Michael Moynihan has rung all the juries, collated all the votes, and accepted all the bribes.

The throb and womp from the Marquee provided the mood music, literally, on Saturday night to the end of an odd week in the hurling championship.

Summer certainly hasn’t started temperature-wise but from a refereeing perspective it did yesterday. The games in Cavan and Kilkenny swung the Championship into life.

On Saturday, the Cork supporters club, Cairde Chorcaí, had a Q&A for premium patrons, mostly Cork supporters, prior to the senior game.

Cork cruised past troubled Waterford in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, eventually winning by 13 points.

Head high tackles are what the GAA have been keen to crack down on this summer but the application of the rule regarding them over the weekend left a lot to be desired.

Limerick's summer looks a good deal brighter after this afternoon's Munster Championship duties in Walsh Park but the real story was the manner in which Waterford's descended from gloomy into pitch black.

Michael Walsh’s appearance in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2017 was, including replays, his 12th on that stage.

Jason Forde hit 1-9 as Tipperary shook off a sluggish mid-game spell to leave 14-man Waterford on the brink of a Munster Championship exit.

John Meyler has reacted to Cork’s defeat to Tipperary by making four changes for tomorrow’s Munster SHC Round 2 in the LIT Gaelic Grounds.

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.

This past year I’ve gone back to college to study sports science and yesterday morning I had to hand in an assignment.

Not exactly get out of jail but Waterford gave Galway the slip thanks to a slack second-half from the Tribesmen in Nowlan Park.

Waterford 1-18 Galway 0-19

The seamless manner in which Waterford’s new hurling management has clicked with the players augers well for a third league final appearance in five years, according to former Déise defender Brian Flannery.

Waterford cruised to a win in this NHL quarter-final, with the 2,753 in attendance rewarded with an entertaining first half that gave way to a second-half stroll for the home side.

There’s only one possible starting point in any Waterford hurling conversation this week: Last Sunday’s trick sideline cut, when Waterford were trying to reel in Galway’s lead in their rescheduled Allianz Hurling League clash.

A 74th minute strike from Shane Bennett decided a game of two halves in stormy weather at Walsh Park this afternoon.

So far, so good for Paraic Fanning in Division 1B of the Allianz League.

A cold and calculated performance from Waterford on a perishing afternoon in Thurles.

Clare will face Tipperary in the Co-Op Superstores Munster SHL final, having beaten Waterford in Fraher Field, Dungarvan in front of 3,039 spectators.

Derek McGrath is discussing the sanctity of the dressing room. It couldn’t be more important now as seemingly everyone but John Mullane has them down to be also-rans in Munster this year.

The Allianz Hurling League concluded yesterday with a resurgent Kilkenny upsetting the odds against favourites Tipperary, writes Donal O’Grady.

They shared the unenviable tag of bridesmaids last year although Derek McGrath sees plenty to admire in Mayo from a Waterford perspective.

Derek McGrath believes Austin Gleeson was too hard on himself in assessing his championship performances last year.

Waterford manager Derek McGrath has confirmed that attacker Shane Bennett is taking a break from inter-county hurling, though he hopes the Ballysaggart man may return to the panel next spring, writes Michael Moynihan.

What’s another year? That is the rhetorical question the GAA hierarchy are asking as a motion to change the U21 All-Ireland hurling championship to U20 to fall into line with Gaelic football is being prepared.

Waterford went a point up ten minutes into the second half. It had been tit for tat in the second period, but from that point on Galway had the scoring power to creep ahead and the experience to see out the game.

From a distance, the world looks maroon and white this morning.

Another September. Dreams fled away, as Thomas Kinsella used to say.

Not many counties have managed the full set in the one calendar year but this was all about the moment Galway captain David Burke trotted up the steps of the Hogan Stand just after five o’clock and raised the last bit of silverware high above his head.

Donal O’Grady gives his tactical breakdown of an intriguing All-Ireland final.

This year will surely go down in hurling lore as the Year of the Helmet. In an All-Ireland series marked by contentious helmet incidents, Austin Gleeson last weekend saw fit to give us one more: right in front of a linesman and right in front of a camera, arguably the most clear-cut incident yet.

For the 72,022 in attendance and those in the southeast corner of the country, the small print may not be as important as the headlines, so we’ll start with the big takeaway from yesterday’s game, writes Michael Moynihan.

The sweeper system works

Two goals in the space of a second-half minute sent Waterford into their first All-Ireland final in nine years, their seventh in total, as Cork were left to rue Damien Cahalane’s 51st minute red card, writes John Fogarty.

Here’s a rough head count of items on the agenda this morning.

Wexford were outwitted and outworked by a Waterford team who will feel there is still plenty in them after this handsome win, writes John Fogarty.