And then there were 4 - in the chase for Liam.

So it falls to Cork to stop Kilkenny's bid to make it to the September final and continue their battle for for 3 All Ireland senior hurling titles in a row. Some atmosphere in Thurles yesterday and no-one could drag themselves away from the action to beat the traffic queues until the final whistle.

While credit goes to Cork for their battling skills from 8 points down at the break, you would have to say at least a replay was still on for the banner, if not a win, if they could have made more of possession late on.

Some might argue that Cork may have done Clare a favour - Mike Mac's team were lacklustre against Tipp and might have been gobbled up by the Cats in the last 4. One thing's for sure there will be as they say in GAA " a right ding dong" when Cork and Kilkenny meet.
Waterford will play Munster senior hurling Champions Tipperary in the All Ireland semi finals after a 1 point win over Wexford.

Goals in either half from Eoin Kelly and Dan Shanahan.

And afterwards the Deise camp and players were saying they have a fair bit to do to
get set for the Tipp match, while few would argue with that, Waterford simply must win to justify the events of the past few months and give this squad of players due credit for their toil in recent seasons before major open heart surgery on the panel for next season.

There's nothing clearcut either about the draw for the final round of the All Ireland senior football qualifiers. All Ireland Champions Kerry will resume their campaign for 3 in a row against Monaghan next weekend.

Tyrone will play Mayo

Down face Wexford

and Kildare will play Fermanagh

The Ernesiders went into the draw

after losing to Armagh in the Ulster Final replay in Clones, that's despite the fact that the Vodafone big match stats show fermanagh had 55 per cent of the possession.

The Orchard County won their 7th Ulster Football title in 10 years with a 1-11 to 8 points win in Clones, experience obviously does count.