Limerick's Galway moment of 1980 is upon them
One of the greatest hurling championship years should come to a conclusion next Sunday with the rare but exciting meeting of Galway and Limerick in the All Ireland Senior Hurling final.
Championship 2018 has been historic in many ways with the new round-robin formats in Munster & Leinster leading to some titanic encounters and fears that the lack of a knockout element would harm the competition proved to be unfounded.
Crowds have flocked to the games, apart from quarter final weekend, although the GAA played their part in that by forcing Clare and Wexford fans in particular to traipse all the way to Cork.
Both semi-finals at Croke Park generated crowds of over 125,000 people, without adding in the full house at Semple Stadium for the semi-final replay, and considering hurling semi-finals yielded bigger crowds that their football counterparts, highlights the good place hurling is in at the moment.
Fans want excitement and that is what hurling is providing at the moment compared to football where the flair is being coached out of the game and it is something GAA hierarchy will have to consider in attracting fans back to football matches.
As far back as June 10th when Limerick demolished Waterford in the Gaelic Grounds, the general feeling was that the Shannonsiders were the best fit to take down Galway. At that time, the All Ireland champions looked virtually unbeatable, but as tends to be the case with a title defence, the longer the season goes on the harder it gets.
To read more, pick up a copy of this weeks Nenagh Guardian locally or subscribe to our e-paper to access it online each Wednesday.