Feverish Saturday night ahead for Cork and Clare

It struck me over the weekend that there have only been three out of the last 26 years that I haven’t been involved in inter-county hurling, as either a player or manager.

This weekend was obviously going to be different but I still crammed in as much hurling as I could. I was in Cork on Saturday night and Clarecastle yesterday morning. I caught the tail end of Clarecastle U16 training before watching part of a challenge game between Clare and Laois minors. Some habits are hard to kick.

Still, I got a great night’s sleep on Saturday. Instead of thinking about formations and opposition players that could cause you rack, I was able to switch off and relax. All I had to worry about was being on the road to Galway in good time because I knew the traffic would be animal.