Eamon O'Shea: It ain't the hope that kills. It's the hope that thrills

People often ask me for goal scoring drills, as if there is some magic potion that helps transform attacking play. If only that were true...

CRASH...: In any team's search for three-pointers, it helps when you have a lad at 14 who doesn't mind which way the ball comes in him - the exampla gratis being Cork's Brian Hayes. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Leaving Croke Park after the All-Ireland football quarter finals I was a little uneasy, not only because Galway footballers had lost, but because the quality of the play in both games was so good. I had not been physically present at a football game under the new rules, and I was thrilled by the experience.

The reason for my disquiet coming out of Croke Park was my certainty that evolutionary theory and economic obsolescence through creative destruction would ultimately lead to the decline of hurling. The main existential threat for hurling was not global anymore. More prosaically, football had suddenly become easy on the eye. The appalling vista had unfolded before my very eyes.