As the Olympic Games draws to a close in Tokyo, the GAA Championships enter the semi-final round and get set to take centre stage.
This weekend it is the hurling that will play out the two semis at Croke Park in front of a daily audience of 24,000.
Waterford bring a rich vein of form into their clash with Limerick and on Sunday it will be Cork and Kilkenny’s turn with the Rebel County bidding to make a first final since 2013 and record a first win since 2005.
In that time Kilkenny have won eight to dislodge them as the most successful team in history so there will be plenty on the line when the ball is thrown in.
The Footballers were out doing media yesterday in advance of the following weekend’s matches with Philly McMahon from Dublin and Kerry’s Paul Murphy garnering the greatest levels of interest.
Murphy spoke of the pressures of captaincy from the bench with Kerry maintaining the tradition of the county captain coming from the County Champions.
It is not like that in Dublin where Stephen Cluxton’s leadership over the record-breaking six in a row run has been credited as being of significant importance.
McMahon is a clubmate of his replacement this year Evan Comerford and spoke about how he had stepped in very comfortably and that the most important thing about a good goalkeeper was the confidence which they inspired in those around them.
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Before that, though he has a decision to make regarding Bohemian FC. He has been involved with the SSE Airtricity League club this season as a performance coach and will now have to choose between the final preparation for Dublin’s semi-final against Mayo or a trip to Greece for the crucial second leg of Boh’s Europa Conference League qualifier.
Dublin players have never been guilty of loose lips and there was little forthcoming from McMahon yesterday on how that decision might be reached.
It is heartening though that he has a clear career path to continue at the highest level of sport, even as his inter-county career enters its twilight phase.
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