Clare saga has ended - I wonder will the abuse end too?

As I sit down to discuss this weekend's quarter-finals, the news has just broken about all three lads being cleared to play. I'd love if the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) meeting was 24 hours later, then I wouldn't have to write about it as I would have had my column submitted.

But it's the elephant in the room now so I may as well speak about it and get it out of the way. The reality here is, no matter what I say or write about it, there is a certain cohort of people who will not believe me, and also just continue to abuse me and that’s fine, if that’s what people want to do.

I have never experienced the levels of online abuse that I have been subjected to over the last ten days, but obviously that is where society is gone.

I have been involved in sendings off, as have my team-mates, and when you go about an appeal they are very stressful times for players and families. Trust me, I've seen it first hand.

If I am nothing else since I started work on The Sunday Game, I am most certainly pro players. Not being long out of the game I know full well what players do, and what they want.

Whenever a chance has presented itself, in recent times or times ahead, if it makes sense I will back players more so than anybody else. Seeing the lads get cited, followed by proposed bans and suspensions, gave me absolutely zero satisfaction, and I mean that.

"Emotions are always running high in a Munster Championship game, you're always trying to get something on the opponent. But it’s really important we keep them in check." Brendan Cummins examines some unsavoury incidents during the Munster final. #SundayGame #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/xYpQ66Alm3

It is not very nice, and players go through a hard time. A lot of people disagree with what was