The club has always been, and will continue to be, the most important unit within the Gaelic Athletic Association and it was heartening to see intercounty players slog it out with those they grew up with in an effort to advance their clubs.
Despite Limerick's loss to Clare in the championship, supporters turned out in fine numbers to assist their teams and, for the best part, there were some fine games of hurling.
The championship is now entering a critical stage and those who have thoughts of advancing will need to show signs that they have the capabilities to jump the various obstacles that will come their way and, from what we have seen so far, there are a few teams that have the necessary ingredients to take their game to the next level, but they can rest assured that they will be well tested because, as this championship progresses, we will see the real character come through in many young men. Sport does not build character it exposes the lack of it.

Professionalism embraced
For some time now many clubs will have been training extremely hard in an effort to push their performances to a higher level. The whole club scene has now embraced the professional era in the way that they prepare for championships.
This in itself is great to see, but there are other clubs who find it extremely difficult to build numbers at their training sessions and this makes the job of all concerned extremely difficult, however, much of that changes with a win and, in some ways, it ignites what up to that might be a tame enough year.
The Limerick hurling championship, at both intermediate and senior, certainly has produced some good games so far, but I feel we have yet to see the best of the hurling at club level.
The draw which was made in Kilmallock on Sunday night has produced some games of interest and only those teams with character, will to win and skill will come through from now on.

Granagh-Ballingarry
I got to see quite a number of the games over last weekend and a team that are certainly heading in the right direction are Granagh-Ballingarry.
They showed great maturity, despite having a young team, in the way that they saw off the tame challenge of Croom. Granagh-Ballingarry have been making steady progress over the last few years and tremendous credit is due to all concerned within the club.
With the minimum of fuss this club is certainly going in the right direction and, from the shadow of the Knockfierna Hill they have worked extremely hard in building the foundation for this senior hurling team and, before this championship is ended, they have the potential to test many teams.
Granagh-Ballingarry was formed in 1990 after the two clubs merged.
Since then it has proven to have been the right decision. They won the junior hurling title in 1998, and defeated Glenrue in 2005 in one of the best intermediate finals that I have ever seen. That game was played in Kilmallock and the west Limerick side won it 4-10 to 3-10. The average age of the current team is 23 and that certainly provides the basis for a very bright future.
In their game against Croom, they displayed a maturity that was lacking last year and they are now hurling well within themselves. I arrived at their game an hour before the starting time and, even at that stage, they were in the thick of their warm-up, expertly administrated by their trainer John Lacey. It was at that stage that I was convinced that this team were serious in their approach and very focused in the job that lay before them.
They were hopping when they hit the field and moved with great purpose whereas Croom seemed laboured, even in their warm-up, and, for long stages, that also characterised their play once the match started.
The opening quarter saw the sides level at 0-3 a piece, but there were signs that Granagh-Ballingarry were the much sharper team and their striking was crisp and direct. This was to result in many superb scores particularly from the very impressive Denis O'Connor, Michael Clancy, Niall McCarthy and Eoin Kennedy.
Croom, who have many fine hurlers within their team, seemed to have adopted the hand-passing game under their new coach Bernie O'Connor.
The difficulty though is that his charges were unable to play this game to the same level as O'Connor's club, Newtownshandrum, can.
O'Connor is a believer in the hand-passing game and retaining possession but, to do that, you need hurlers with great stick work. The difficulty for Croom was that all too often the moves broke down as a result of poor control and often mis-directed passes.
Granagh-Ballingarry, on the other hand, adopted a more straight-forward approach and it was rewarded with some superb scores - one of the finest of them came when Michael Clancy calmly blasted to the net after tremendous work from the veteran Séamus Stapleton, now in the autumn of his career, who crossed a magnificent ball and Michael Clancy showed his ball retrieving abilities and converted.
Peter Lawlor had his hands full in trying to contain the Granagh-Ballingarry centre-forward, Denis O'Connor who finished the game with 0-6 to his credit from frees, play and an absolute beauty from the sideline.
O'Connor has a magnificent pair of hands and executed some excellent scores and, while he may at times lack some pace, it is amazing that he cannot make the Limerick under-21 hurling panel.
Stephen Lucey played at centre-forward for his club and, while he did score two fine points, he never really had the better of the impressive David Clancy at centre-back for Granagh-Ballingarry.

