NOT quite on a wing and a prayer, but Galway can only hope that the benefit of their round-robin games, combined with a more structured approach to club activity, will have aided their preparations for Sunday’s Guinness All-Ireland Hurling quarter-final against Tipperary.

Up until last season, Tipperary and Offaly had never met in the All-Ireland hurling championship but they clash for the second time in 12 months today.

When Wexford clashed with Antrim in the All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park on August 8, 1954, who would have thought that it would be all of 49 years before the counties would next meet in the championship?