There he goes, the man who changed hurling history

BEFORE anything else, just consider this brief sample of the fare yesterday.

Right after half-time, Brendan Maher of Tipperary soloed out of defence and performed a trick beloved of schoolboys everywhere: he flipped the ball over a Kilkenny man’s head, straight off the bas of his hurley, killing it as it came down on the far side of his opponent.

When he hit the ball upfield, Kilkenny’s Tommy Walsh responded with a sumptuous outlet ball to Jackie Tyrrell, hitting the sliotar down into the ground to take the pace off it.