-20 CORK 2-11

Clare 2-18 Limerick 0-18

Champions Crusheen crashed out of the Clare SHC when Inagh-Kilnamona beat them in Saturday’s quarter-final at Cusack Park, Ennis on a scoreline of 4-10 to 1-17.

Wolfe Tones na Sionna made it two wins out of two when they defeated St Breckan’s at Corofin in the Clare SFC yesterday.

He’s living in Limerick these days, in Castleconnell, the heartland of Ahane hurling, he’s married to a Limerick woman, he’s still earning his corn in a different sport, but Marcus Horan’s heart is still in Clare and still in hurling.

When wing-back Nicky O’Connell picked up his second yellow card in just the 37th minute of this hurling qualifier in Ennis on Saturday evening it should have signalled the end for Clare.

Banner boss bemoans fact his young side will have a little time to prepare for phase three test.

Sitting on a couple of stacked pews in Cusack Park’s covered stand tunnel, John Conlon and Niall Corcoran shot the breeze.

Clare 1-16 Dublin 0-16

Both Cork and Offaly have made changes for Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC Phase II qualifier at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Both Clare and Waterford deserve massive credit for the effort and commitment on display in Thurles on Sunday.

A superb Munster senior hurling championship semi-final in balmy Semple Stadium yesterday, with drama right at the death as Waterford’s championship debutant Stephen O’Keeffe saved a rifled 20m free from Clare custodian Patrick Kelly in the final act of the game to deny the Banner men a victory they had been favoured to achieve.

The greatest pity about this game in Semple Stadium yesterday — and I make no apology to anyone for hitting on this point again — is that there were only 12,000 there to see it.

Clare 1-18 Waterford 2-17

It’s time logic began to enter the thinking of the GAA. We have two huge hurling games tomorrow but at venues 50 miles apart.

Kilkenny 1-20 Clare 0-14

Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald and his Limerick counterpart John Allen had a hot little ‘tete-a-tete’ on the sidelines of this Allianz Hurling League Division 1B final at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening.

I’VE been saying in recent weeks that this league was almost a non-contact sport but that all changed in the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night.

Limerick 1-16 Clare 0-21

Clare 0-20 Antrim 0-12

A bright start and a driving finish ensured Tipperary took the Waterford Crystal Cup home with them from Sixmilebridge yesterday, beating Clare by six points in the end thanks to their greater accuracy.

A virtuoso display from teenage star Declan Hannon denied Clare a merited home win in Sixmilebridge in a marathon Waterford Crystal quarter-final on Saturday evening.