Are we keeping the best wine until last - I sincerely hope so! Two months into the serious action of the Guinness All-Ireland senior hurling championships and I am sorry to say that you would not know it has existed. Where have all the crowds gone? Where are the quality games we have witnessed year in, year out, played in front of capacity crowds. Games where the hype pre-match was fever pitch and the after match analysis was debated in every watering hole and family home for days. Why have teams who have been training similar to professionals for periods of six months or more been struggling to perform on big match days? Has the back door system finally had its day in the sun? Are teams now looking to the qualifiers as the way to progress further in the championships or more importantly has the championships now become like the Premiership cross channel, where the gap between the elite is getting bigger all the time and is now a cause of serious concern. I have stated in the past in this magazine that hurling is on its knees and it needs someone to grasp the straw and drive it forward in order to save the greatest game in the world. There is no doubt that there are problems in Cork but this is of little concern compared to what is happening in other counties nationwide. What has happened over the last few weeks cannot be repeated again. It is not acceptable that just over twenty thousand turned up to a Munster semi-final between Tipperary and Clare. And look at the Leinster semi-finals in Croke Park with an attendance of twenty three thousand which looked more like fifteen thousand to me and it becomes very scary indeed. It has become quite clear that with a small attendance in Croke Park that there is little or no atmosphere and that certainly was the case for the two Leinster games. Headquarters will now have to decide if these games should be played outside of Dublin and do what the counties in Munster do by having a home and away arrangement between teams. At least this will lead to a better atmosphere which at times can lead to a better game. But most importantly it will give the genuine supporter the opportunity to attend at a much reduced cost. It has to be said that the real competitive edge has been missing from the games to date and we will be waiting now until the end of July for the fireworks to begin when the games reach quarterfinal stage. We all applaud the new format and tiered groups etc but is now not the time to look at the overall picture here? Hurling is about passion, desire and skill and we must ensure none of those ingredients are lost into the future. I used to get a lot of slagging for saying that it was much harder to win an All-Ireland through the Munster campaign than in Leinster but I now rest my case! Tipperary v. Clare I had said last month that Tipperary would win this game if they picked the right team and put the players in their correct positions and that proved the case.- You must build from the back and when Philip Maher was ruled out, the Tipp selectors had no option but to put John Devane at full back and he showed what an accomplished full back he is. The Tipp defence as a unit played very well but were helped by the Clare tactics in the first 20 minutes when their numerous positional changes backfired. Tony Griffin proved last year how effective he is at centre forward but started this game at full forward and was not in the game until he switched outside. He was the man that should have been running at David Kennedy, who was caught for pace, and when this happened Clare were back in the frame. It was their failure to convert point and goal scoring opportunities in the first half cost them dearly. At the other end a new star was emerging in the form of Michael Webster who gave a man of the match performance against none other than Brian Lohan and I just wonder if the Clare selectors ever thought of swapping him with his brother Frank - a move which I feel could have changed the outcome of the game. Three huge competitive games under their belts now will have Tipp very upbeat for the Munster final against Cork. It is great to be looking forward to a Cork v. Tipperary tussle again. I played in a lot of these and believe me, there is something special about these games. Laois v. Wexford All the experts were expecting this game to throw up a surprise and for the first ten to fifteen minutes or so it looked on the cards. Laois were doing everything right - marking tightly at the back and letting the ball do the work. It was no nonsense hurling and it was troubling Wexford. But old habits die hard and suddenly Laois started to complicate things. Short passing out of defence led to balls being intercepted which resulted in scores for Wexford who all of a sudden were back in the game. Confidence now started to drain from Laois and Wexford began to take over. There was no doubt about the outcome in the end but they have enough to build on into the future with Paudi Butler on board and they might cause one or two surprises in the qualifiers given home advantage. A former coach of Cork hurling, Johnny Clifford, used to always preach to us as players to keep it simple and do the simple things well. Wexford will be glad to be over this one but will need no reminding that an improvement is necessary for the next day. Kilkenny v. Offaly Will I write on? It wouldn't be fair on Offaly not to do so as it is very easy to criticise them now after the event and there is no denying the fact that they were completely out of their depth in this match. A few issues come to mind very quickly - they seemed to be beaten before they ever went out on the field with all the talk about playing in the qualifiers etc. The last thing they needed to do was concede goals and concede them early in the game, so when four were walloped past them their number was up. Offaly have a very small pool of players to pick from and many of the stars of the past have moved on. It is not easy to replace players of that quality with the click of a finger. There is no doubt the Cats gave a clear indication of where they want to be in September and not too many will bet against them. Tweet

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