Hurling Development Committee (HDC) chairman Paudie O’Neill feels attitudes from both managers and officials towards the Allianz Hurling League will change in the wake of Saturday’s historic All-Ireland SHC vote.

A couple of crucial figures in the performance stats of Kilkenny and Galway can help explain why Brian Cody’s men were crowned All-Ireland senior hurling champions.

A poor final, a poor championship.

On Jackie Tyrrell’s words, Kilkenny unleashed hell, although he’s a little embarrassed by the acclaim that’s come his way courtesy of Colin Fennelly’s revelation.

The frightening thing is they might just be starting out.

Brian Cody has endorsed the idea of the All-Ireland final being moved to August if it means clubs are provided with more meaningful space in the GAA calendar.

Experienced defender Fergal Moore says Galway must learn from the mistakes of previous All-Ireland final losses if they are to bounce back in 2016.

In the end, the gap was four points.

1. Kilkenny’s hunger for victory remains insatiable

Galway needed to be in touch as the game entered the crucial last ten minutes but they faded badly when they needed to kick on, having impressed when leading by three points at half-time.

Kilkenny rob Galway of their early thunder

Kilkenny were not happy with James Owens’ interpretation of an aggressive foul on a number of occasions in the first half.

Nabokov tells us there is no science without fancy, nor art without facts. Can we apply that to yesterday in Croke Park?

He didn’t see the full seventy minutes, but it’s hard to believe he saw any game time at all when you consider his season.

TJ Reid and Joe Canning. One of them came to Croke Park as the Hurler of the Year elect, the other as not even a nailed-on All Star. One of them scored the first goal, which mattered a little, the other the second goal, which mattered not at all.

Brian Cody hailed the work of the Kilkenny medical team after patching together key players throughout the season.

This time it wasn’t different.

A Jackie Tyrrell half-time speech has been heralded as the catalyst behind Kilkenny’s All-Ireland winning second half.

I’d love to have been in both dressingrooms at half-time yesterday because I can almost picture both scenarios. 

Kilkenny 1-22 Galway 1-18: A story of two halves and a familiar ending.

Galway, like Kilkenny, will line-out at Croke Park on Sunday with the same 15.

There is a boost for Cats supporters too as Tyrrell and Power are named among the subs.

In the closing days of August 1975, Paddy Downey, the revered Gaelic games correspondent of The Irish Times, made a little pilgrimage to Kilkenny and had a ball.

The last Galway man to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup believes the Tribesmen “will never get a better chance” to end an All-Ireland senior hurling famine that stretches back to 1988.

When a little more time has passed, it will inevitably become a question among hurling’s barstool brigade: name the man who spent a single year as Kilkenny manager immediately prior to Brian Cody?

After the full Irish breakfast and early morning mass in their Dublin hotel, Cyril Farrell would insist on a quick trip out to the Phoenix Park to allow his Galway hurlers limber out.

If hurling is your thing, All-Irelands measure life.

Cathal Jordan was sitting in the stand at Tuam Stadium when he spotted Cathal Mannion from the corner of his eye.

It was Johnny Glynn’s dispossession of Pádraic Maher two minutes from the end of normal time that told David Collins he’d see Croke Park in September.

If someone from Etihad Airways is reading, do Walter Walsh a favour and renew his RTÉ man-of-the-match voucher from the 2012 All-Ireland final. The man is too humble to ask himself.

All-Ireland fever grips community as local hero Jason Flynn prepares for battle with Kilkenny

You wouldn’t dare say Brian Cody is getting softer now in his 17th year as Kilkenny manager but he would do well to argue he’s not more understanding.

Richie had to be moulded into a Cody player... Cody put manners on him, says Adrian Ronan.

The most decorated manager in Galway hurling history believes Daithí Burke is the defender to tie down Kilkenny talisman Richie Hogan.

Anthony Cunningham’s deep-rooted belief that there is an All-Ireland hurling title in this Galway team motivated his decision to seek a fourth year at the helm.

At the behest of a reader and a Kilkenny friend of ours, we took another look at Barry Kelly’s decision to overturn a Tipperary 65 last Sunday week. 

There was a time, back in the late 1990s and throughout most of the 2000s, when every Galway defeat was followed by plaintive calls from the vanquished westerners to change the system.

Tipperary stalwart John O’Donoghue is adamant the current crop of Premier County hurlers are not good enough to win an All-Ireland, believing their efforts to be hindered by a mental gap.

No surprises what Colm Callanan was focusing on after Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

After the euphoria comes the analysis. Michael Moynihan puts away the emotion to evaluate Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final winners.

No match being an island, the only place any review of last Sunday from the losers’ perspective can begin is with another All Ireland semi-final. The 2012 All Ireland semi-final. Tipperary 1-15 Kilkenny 4-24. 

The intensity of Galway’s performance in Croke Park on Sunday was evident throughout their one-point victory over Tipperary.

Johnny Ryan is in line to referee next month’s All-Ireland senior hurling final. The Tipperary man is understood to face competition from Wexford’s James Owens.

Trevor Hogan is a Tipperary man. His background is rugby. On those two counts, some may disqualify him from commenting on the defeat of his county but they shouldn’t.

Were it not for Eugene Cloonan, Jason Flynn probably wouldn’t have tried his luck from the Cusack Stand side with three seconds of normal time remaining.

Goal after goal vs. save after save…

A departing Eamon O’Shea had to take a sip of water before addressing a question about this, his final game as Tipperary manager.

Yesterday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final was by far the game of the championship so far and Barry Kelly played an important part in the spectacle. He should be commended for his handling of what was a match played out in a great spirit.

All summer we’ve been waiting for this championship to fire. It had been damp. Lifeless even. Nobody could manage to generate the faintest spark.

So shines a good deed in a weary world. Yesterday’s mesmerising All-Ireland hurling semi-final, which remained at issue until the dying seconds, accomplished several things at its conclusion.