Tommy Martin: Days like Sunday make everyone wistful for wilder, simpler times

Why do days like Sunday in Semple Stadium summon up the ghosts of the past?

MUNSTER MADNESS: It was real, proper Munster Championship Hurling last Sunday. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Noel McGrath was in nostalgic mood at full-time in Thurles last Sunday, but then he had just watched his kid brother stroke over the equalising point in Tipperary’s barn burner with Limerick.

“Who doesn’t love this?” Noel said, cradling the man of the match crystal in the early summer drizzle. “It’s a throwback to the mid-2000s when you had packed stadiums and Munster Championship matches with everything on the line. This is the exact same now so I don’t think anyone will be complaining. We’ll dust ourselves down tonight and tomorrow and we’ll go again.”