Talk of a new era may have been premature

Kenny Rogers probably put it best in one of his early songs. Before The Gambler, I mean. In the sixties one of his better efforts began with this line: I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.

Well, you want the condition of the hurling championship to be competitive, don’t you? Course you do.

Yesterday’s All-Ireland quarter-finals in Thurles had all the accoutrements of a big championship Sunday: groaning terraces (the crowd was 43,088). Traffic chaos. Cold refreshment needed early and often. Was it competitive? In the first game, that turned out to be subject to licence rather than a guarantee, a 24-point winning margin for Limerick. We’ll come back to that. Reluctantly.