This showpiece of Cork senior hurling struggled to come to life as a contest in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.

The first point to be made about this game is that the better team won.

In the drawn final Galway were missing the composure necessary to use possession tellingly in counter attacks in the second half.

The battle lines were drawn before the game when Galway showed the fruits of their planning.

Galway’s plans for tomorrow will be simple — get the ball to Damien Hayes and Joe Canning.

The statistic that jumps out from Sunday’s game is the scoreline for the last 25 minutes.

History informs the future.

From the outside everything looked to be going well for Cork when the half-time whistle went and they were level with Galway.

Galway went into their last game with no expectation.

Cork showed good character in coming from behind to beat Waterford.