Tipperary will not surrender crown easily

1 Tipperary will not be easily brushed aside
We wondered whether Tipperary would bow out of the All-Ireland hurling championship with a whimper and surrender their crown easily. They looked uninterested for long periods of their woeful qualifier clash with Westmeath but were back on song with a 6-26 to 1-19 destruction of Dublin. They are not going away and are now as short as 9-4 to retain the Liam McCarthy crown.

2 McStay deserves all the plaudits
Kevin McStay told us time and time again that July 9 was the only date he and his Roscommon troops were thinking about. How right he was. The Rossies blasted out of the traps, should have been out of sight by half-time but showed enough composure to finish the job after the break. It was a brilliant performance. McStay got the tone and his tactics spot on and he is quickly proving himself to be a top-notch manager at the highest grade.

3 Cork are unstoppable right now
Oh we of little faith. When Cork get motoring, they look impossible to stop. Their confidence is sky high and they won the Munster championship in dazzling fashion. Their backs are tenacious, their middle third find the right men in scoring positions and they have forwards in Patrick Horgan and Conor Lehane to finish the move.