The GAA should have learned at least one thing from the hurling Qualifiers played at Portlaoise over the weekend…

This is, simply, that the venue is not suitable for televising games on a bright sunny summer evening. An Moltóir has noticed this before. Iit is hard enough to see the players, never mind the ball, with the main camera facing straight into the declining sun. One might think they would have provided an alternative camera perch on top of the spanking new stand at Portlaoise, but obviously they didn’t.

The tightness of the O’Moore Park pitch also makes the venue unsuitable for top-class hurling games. A county with pretensions of joining the hurling top flight should really be doing better than this. As it happened, the tight pitch suited the power hurling of Tipperary and Clare against generally smaller and lighter opponents. In the wide expanses of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Waterford spread the Tipperary backs out and picked them off. With less room in which to manoeuvre, the light and inexperienced Offaly forwards didn’t have a chance. Mind you, they hardly helped their own cause by sending in poorly directed high balls in the general direction of the Tipperary goal in the first half. In the second half, Offaly made more of an effort to play ground hurling and use the wings, but there was still too much high ball coming in to give the forwards a decent chance.

The Faithful County’s biggest problem, of course, was that Tipp were in a real mean mood after their Munster final debacle. In their previous game, Offaly had encountered a Kilkenny team which only played in patches and had several weaknesses. Tipperary on this occasion were a different kettle of fish. They were strong throughout the field and kept going right to the end. Nicky English undoubtedly would have welcomed a more searching examination. Players who had struggled against Waterford were not subjected to intense scrutiny, and towards the end there was a lot of Fancy-Dan stuff which would get short shrift against more estimable opposition.

Offaly’s young players showed occasional flashes of what they are capable of, such as Stephen Browne’s wonder goal and one nice point from Pat Carroll. Rory Hanniffy hurled a fair bit of ball in midfield but was badly missed up front. On this occasion, Kevin Martin made a passable imitation of a decent centre forward. But once again, and sadly, Brian Whelahan was only a shadow of his former self. One might have expected him to be moved to full forward where one flash of genius in the second half could have thrown Offaly a lifeline. The other Whelahans didn’t make much of an impression either, and one suspects that, at top intercounty level, they are only fit for the corner back positions. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to Offaly hurling at this stage is for Birr not to win the county title again, but with nine players on Saturday’s team, this is hardly likely.

We will never know if a fresh Wexford, with Liam Dunne and Adrian Fenlon aboard, would have managed to stay with Clare last Sunday, but An Moltóir doubts it. Strangely, while the tighter pitch might have suited Larry O’Gorman at full forward better than Croke Park, he was not even started on Sunday night. And when he did come on, he went in at half back. Once again, the Wexford defence fought heroically against insuperable odds, and it must have been galling for them to see a stream of shots from midfield sailing over both their heads and the crossbar in the first half. They were eventually undone by the introduction of Tony Carmody and the re-emergence of traces of the old Niall Gilligan on the Clare left wing. Wexford simply have nobody of similar calibre (what did Mitch Jordan ever do to merit a half-page article in one of the Sunday papers last week?).

An Moltóir expected Galway to get the better of Cork in Thurles, but never anticipated the abject manner of the Leesiders’ defeat. With only television highlights to go on, it is impossible to speak with any authority on the game, but a scoring return of just 1-9 on a perfect July pitch is truly pathetic. Clearly, Mike McNamara identified the physical slightness of the Cork midfield and forwards as a key weakness, and relied on a combination of mobility and power to blow them away.

Despite his grumblings afterwards, Noel Lane will be happy to have put together good performances in successive years something the Tribesmen have been unable to do for over a decade. And if some players did not measure up, Lane has plenty of good substitutes available to fill the gaps. If, some day, all six Galway forwards hit form in the same game, some unfortunate team is going to get incinerated. In the meantime, Lane will be happy enough if any two do the business in any given game. Clare have always had problems getting even two forwards to play well together. Their chance of survival in the quarter final may depend on them at least matching Galway in this respect.