IT BEGAN inauspiciously, a delayed start due to events elsewhere, then a two-point advantage conceded to Tipperary in the opening eight minutes – it could even have been more but for a save by Donal Óg Cusack from Lar Corbett that went out for a 65, converted by Eoin Kelly.

IT had promised to be a great final of romantic proportions.

Kilkenny hurling legend Henry Shefflin will this year bid to join an elite band of just two players at the top of the leader-board for GAA All-Stars after being nominated for his ninth award last night.

Despite this trouncing of a relegated Laois side in Cashel, Tipperary have to settle for a place in the Division 1 quarter-finals.

Eoin Kelly was again to the fore as Tipperary got through to the Munster SHC final, holding Waterford at bay at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

THE whiff of cordite may have evaporated from this clash compared to the encounters of the late eighties, but Galway-Tipperary tomorrow promises more for the neutral than the game that follows it.

The notion that goals win matches rung true at a rain-sodden Gaelic Grounds today as two in the space of two first half minutes from Lar Corbett and Micheal Webster saw Tipperary's Munster SHC tilt remain on course.

Wexford accounted for Carlow with ease at Croke Park this afternoon as three first-half goals helped Pat Roe's men into a Leinster SFC semi-final against either Dublin or Meath.