Lesson learned by smarter Crusheen

THIS was a day that highlighted the beauty of the club championship.

On the field, we witnessed two teams who haven’t a great history of success battling it out in a big stadium in a Munster semi-final. And off the field, we had the pleasure of meeting Tom McNamara one of the great characters, not just of the GAA but of rural Ireland, a man who ate, drank, slept, dreamed, lived and breathed Crusheen all his life.

This was the man who remarked after the controversial skirmish at the start of the 1998 Munster final replay between Clare and Waterford — “sure I often saw more pushing and shoving coming out of second Mass in Crusheen!”