Kilkenny played the best hurling of the weekend but I think the semi-final draw suits Waterford, as they will have fewer hang-ups about Cork than they would about Kilkenny.

Yesterday was disappointing for Tipperary and raised the question of how much the improvement in the Munster final was down to home advantage and the tradition of the occasion. I thought they might kick on from that but if anything they went backwards.

Midfield was below par and both players were taken off as well as two of three half forwards. Only John Carroll rose to the occasion and gave his best display in a couple of years. Waterford were clearly the better team and if Tipp had sneaked a draw at the end it wouldn't have been deserved. They needed goals to stay in touch but didn't get enough.

There were also some terrible wides. Paul Kelly had a couple and so did Lar Corbett. Although Eoin Kelly played well his marker Eoin Murphy also did well on him in general play and the quality of the ball going through was poor.

Waterford featured some excellent displays. Dan Shanahan was man of the match and destroyed all the backs Tipp tried on him but Ken McGrath was also outstanding and his influence grew as the game wore on. John Mullane played well on Paul Ormonde who's a tidy corner back and Brick Walsh was the best midfielder on view.

Waterford can be happy with breaking the Croke Park hoodoo and will prefer Cork to Kilkenny. Cork's three-in-a-row ambitions are going to be really tested.

Yesterday's other quarter-final was totally predictable. Clare would have been better off with a challenge amongst themselves down in Ennis. It's a serious issue for hurling that a county as important as Wexford seems to be disappearing off the map. It was noticeable that the county support, which had come out for the Leinster final, wasn't there. They knew what was coming.

Saturday's Kilkenny-Galway quarter-final was a strange game. Kilkenny came out at first and did what they did in 2004 and looked like they were taking revenge on Galway for their temerity in beating them last year. For 25 minutes they played the best hurling we've seen this year even allowing for how disorganised the opposition had become.

But for the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes Kilkenny looked in terrible trouble. Their full-back line was under pressure and Damien Hayes missed a good chance by taking his eye off the ball after seven minutes. If that had gone in it might have galvanised Galway for a while longer.

Kilkenny then got a very, very soft goal. I've some sympathy for Liam O'Donoghue because the sun in Thurles is very hard to play into but Galway brought it on themselves. They seemed intent on banging into their opponents as some sort of statement and the free given away by Cathal Connolly was ridiculous and ended up in the net.

It was unusual to see Kilkenny naming a dummy team but all the obvious switches worked well and there was an awful lot to like about them in the first half. "Cha" Fitzpatrick was outstanding in the middle of the field, Aidan Fogarty was very sharp and a welcome addition to the attack and Henry Shefflin was back to his regal best. When he came out to number 10 Galway couldn't handle it. Two-seven or 2-8 came very easy and by half-time the game was over.

You could say that Kilkenny took the foot off the gas but they were made to look very ordinary. When they analyse the game they'll be unhappy at how they went from playing the best hurling of the year to being in a bit of a shambles.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was how close Limerick pushed Cork in Saturday's first quarter-final. This was a very awkward game for Cork because Limerick had nothing to lose. At times Cork looked like they could annihilate Limerick but there was always some little thing that went wrong, for instance Ben O'Connor missing a ball out on the sideline. They were always short of their best.

Cork had everything to lose. There was wind and spilling rain - all the ingredients for a hanging.The game was there for Limerick but they lacked discipline. Ollie Moran mishit a couple of frees when they needed to keep the pressure on but overall it was a huge improvement on the Clare debacle.

However it's been a disappointing year for Limerick. They needed to get to an All-Ireland final or win something, possibly a Munster title. They showed on Saturday they were capable of getting close to that.

In the second half they started scoring. Mike O'Brien got two points. Brian Begley came off and Pat Tobin came on and started to run at Cork. Limerick ended up with a chance to win the match but they needed a goal. Even so, Cork were hanging on at the end and a sucker punch could have finished their championship.

In the end the team with the most potential came through but they looked like they were running out of gas. Ronan Curran particularly and a couple of others stood up but the rest of the performance was under par. It never flowed for them and they never looked comfortable.

Joe Deane dropped a free short in the first half, Jerry O'Connor hit some dreadful wides when Limerick were there to be put away and a ball from Brian Murphy to Seán Óg went over the sideline. They held their nerve impressively at the end but they've slipped in both their matches since beating Clare.