Croom relied heavily on John Barry to score points and he finished the day with 0–9, but, in essence, the Croom forward line did not function, but much of the credit for that is down to the Granagh-Ballingarry defence.
Mark O'Riordan did play some outstanding hurling for Croom, but he never received the necessary support while Donal O'Grady, once again, mopped up most of the ball around midfield and scored two superb points.
When it looked like Croom would make a battle of this, it was O'Grady who quenched any ambition they might have with some magnificent work and no-nonsense hurling.

Favourable draw
As this championship progresses Granagh-Ballingarry, with a favourable draw, certainly do have the potential to cause an upset. Their hurling is fast and they avail of the open spaces, but they will find out a lot more about themselves from now on because, as we enter the business end of the championship, experience can be a telling factor and often, knowing how to win can be the difference between winning and losing.

Kilmallock
One team that certainly has enjoyed its share of winning down through the years is Kilmallock, although it seems a lifetime since they won their last county championship they are endeavouring to get it right in 2008.
They have adopted a very professional approach under newly-appointed manager Peter Finn, however, they were tested by Garryspillane last weekend and, had the game gone on for a few more minutes, they might well have been in some difficulty as The Bouncers piled on the pressure and amassed a tally of 20 points, but it was still not enough to overcome Kilmallock.
Paudie O'Dwyer gave an exhibition at midfield while Mark Cronin, Paudie O'Brien and Brian O'Sullivan were very much to the fore. Garryspillane displayed their battling qualities, but they left themselves with too much work to do for the second half.
They meet Na Piarsaigh in the next round and that will be a real test for them because the city side were very impressive in their eight-point win over Bruree.

Na Piarsaigh
Na Pairsaigh have a lot of talented hurlers and they showed a little bit more steel in their play in their win over the former champions. They also have a great pace to their game and they are blessed that the majority of their players are exceptionally good stickmen.
They have, in the past, overcome Garryspillane, but from memory I think that was in 2003.
The Bouncers subsequently went on to win senior honours and their experience combined with Na Piarsaigh's energy should guarantee a most entertaining contest when they meet in the next round of the championship.

Tournafulla
Tremendous credit is due to Tournafulla as they displayed a 'never say die' spirit to overcome Claughaun in Kilmallock last Sunday evening.
The opening half was pedestrian enough despite having a brace of goals from each side.
We had much better fare in the second half and when all seemed lost, and a draw looked inevitable, a Noel Horgan free went straight to the net to give Tournafulla a famous victory and put them through to the next round.
Tournafulla deserve huge credit. They lost a number of players to Australia and elsewhere, but their passion for hurling is unquenchable and as long as there is such passion running through the veins of the men of this west Limerick club you can be assured that the game of hurling will not only survive but thrive.

Home advantage
The Limerick hurlers and footballers were favoured with home advantage in the All Ireland qualifiers.
The hurlers take on Offaly and, despite what people are saying locally, they can be assured that Offaly won't be travelling to Limerick just to fulfil the fixture.
Limerick have suffered at the hands of Offaly on previous occasions and it will take a determined effort from all Limerick players to overcome the Faithful County.
It would be folly to judge Offaly on their Leinster championship defeat to Kilkenny. I have seen them twice in the National Hurling League and Joe Dooley is building a new team. If we underestimate them in any way then our task will be made all the more difficult.
The Limerick footballers are working very hard in training and they have drawn Meath - one of the toughest teams in championship football.
They let a 10-point lead slip in against Wexford and they will see the Limerick game as an ideal way of re-energising their year.
Meath have good forwards and they will require careful watching - the work rate of the Limerick team will be tested in this encounter and if Mickey Ned O'Sullivan's dream of having Limerick play in Croke Park this season is to come to fruition then they will have to better their performance significantly against Meath.
His task was made all the more difficult at the weekend when Tom Cahill broke a bone in his hand in the west championship and Pádraig Browne pulled a hamstring in the senior hurling championship against Claughaun.

Camogie
Some weeks ago I made comment regarding the camogie set up in Limerick for 2008. It appears that matters have deteriorated even further with the news that John Ryan is no longer manager as and from last weekend.
In the past I have mentioned how the numbers at training were particularly poor and I believe that the average at training has been between seven and 10 players.
This is very disappointing news as we were all hoping that they would build upon their success of last year. There are many superb people doing tremendous work for Camogie, but there is a need to sort out whatever issues are preventing progress being made.