The best hurling match of the year by several lengths, Waterford-Kilkenny wasn't a game that had too many truly neutral eyes on it. A byproduct of Kilkenny's achievement in the Brian Cody era.
In a performance that few anticipated, especially following the limp nature of the semi last year, Waterford frightened the wits out of Kilkenny in a feverish seventy minutes.
Somehow, with the exit door looming, and having failed to create a proper goalscoring chance in the previous 68 minutes, Kilkenny rustled up a late goal through Walter Walsh.
The sensational Pauric Mahony romped home with the Player of the Week award, accumulating 46% of the vote against some stiff competition.
Any other weekend, Lee Keegan and Ciaran Kilkenny would have been hard beaten. Kilkenny managed a staggering 52 possessions across the 70 minutes of the Dublin-Donegal game, more even than David Moran accumulated in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final in Limerick.
Lee Keegan delivered a stunningly influential performance. Nullifying Sean Cavanagh and sallying forward and kicking two important points into the bargain. He confirmed his reputation as one of the finest players in the country and a world class pain in the posterior.
