Clare's Colin Ryan admits hurling has become extremely tactical.

Sunday's drawn Division One league final against Waterford was akin to a chess match at times and Ryan feels this was almost inevitable in a meeting with Na Deise:

"The middle third, as I think Davy and Derek said during the week, was going to be a battle ground. And I think it was: it was pretty low scoring there for a long period. But it opened up a bit more as the game went on and there were a lot of scores taken from out the field," the Newmarket clubman states in The Irish Times.

"They are different to Kilkenny, I suppose or Tipperary. It is a thinking man's game at the minute.You have to put effort into realising that there are smart people out there and they are trying to put an effort into getting one over on everybody.

"So you have to do a bit of homework on it and it is a great learning curve for us for June 5th. And I am sure it is going to adapt over and over again . . ."

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