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IT'S been a crazy week. This final pairing has done so much to capture the imagination and I've genuinely never seen anything like the scramble for tickets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IN TERMS of the coverage of the All-Ireland, I'm obviously part of the RTÉ package. I was critical of the Sky deal before but I have to say the BBC have brought a different dimension. With the final going out on their network, their coverage has to be different and you had the likes of James Nesbitt and Dara Ó Briain at Croker, plus Jamesie O'Connor. Thomas Niblock is very good and it was brilliant to see the game being shown like that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

HERE to even start with the 2024 All-Ireland hurling final? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

C [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THERE'S been a lot of talk the last while about the scheduling of the hurling summer. This week, the Gaelic Players Association came out basically saying that the split season is here to stay - or at least that's what the players want. Their opinion very much has to be taken on board. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

T [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THERE are a lot of bad days in sport. As Offaly chair, I've mentioned here in the past how tough it can be in this job, how even earlier this summer I was finding it very stressful to watch the games. Particularly with my son Brian playing for the senior hurlers, it adds that bit of extra pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

T [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WINNING the Joe McDonagh is a fantastic honour but the next step involving entry into the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals is another thing entirely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

GUESS there is only one place to start and that's at Nowlan Park last Saturday night. What an occasion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE curtain-raiser on Saturday is the Joe McDonagh Cup final which is really an All-Ireland final as far as Offaly and Laois are concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IWAS in Pearse Stadium for the Galway-Dublin match last weekend, a game overshadowed by David Burke's sending-off. There has been enough comment on that so I won't add anything more - as I said in commentary I didn't think it was a straight red card and all the replays since haven't changed my mind. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WE ARE in the middle of it, these are great times. A magical, mesmerising sporting season where the only complaint is that it is all happening too quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

EOPLE say a week is a long time in politics - well it's also a long time in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WITH both provincial championships at their halfway stage and no hurling on today, now is as good a time as any to take a break, see where we are and look at some of the talking points thrown up by the season so far?. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE Munster championship certainly started with a bang last weekend. What a huge win for Waterford. I'd say I've had more run-ins with manager Davy Fitzgerald over the last 30 years than anyone else, lots of clashes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IT WAS a very low-key start to the Leinster championship last week. Dublin did some job in stealing a point from Wexford with a couple of late goals. The other two results show the gap that's there with Antrim taking an awful trimming from Kilkenny while Carlow at least were competitive against Galway. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IT'S still only April but here we are, at the start of the championship. We've had the negatives of winter and all the rain and bad weather, plus so many matches condensed on top of each other, but I'm a romantic at heart when it comes to hurling, and particularly Championship hurling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WATERFORD had a very tough league, while Cork seemed to be moving really well towards the end so everything is pointing to a Cork win at Walsh Park. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

B [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Overall, I'm a big fan of the split season in the GAA calendar. I fully understand why it was done. How we needed to better cater for the club player, the 98 per cent of our playing base, with a bigger summer window. Why the inter-county season needed to be compressed to allow for that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I WAS in Galway last weekend for my wedding anniversary. I had a rare Sunday off so we went there for the day. We spent the afternoon watching the football League final between Derry and Dublin, which reminded me how great a game football can be. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

DON'T be shocked but I actually think the Allianz Hurling League final between Clare and Kilkenny next Saturday evening in Thurles is a huge match. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IT CAME in a little bit under the radar last week but I like the new rule whereby an injured player has to go off the field for treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a long time, the All-Ireland club championship finals were part of the St Patrick's Day tradition and it's a career regret that I never made it there as a player. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WHETHER you look at it as a citizen, or as a GAA person, there has been a huge debate about the Kyle Hayes court case - what happened, what it means for society and the role of GAA players. There's a huge division of opinion even since the verdict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

PEOPLE are frustrated with referees and the varying standards from week to week. Last weekend saw plenty of discussion yet again. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WHO really wants to win the National League now? My gut feeling is that any counties who have secured their Division 1A status for next year are delighted ? but less gung-ho about actually going to win the thing outright. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WITH the minor and under-20 competitions on the horizon, and the league already at a vital stage, this intercounty season is hurtling along. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

C [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LAST WEEKEND was interesting and eventful. I was at the GAA's Annual Congress last Friday and Saturday, in Newry as well for the Offaly senior footballers against Down, and then down to Nowlan Park on Sunday for the hurlers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE Limerick hurlers had a gentle start to their hurling campaign. An experimental line-up hammered Antrim and they beat Westmeath with plenty of new faces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I HAVE to talk about what happened at O'Connor Park in Tullamore last Sunday - and the aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE Wexford-Offaly hurling league match provided plenty of talking points. Not just because Offaly secured a draw but what happened with the two sendings off. Jack O'Connor was sent off for helmet interference after an incident with David King. Both have been cited but while [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I WATCHED the debate on the future of hurling with interest last weekend on Allianz League Sunday. I was meant to be part of the panel but unfortunately my back gave in - the wear and tear of my own playing days is still catching up! Liam Sheedy was part of the panel and I was on the Hurling 2020 committee headed up by him and that produced its own proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I WAS talking to Diarmaid Byrnes at a dinner dance last Sunday evening. Limerick's five-time All-Ireland winner and Hurler of the Year was in Carrig in Riverstown, a small town outside Birr. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TIPPERARY take on Galway at Semple Stadium and it already feels like a big one so early in the year for the two managers Liam Cahill and Henry Shefflin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

W [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ais for AARON Gillane. He only finished seventh in the overall Championship scoring with 3-47 but he was still Limerick's top scorer. He has become a hugely important part of the team and the two-man set-up inside. That threat in the air makes him such a brilliant target man and his movement is fantastic. Definitely one of the most influential players on the Limerick team. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

R [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THERE has been a good bit of controversy around the Jubilee Team celebration at Croke Park last Sunday. Obviously, I was there with Offaly. Back home, there was huge anger that it wasn't shown on RTE, and that it took place in a half-empty stadium rather than, say at half-time when the place would be full. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LAST week we discussed the low-key build up to the All-Ireland hurling semi-finals and the lack of promotion given the lack of media coverage. And yet still we ended up around 110,000 people in Croke Park and a brilliant weekend of hurling in various different ways. The first half of Galway-Limerick was intriguing and intense before Limerick found another level altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

FOR the first 24 minutes against Limerick, Galway produced their best hurling under Henry Shefflin to lead 1-12 to 1-6 against the champions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]