End of an era or the start of one?

WELL, Emerson said the best period to be born in is when the old and the new stand side by side (Ralph Emerson, by the way; not Hughie).

Croke Park yesterday saw the new stand down on the old. In front of 42,030 spectators Dublin beat Kilkenny by 12 points in the Allianz League final, and you have your pick of emblematic moments: try Conal Keaney’s towering late point from the halfway line, when he overcame a swirling wind which had confounded every player until then. That attendance is a fluid figure, by the way.

Galway hammered Cavan in the All-Ireland U21 football final curtain-raiser and the large northern support, understandably, trailed out after that trouncing.