Well the poll which we had running for player of the year may just have gone out the window. Dan Shanahan was leading with 76% of the vote but now that Waterford are gone and Dan failed to score a goal in the game it may fall to a Limerick or Kilkenny player. Not that Dan doesn’t deserve it for what he has done all year but these awards virtually always go to the All-Ireland finalists just as the majority of the All-Star awards do.

Does anyone think Dan will still get it or is it now looking like Andrew O’Shaughnessy or Henry Shefflin?

Limerick beat Waterford by 5-11 to 2-15 in a pulsating All Ireland semi-final in Croke Park in front of a near full house. Limerick upset Waterford’s great year, gained revenge for their Munster final defeat and now move on to play Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final on the first Sunday of September.

The key to the game was goals and Limerick hit 5 of them while holding Waterford’s danger man Dan Shanahan without one. Andrew O’Shaughnessy and Donie Ryan bagged two each, one in either half, and giant full forward Brian Begley hit the final one.

Limerick started the game in flying form while the Decie men seemed a bit flat footed, possibly suffering a hangover from their quarter final replay win over Cork. The gap was out to 8 points at one stage but Waterford pegged it back to 4 by half time. The treaty men opened out the gap again in the second half with their third goal, courtesy of Donie. Waterford pulled it back to 2 points with around 5 minutes to go and it looked as though they were going to pull another one out of the fire. But enter Begley, who won a penalty which was brilliantly converted by Shaugnessy and then smashed home his own rickly desereved goal.

Great celebrations for Limerick players, fans and their very enthusiastic manager Richie Bennis. Richie must now set his sights on the All-Ireland champs, Kilkenny, which will be another huge challenge but Limerick have been improving all year and seem undaunted by whatever challenge is presented so no doubt they’ll be relishing the chance to win their first All Ireland since 1973.

Roscommon beat Armagh by 1-12 to 0-13 in Croke Park to lift the Nicky Rackard cup. The sides served up a very entertaining and exciting game, there was very little between them all through and in the end it was a second half goal from sub Gary Fallon that decided the issue.

Armagh were on top for long periods of the game but after making a great start they seemed to become a little indecisive in front of goal and Roscommon worked their way back level by half time. After the goal gave Roscommon a three point advantage Armagh then had plenty of opportunities to claw it back but the Rossies got plenty of bodies behind the ball to deny them any easy scores.

Roscommon now join London and Derry on the Nicky Rackard honours roll to cap a great year which included the division 3 league title and their under 21 B title won last week while Armagh can look back on a solid year which included a first ever appearance in the Ulster championship with plenty of promise for the future.

As expected Kilkenny cruised past a dismal Wexford 0-23 to 1-10 in an awful All Ireland semi final. Wexford started the game with some spark and took an early lead for the first 10 minutes but once the cats drew level it was all over with Henry Shefflin in sharp shooting form again as he notched 14 points.

Wexford, as they do every year, produced one big game, against Tipp, and then returned to their normal inept level. Kilkenny on the other hand have sauntered through to another final with only one real game, against Galway, under their belts and even that was a 10 point win in the end.

The game was awful to watch and it’s hard to believe there was an All Ireland final place at stake. If the Cork Waterford game hasn’t been on afterwards the GAA would have been lucky to get 20,000 in Croke Park.

Waterford saw off Cork at the second attempt thanks to two clinically taken goals by Dan Shanahan. In another great Munster encounter the Deise were the better team when it counted and were inspired by great performances all over the pitch from the likes of Brian Phelan, Tony Browne, Ken McGrath, Brick Walsh, Eoin Kelly, Dan the man and super sub Eoin McGrath. Shanahan’s second goal in the 57th minute was the decisive score and it bought his goals tally to 8 for the championship.

Read the Irish Independent report on the game.

Waterford now play Limerick in the All Ireland semi final next Sunday in a repeat of the Munster final.

Tipperary keeper Brendan Cummins retained his Poc fada title in the Cooley Mountains yesterday. He covered the course in 49 pucks, just one behind his course record. This was Cummins’ third title in 4 years and he only missed out in 2005 when he couldn’t compete due to championship commitments.

