GAELIC GAMES:This year's hurling championship will have a long fuse. It was lit yesterday in Thurles with the second National Hurling League semi-final between Waterford and Cork. The two maintained the high-quality rivalry that has illuminated the decade, with another absorbing contest won at the very end by Waterford.

It might not have been quite championship intensity but everything else from the sunshine to the firm pitch was sufficient to put the moderate crowd of 21,450 in mind of the summer to come.

The league final in just under a fortnight and also at Semple Stadium will bring Waterford together with their south-east neighbours Kilkenny, who had an easy win over Wexford in the first semi-final.

Whereas Kilkenny are chasing a third successive league title, Waterford haven't won the title since 1963, a gap centre back Ken McGrath reflected on after the match: "We haven't won a league in 40-something years. Any trophy's important for us really. To play Kilkenny in a final is great experience for the younger lads and will tell a lot about this team for the championship."

Cork led by six points after 22 minutes but an unanswered scoring burst of 1-4 turned the match around and set up a tit-for-tat second half during which the lead extended to more than one score for only a minute.

The victorious manager, Justin McCarthy, will be leading his team into a second NHL final in four years. He said there was an inevitability about yesterday's contest going to the wire but was pleased with Waterford's second-half display.

"It was going to go right down to the end. We played a bit more direct in the second half, kept working, got the scores and didn't give in.

"It was up and down the field but there was a lot of tactics too because there was a lot of watching each other so you weren't going to get high scoring."

Unlike in 2004 when Waterford had only a week between the league final against Galway and the championship first round against Clare, this time around there will be a whole seven weeks between the two fixtures, barring a replay.

"Different situation," McCarthy agreed, "but different opposition too."

Kilkenny's big win, 2-22 to 2-7, was on the cards from the moment Aidan Fogarty scored a goal within seconds of the throw-in.

"We're delighted with the win, and showed good form," said the holders' manager, Brian Cody."

For Wexford's John Meyler the trimming was a disappointment after the high of the previous week's win over Galway: "We were giving a lesson on hurling, and things don't look good at this point. But that was a serious test, and we've an unmerciful amount of work to do to get up to their level. But we'll learn from it. We're trying to keep the lads positive, but it's a hard lesson to take."

Meanwhile, Donegal and Mayo will contest the football league final in Croke Park next week.

The outcome of yesterday's low-key double bill confirmed the theory that the bigger guns were stacked in Division 1A. But it was Kildare who brought the most life to the party yesterday. They pushed the hotly fancied Donegal to the brink in a match distinguished by the firepower of John Doyle but ultimately fell short on a score of 1-13 to 1-11.

The folly of staging this penultimate league game in Croke Park was proven at the turnstiles. Just 23,209 fans came from the four competing counties, a shockingly poor total given the Kildare and Laois match attracted 15,000 in Newbridge a week before.

The Lilywhites were well represented here, but though all the three western-seaboard counties are well supported, few people were tempted across country on a fine, sunny weekend.

It made for a strange and sleepy afternoon in headquarters, the shouts of the players at times the only sounds to be heard.

Neither game was particularly good. Galway and Mayo shadow-boxed for long periods, showcased plenty of mistakes, took heart from a few notable performances and trooped off happy the game could have gone either way.

Mayo maintained their early-season habit of winning narrowly, goals from Ger Brady and Alan Dillon setting them up for a 2-10 to 1-12 victory.

Donegal are the only county to have beaten Mayo in the league and they made hard work of getting the chance to do so again next Sunday, hopefully in front of a considerably fuller Croke Park house.