In the midst of the Kiev madness, our GAA players were soldiering in grounds all over the country from Tullamore to Thurles.
While there were no real titanic clashes taking place in the provincial championships, we did expect some tight, competitive games.
The most eagerly anticipated of those was certainly the meeting of Tipperary and Cork in the Munster senior football semi-final in Semple Stadium.
It turned out to be quite the opposite. Cork ran riot in Thurles with Luke Connolly going to town on a vulnerable Tipperary defence. In the end, Ronan McCarthy’s men ran out 11 point, 1-17 to 0-9 winners.
Now the Tipperary and Cork footballers are both fighting a similar battle, the battle of a neglected code in a hurley infested county. Last week, there were only 1700 supporters at the Premier County’s quarter final beating of Waterford. Meanwhile, the Rebel footballers often complain about being unloved, in comparison to the county’s hurlers.
This week, there were only 3339 present in the Thurles stadium. That’s scandalous for a provincial semi-final, but the Munster council only have themselves to blame seeing as the counties are meeting tomorrow in the Munster SHC at the exact same venue.
Would a double header have made too much sense?
The rest of Saturday’s games were all one-sided contests as well.
Here’s the full round up of results.
Munster SFC semi-final
Cork 1-17
Tipperary 0-9
Ulster SFC quarter-final
Down 1-18
Antrim 0-14
Connacht SFC semi-final
Roscommon 0-24
Leitrim 0-10
Leinster SFC quarter-final
Laois 4-13
Westmeath 1-12
Leinster SHC round 3
A hugely disappointing evening for Kevin Martin’s Offaly, Aidan Nolan, Conor McDonald, Jack, Rory O’Connor and co. went to town on them in front of a home O’Connor Park crowd.
Wexford 5-24
Offaly 2-9
