So there we were, on the seventh level of the Hogan Stand three weeks ago.

Tommy O’Connell was chatting to a couple of friends in the Croke Park Hotel an hour or two before last year’s All-Ireland final when Jimmy Magee passed by. One of the friends buttonholed Magee and, pointing to O’Connell, asked him why this man had a place in hurling history.

Of all the things that will exercise Brian Cody ahead of the All-Ireland hurling final replay, few will grate more than the thought that Anthony Cunningham has his measure.

Teatime Saturday... A thought strikes.

Let’s begin where we left off back in late May, on the eve of the championship, with the text message sent by a glum young man from south Tipperary a few hours after Kilkenny had sauntered to the National League title.

And now the end is near, and so we face the final curtain...

There was, as a once-popular Scandinavian quartet might have put it, something in the air that night.

Cork and Waterford. The curtain-raiser tomorrow where a few years back it would have been the feature event.

It was an hour or so after the Cork/Tipp semi-final last month and we were hanging around outside the Blackrock clubhouse when a gentleman in a blue and gold jersey was heard to utter the following words.

There is only one place to start. Croke Park, July 18, 1976.