Graham Clarke from Down finished second with 51 pucks and Offaly’s Shane O’Connor was third with 52.

It’s pouring rain in Dublin this morning as we prepare for the 3 big games in Croke Park. The rain normally ruins the games as a spectacle and while it’s forecast to clear away later the amount of rain that has fallen will leave the pitch like a skating rink. By the time Cork and Waterford take the field at 4pm it could be a mess. We could be watching water polo instead of hurling!

Kilkenny announced their team yesterday, it shows one change from the last day with Richie Power getting a starting place at half forward.

Kilkenny: PJ Ryan; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, J Tyrrell; T Walsh, B Hogan, JJ Delaney; D Lyng, J Fitzpatrick; R Power, H Shefflin, E Larkin; E Brennan, M Comerford, W O’Dwyer.

Cork: D Og Cusack; S O’Neill, D O’Sullivan, B Murphy; J Gardiner, R Curran, S Og O hAilpin; T Kenny, J O’Connor; B O’Connor, T McCarthy, P Cronin; N Ronan, K Murphy (Sarsfields), J Deane.

Waterford: C Hennessy; E Murphy, D Prendergast, B Phelan; T Browne, K McGrath, A Kearney; M Walsh, S Walsh; S Molumphy, S Prendergast, E Kelly; J Mullane, D Shanahan, P Flynn.

Wexford: D Fitzhenry; M Travers, K Rossiter, P Roche; R Kehoe, D Ruth, D Lyng; R McCarthy, D Stamp; E Quigley, M Jordan, D O’Connor; B Lambert, M Jacob, R Jacob.

Kilkenny: ….

Kildare: C Cunningham; T Finnerty, P Reidy, R Tynan; D Harney, D Kennedy, M Maloney; C Buggy, B White; K Divilly, T Spain, P O’Brien B Byrne, A McAndrew, O Lynch.

Westmeath: M Briody; N Gavin, P Greville, C Jordan; P Dowdall, D McCormack, B Connaughton; J Shaw, P Clarke; R Whelan, B Murtagh, A Mitchell; B Kennedy, D McNicholas, D Carty.

Cork won the Munster under 21 final last night easily beating Waterford on a score of 1-20 to 0-10. Senior star Cathal Naughton led the way hitting 1-4 from play.

Read the Irish Independent report here.

After the drama of last weekend’s quarter finals all this weekend’s action is crammed into Croke Park on Sunday where we should have close to a full house.

The Cork Waterford replay takes main billing and hopefully should be another great game. Waterford seemed to have the upper hand at times last week but undone themselves with strange substitutions, a lot of hopeless wides and a failure to feed Dan the man more of the sliothar. Hopefully this week they can rectify all that and turn over the rebels (not that I’m a Waterford fan but it’d be great for hurling if they can make the break through).

Wexford get another shot at Kilkenny in the semi final after their surprise win over Tipp. While Wexford should be improved over their Leinster final display it’s hard to see anything other than another easy Kilkenny win. With competition for places within the Cats’ squad so intense you can be sure there’ll be no let up on their part and they should rack up at least a 10 point win.

Incidentally who’s planning was it that the two All Ireland semi-finals could end up as a repeat of the Leinster and Munster finals? Seems a bit daft, just as daft in fact as the chances of a team getting beaten twice (Cork) and winning an All-Ireland.

The Christy Ring final between Westmeath, winners in 2005, and Kildare has been shunted to 12.15 but if anyone gets in early enough (or turns on the TV early enough) they should catch an exciting game. Westmeath are probably favourites but Kildare have been having a great campaign boosted by former Tipp players David Kennedy and Paddy O’Brien. Unfortunately the winners don’t get promotion to next year’s Liam MacCarthy, mainly because the GAA were concerned about the yo-yo effect of the winners getting relegated back down the very next season (as happened Westmeath).

My predictions haven’t been great so far this year but for Sunday I’ll go with Westmeath, Kilkenny and Waterford.

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