Watching both teams warming up, I zeroed in on the goalkeepers.

It now seems with every week that the GAA are being given more reason to cut down on the numbers populating the sidelines.

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

In the BBC hit comedy Dad’s Army the butcher Corporal Jones always carried a bayonet. When asked why, his answer was ‘They don’t like it up ‘em’.

Richard Stakelum is positive Tipperary will stick with tradition and find a new hurling manager from within the county borders, even if there is no blindingly obvious choice to succeed Michael Ryan at the helm.

Last Sunday, the Thurles version of Hawk-Eye was, regrettably, at it again.

While he was still in his early 20s, but sometime after he’d blazed onto the scene winning back-to-back Wimbledon titles, Boris Becker indicated just how worldly and weary he already was by that point. 

Ciaran Fitzgerald was captain of the Ireland rugby team back in 1985 when they were going for the Triple Crown. Ireland and England were deadlocked at 10 points apiece and a draw would have ended Ireland’s ambitions. Fitzgerald famously asked his teammates “where’s your ‘effing’ pride” before an important lineout. 

Tipperary’s GAA chairman Michael Bourke has called for changes to the way in which the GAA/GPA players of the year are selected.

Five years of failure clearly didn’t sit well with Tipperary but the task facing Michael Ryan and his squad as they digest the consequences of Sunday’s epic and epochal All-Ireland final defeat of Kilkenny is how to deal with such a victory.

Our writers reflect on what has, so far, been an underwhelming hurling championship...

Yesterday in Thurles was my first time involved in a Munster final since I captained Clare in the 1999 decider against Cork.

Recently-retired Tipperary defender Paul Curran has accepted a position on manager Eamon O’Shea’s backroom team for the championship summer.

Clare may be anchored to the foot of Division 1A but Davy Fitzgerald insisted that Sunday’s display against Tipperary was his side’s best of the Allianz League season.

In case you’re understandably excited about the dawn of another hurling season to the point of relishing its league, apologies to temporarily provide a bit of a dampener, or a bit of context, or at least someone else’s perspective, writes Kieran Shannon.

TIPPERARY SHC FINAL:

Let me tell you somethin’, the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.

It is one of the great inconveniences hindering daily newspapers; the inability to postpone our All-Ireland final verdicts until Up For The Match is over.

Tipperary set up an All-Ireland final date with neighbours and arch rivals Kilkenny after seeing off one of their other traditional foes with surprising ease at Croke Park.

Donal O’Grady’s shock departure from the Limerick camp wouldn’t be lulling Tipperary selector Michael Ryan into a false sense of security ahead of their Munster Senior Hurling Championship meeting on June 1.

Tipperary star Brendan Maher has called on the Premier County’s young guns to step up to the plate following the retirement of 38-year-old goalkeeper Brendan Cummins.

Both Cork and Tipperary will field players making their first Allianz Hurling League starts when they meet in tomorrow's Division 1A opener at Páirc Uí Rinn (throw-in 7pm).

Shane McGrath insists he would never have been made Tipperary captain had they not removed the county champions rule.

Hurling superstar Lar Corbett and his new wife jet off to Rome today on honeymoon.

Tipperary 4-19 Clare 1-19