FOGARTY FORUM: Why the rulebook needs to be followed

Top level hurling these days can read like the lyrics of that Bob Dylan song: broken fingers, broken ash, broken kneecaps, broken feet, broken ribs. Everything is broken.

It seems almost the calling card of what’s deemed a fine game — something has to be fractured.

Or some blood shed at least. As some of Kilkenny’s players hung around on the Nowlan Park pitch to sign autographs and pose for photographs on Sunday, the battle signs as much as the smiles were obvious.