An Moltóir had the unusual experience of watching the All-Ireland hurling quarter finals in the clubhouse of Gaelic Park, the GAA headquarters in Chicago...

It was an early start (the first game began at 8.15 a.m. local time) and a costly one - $20 per person to gain admission, which was more than a lot of the people at the game itself were paying. As a mild compensation, coffee and doughnuts were available. There was a sizeable enough crowd in attendance, many of them dressed up in the colours of the competing counties.

The first game was a bit of a dud. One could not fault Derry for effort: they kept at it and their heads never dropped. However, they just were not thinking or acting fast enough, they lacked craft and the quality of their striking was not up to the level required. The gulf in class between the two sides must once again call into the question the wisdom of allowing the Ulster champions entry to the championship at this point, and provides further ammunition for An Moltoir’s argument that they should be brought in at an earlier stage when the qualifying competition is introduced to the hurling championship next year.

However, Derry did have the dominant character of the game in the totemic Geoffrey McGonigle, whose attempts to breach the Galway goal provided some diversion during a boring, one-sided second half. For Galway, the game will have been of little benefit. It was the kind of loose game which suited their smallish but nippy forwards, but it will be a different kettle of fish altogether when they face up to the masters from Kilkenny in a few weeks time.

By contrast, the second game was a real spellbinder. While the manner of their victory could be considered a little fortunate, Wexford certainly will have caused an amount of surprise by the overall quality of their display, which will have done much to restore the reputation of Leinster hurling. They got the good start they didn’t have against Kilkenny in the Leinster final, and the recent success of their under 21s clearly had rubbed off on the players from that team in action last Sunday. An Moltóir was particularly impressed by the assuredness of their corner backs, David O’Connor and Rory Mallon, although it was the man playing between them, Darragh Ryan, whose epic performance probably did most of all to lead the Slaneysiders to this famous victory.

Limerick clearly were led into a false sense of security by the contrast between their high-octane performances in Munster and the insipidity of Wexford’s effort in Leinster. And, lacking the intensity which they brought to bear against Cork, Waterford and Tipperary, too many of their players looked very ordinary or even worse. Two of their forwards - James Butler and Mike O’Brien - scarcely touched a ball in the first half while the Morans slipped further from the high standards set in the early stages of the Munster championship. With Paul O’Grady’s freetaking also lacking the sharpness he had shown earlier, Limerick were encountering a lot of unexpected problems. Still, they should have put the opposition away during their lengthy periods of domination in the second half - particularly when the wonderful Ciaran Carey took control of the midfield exchanges. However, ultimately they didn’t have the firepower to finish the job off.

Limerick showed against Waterford that goals win matches, so there was a certain irony in the fact they were on the receiving end of the lesson on this occasion. An Moltóir recalls how, in a Leinster Minor Hurling final many moons ago, Damien Fitzhenry rather foolishly came up the field to take a penalty when Wexford were leading by a goal against Kilkenny with time running out and a tap-over point would probably have put the game beyond the Cats. Inevitably, Fitzhenry failed to convert, Kilkenny goaled from the clearance, pointed from the puckout and won the game. Fitzhenry probably still smarts from the memory of that ill-judged venture, but last Sunday’s heroic efforts will have done much to erase the pain - not to mention the embarrassment of being caught in possession for Limerick’s second goal. And fair play to Paul Codd for having the pluck to go for a goal when the whole ground - and especially the six Limerick players on the line - expected him to take a point.

So, despite their supposed domination of modern hurling, Munster end up with just one team out of the four going into the semi-finals. This is probably due as much to the lop-sided nature of the championship as anything else, and will give extra strength to the argument in favour of an open draw. Limerick, for example, will feel aggrieved that after four massive contests they are out in the cold, while Galway, after one stroll out, are now in the semi-finals. The introduction of the losers’ group will provide only a partial solution. Hurling needs more top-class matches if it is not to be left in the shade by the new setup in football, and given the small number of top-class hurling counties, the only solution is a round-robin series of qualifying games prior to the knockout stages.

Finally, on the old chestnut of the presentation of GAA games, so close to the hearts of many in Croke Park. Given the new rule about bloodied jerseys having to be replaced, surely it is not beyound the resources of counties in televised games to have a spare set of jerseys available, so that the players involved can get replacement jerseys with the same numbers. This summer we have frequently found ourselves diving into programmes to identify unlisted No. 25s only to discover eventually that the player in question has simply replaced his original jersey. Perhaps the GAA might even donate a little of the massive extra funds they have generated this year to the various counties to purchase backup jerseys.

And - while An Moltóir is at it - when is the GAA going to supply the hurling balls for championship matches and place a big bag of them behind each goal, rather than relying on the participating teams to provide the balls and remember whose turn it is to send one in when needed?

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