What a difference a week makes...

THE TWO games I saw this weekend – Tullamore on Saturday and Tipperary against Clare in Limerick yesterday – have restored my faith in hurling.

Those are the kind of matches hurling needs, close, hard, down to the wire. I didn’t see Waterford’s win over Limerick but I believe both teams atoned for the awful match we saw in the draw last week, while Dublin/Wexford also seems to have been a fine game.

On the evidence of this weekend, hurling is in fine fettle. An immaculately prepared Gaelic Grounds in Limerick also yesterday, just as in Tullamore on Saturday evening, a credit to Willie and his ground staff, and a word also for Jim Forbes, the Munster PRO, efficient as always. Finally, and I’m not going to leave this to the end, where I normally deal with the referee: I know James Owens came a long way, from Wexford, but it was worth the journey. He did an excellent job, applied the advantage rule really well.