“We’re looking for a good attitude at this time of year, lads to go out and just play. To use their hurling instinct and take it on. You’d be looking for the work-rate to be strong. And it was very good.”

Kilkenny’s players didn’t disappointment manager Brian Cody against Cork.

“Kilkenny were contesting more ball than we were.”

Rebel supremo John Meyler had a similar take on the match.

“For me, the most important thing is the attitude right now. Even if you were winning matches, you might be worried if the attitude wasn’t 100pc. But I am going home tonight knowing the attitude was fantastic.”

John Kiely and Liam MacCarthy Cup holders Limerick enjoyed a winning start to their Division 1A campaign in Innovate Wexford Park.

“It was a game we could have won. We hit the post at the end and the lads are after telling me we hit the goalkeeper’s helmet as well. We had two other chances which we didn’t take either.”

Davy Fitzgerald and Wexford were left to rue to the cost of missed scoring opportunities.

“It’s only the end of January, there will be no one getting carried away or anything but, from our point of view, I think, in front of our home crowd on our home patch, it was important we put in a performance and we did that.”

The league got off to a good start for Liam Sheedy and Tipp.

“After what happened two weeks ago below in Limerick, we felt we had to come out all guns blazing. Clare wiped the field with us the last day so we knew that they were going to come again similar.”

Tipperary were determined to ensure that lightning didn’t strike twice, according to ‘man-of-the-match’ Padraic Maher.

“We were coming back into the game and I couldn’t really see it but a lot of your colleagues told me, from looking back on replays it seemed to be quite harsh.”

Tony Kelly’s sending-off had a big bearing on the Thurles clash and Clare joint-manager Donal Moloney revealed he didn’t see the incident in real time.

“Nights like tonight, it’s important to just get the win and just get two points on the table.”

It was a case of mission accomplished for Mattie Kenny and Dublin against Carlow in Parnell Park on Saturday evening.

“This is a learning curve for Carlow. It’s a case that we came up and we knew the standard that we were moving up to. It’s a hell of a standard.”

Barrowsiders boss Colm Bonnar was proud of his players’ effort against the Dubs.

“It’s a big total to concede and obviously we wouldn’t be happy with it.”

Micheal Donoghue’s Galway finished with nine point to spare over Laois but he wasn’t happy with their defending.

“We were under no illusions what kind of task we were facing even though that is probably not anywhere near Galway’s championship team.”

Laois gave a good account of themselves against the Tribesmen, in the opinion of their manager Eddie Brennan.

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