When I was setting out for Thurles from the Today FM studios the weather was dark, gloomy and winterish. By the time I picked up the oul lad in Naas there seemed to be a break in the cloud and by the time we were parking in Semple Stadium the worst of the weather seemed to have passed. It was a most enthralling double header as it turned out. Thankfully the weather didn't have too much of a bearing on the day. It's main effects seemed to be on the lads who made the wrong boot choice in the slippery underfoot conditions.
Some people have been complaining about the standard of hurling this year but the people of Galway and Waterford won't go with that and it was an entertaining afternoon for the neutrals in Thurles.
There's no question that some of those gloomy black clouds will be hanging over Cork for a while given the tame exit of the county senior hurlers and footballers from this year's championship.
Donal Og Cusack was the right man to have on tv poring over the evidence on such a day of disappointment for the rebels. What had happened? Leeside forensics had provided a graph indicating the dearth of success in recent years. There was a smell of sulphur in the air but no body to be found. For some Corkonians my tongue in cheek tweet was a step too far.
Coming Soon To A Cinema near you.Sherlock Holmes & the case of the missing Cork silverware @DonalOgC @TheSundayGame pic.twitter.com/MLlQVbJPPi
— Paul Collins (@paulcollinstipp) July 26, 2015
Hats off to Anthony Cunningham for his team selection and tactics though. Rather than being the 'Moriarty' figure here, the dropping of the Leeside heads in the last quarter especially after Damien Cahalane's early shower when the game was there for the taking was as much the reason for the rebel destruction.
After that Galway turned the screw. Cork were still in the game heading into the break trailing 1-15 to 0-14 points but they never looked like getting goals. When was the last time that Joe Canning was either equalled or outscored from play by anyone else in the forward unit?
The Portumna star wasn't too bothered by that when I spoke to him afterwards
What a goal by Jonathan Glynn? When that rattled the net in the first minute you had a sense that it was likely to be Galways day and they backed that up in super fashion over the next 70 minutes. 
With the luxury of over 20 wides into the bargain Eamon O Shea will have his work cut out to fashion a winning gameplan against the westerners.
Brian Cody has seen it all before but even the great man is likely to be giving plenty thinking time to the Deise after their great display. Big Dan must have been giving Maurice a few grinds in the back garden on goal taking!
Great day and three more days (at least!) for hurling fans to savour this season. Bring it on!
