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[Limerick keeper made some save just before halftime............. as good as I have seen although Tipp forward should have scored given the time and space he had.]

Limerick keeper made some save just before halftime............. as good as I have seen although Tipp forward should have scored given the time and space he had.

The save he made from Ronan Maher in the 2nd half was even better; it also won him the TG4 MOTM gong.

Don't know much about Paudie O'Neill other than that he played U21 hurling for Tipp alongside Eamon O'Shea in the late 1970s. Apparently he's a headmaster too so I'd expect discipline to be a feature of the new regime. Have no idea who the physical trainer will be.

Haven't heard of any voluntary defections from the squad either. No doubt there'll be some changes anyway with some new blood infused. Sure we can shorten the Winter here arguing about it anyway.

At this stage there are so many rumours afloat that I wouldn't be surprised to hear Premior Emperor & homeofhurling announced as selectors with Bord na Mona man on board as the new physical trainer

Must be 20 years since Rynaghs won in Offaly. Diarmuid Horan looks a decent hurler alright.

Hard to see past the usual suspects Drom & Thurles Sarsfields in Tipp. Clonoulty won't have a full deck for Sunday, so it'd be difficult to envisage them toppling Drom. Anacarty might be the surprise packet yet.

Toome have been in decline for years, even thought they managed to win the title back in 2008. When I saw them trying to make a centre forward out of Terry Dunne a few years ago against Drom in th Stadium I knew they were bunched.

What is the mood like down in the soi disant home of hurling these days now that the dust has settled after the semi final?

I'm an exile so I wouldn't be privy to the prevailing mood, but if Eamonn O'Shea is appointed as Declan Ryan's successor well all will be sunshine & lollipops, if the public gets what the public wants.

Hearing now that we're going to have another Killenaule resident as selector, so homeofhurling8's Twitter account will need suspending

I hear Eamonn O'Shea's name being linked with this, that might be a salve to the wounds.

Janey, I'll hardly recognise anyone from their teamsheet so. I remember Fogarty alright, saw him playing for Rynaghs in one of those drawn county finals against Clareen back in the 90s after he'd retired from county hurling.

According to the Sunday Times Tyrell was Kilkenny's busiest player last Sunday. He's a lad that's rarely let them down on the big day, was very good against Tipp 2 years ago when their defence was being stretched.

Michael Fennelly was KK's biggest disappointment the last day, Richie Hogan was doing the work of 2 men for most of the day, wonder how Smith & Tannion will fare out in the midfield battle the next day.

Did I read somewhere that it's 10 years since Rynaghs contested a final? Michael Duignan made reference to their recent lack of success in his book. Who's in charge of them now?

Wonder will we get a similar reaction to when Dinny Cahill gave opinions on the 2004 Cork team before the All-Ireland quarter final that year?

Philly was commanding at full back and good at mastering the square, a full back line of Curran, himself & Ormonde in that order when all were in their prime would've been as effective as you'd get, unfortunately it never came to pass at senior level. Curran's questionable touch has caused him trouble in front of goals at times, that said, he's been a tremendous servant to Tipp, the lack of obvious full back alternatives is a concern that the next management needs to immediately address.

O'Mahoney gave an exhibition at full back in the horror show that was the 2004 All-Ireland U21 final down in Nowlan Park. I wouldn't be an advocate of moving him back there now, as he's vulnerable on the turn to lads running at him.  He's a lad I'd still have faith in for the long road, Pádraig Maher is more effective at wing back and that's where Tipp need him in 2013.

Incidentally, another parallel with 2003 was Tipp lining out with an injury compromised centre back against Kilkenny, when Tommy Dunne was barely able to run and was completely subdued by John Hoyne. This year we had O'Mahoney and Tom Stapleton in difficulty before the throw-in against Kilkenny, now you have lads calling for Stapleton to be discarded despite his excellent form in the preceding 3 games. Just goes to show that an injured defender will always be vulnerable.

BNMM, I think Nickys genius was in winning an All-Ireland with that team, and running the cats so close the following year, the whole was certainly greater than the sum of the parts, the only lads from 01 who would make the current team( apart from Eoin, Lar and Brendan who played in 01) would be Tommy Dunne and Eamonn Corcoran,Paul Ormonde,Eddie Enright and Philly Maher would make the panel imho , for that team to be unbeaten through league and championship in 01 shows just what a loss Nicky was to Tipp after 02.

I reckon Philly Maher in his pomp was as good a full back as Tipp has produced and would easily make the current team in his 2000/2 form; he had an absolutely mighty game against Kilkenny in 2002 before suffering the first of his knee injuries in the 2003 league final and was a colossal loss to Tipp that year – I'd find it hard to envisage Tommy Tomahawk and Cummins playing ping pong in the 2003 AISF on a fully fit Philly's watch.

The bould JC (Johnny Carroll) would hardly be too far away from the current panel either, a bit of his devilment in the forward line never went astray, whatever about the last management team the previous crowd would surely have kept him on a tight leash and away from the chip shops in Roscrea too.

The Paul Kelly of the early part of the decade would easily be there too, in addition to the lads hoh mentioned; it'd be some battle trying to make the midfield pairing with the contenders sparring for the two jerseys.

League and championship doubles were unheard of back in 2001, indeed I would say that Tipp under Nicky were the first crowd to take the league reasonably seriously, Brian Cody certainly paid it just lip service before 2002 when the likes of Martin Comerford & Derek Lyng emerged, the rest of the world has caught on since.