Shane McGrath joined Off The Ball to discuss the weekend's high-scoring hurling matches and why defences are so porous.
The former Tipperary hurler spoke to us about a weekend that saw an outstanding match in Thurles, where Clare went down to Limerick 0-36 to 1-23.
Hurling
So why are we seeing such huge scores?
"I know one thing is coming up is the amount of scores in the matches. I was reading up that even in the Dublin-Laois game, there were 36 scores in Portlaoise and 56 in Croke Park. There were 42 scores in the 2019 Limerick-Clare game and there were 62 scores on Sunday.
"A lot of people are talking about the weight and the colour of the sliotar. I don't think that the weight has anything to do with it; even the zones, 29 out of the 36 scores were from the 65 or inside of it.
"For Clare, 22 out of the 24 were the same. We have seen people put the ball over the bar from the 65 for a long time now. Go back to 1995 and Seanie McMahon standing over those 65s and popping them over for fun.
"I don't know about the weight of the sliotar - people get carried away.
"The reason for me that the scores are so high is there is no crowd. Players aren't as nervous because you can't replicate the noise that 40-80,000 people are going to bring. If you don't hear that, and you don't hear the 'aahs' and the 'oohs', you just don't have the same level of tension and you're not so uptight about taking on a shot.
"I think the no crowds are going to be a factor in this Championship."
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