Cork’s lines all stood up to the task against Kilkenny at Semple Stadium yesterday

On the one hand in Sunday’s Leinster SHC final in Croke Park you have Dublin, four huge games in four weeks, a draw and a replay before Wexford were conquered, another draw and another replay to slay the dragon, send Kilkenny to the qualifiers.

Galway skipper Fergal Moore was rushed to Clonmel hospital after suffering a horror injury in yesterday’s Allianz National Hurling League Division 1 semi-final.

It leaps from the mind’s eye as one of the standout moments of the 2012 championship, as one of the standout moments of any recent championship.

The sideline regulation controversy is not an obsession for this corner of the newspaper — not just yet anyway — but the matter continues to raise questions, despite Croke Park’s keenness to draw a line under the matter.

Solving a problem that didn’t exist and creating needless other issues in the process.

Last summer Tom Helebert stood on the sideline as a Galway selector in the All-Ireland semi-final while Ger Cunningham did the same job for Cork.

Carlow 1-9 Galway 2-15

Former captain Shane Kavanagh has been recalled to the extended Galway hurling squad for 2013.

Galway hurling manager Anthony Cunningham isn’t a man for looking back and enjoying the past. His focus is firmly on the future.

Much as thought they celebrated it at the time, I’d say a lot of Galway people are today half-wishing that Joe Canning had actually missed that last free in the drawn All-Ireland final a few weeks ago.

In the end, they just shook hands and exchanged mild salutations.

In the last 10 minutes of yesterday’s All-Ireland final replay, Henry Shefflin went into the corner.

On cold, logical examination of what happened in the drawn game , Kilkenny must be favoured to win tomorrow’s All-Ireland SHC final replay. Don’t go running to the bookies yet, though.

Much has been argued over what Joe Canning said a couple of weeks ago about Henry Shefflin and his unsportsmanlike efforts to influence the referee in the drawn All-Ireland final.

“Hurling is not an exact science. We need to be careful that we understand that.

Galway manager Anthony Cunningham last night moved to defuse any ill-feeling there might be in Kilkenny over a remark passed by Joe Canning last week in relation to Henry Shefflin, the Irish Examiner has reported.

Galway manager Anthony Cunningham last night moved to defuse any ill-feeling there might be in Kilkenny over a remark passed by Joe Canning last week in relation to Henry Shefflin.

What’s all this fuss about Joe Canning and what he said?

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.

He is quiet and unassuming but Anthony Cunningham can let fly in a dressing-room — usually starts with the strongest player and working his way back, says John Fallon

FINAL DEBATE: Will the Galway management pay for ditching so much experience?

Since 2006, Kilkenny have played Limerick, Waterford and Tipperary in All-Ireland finals.

So often in recent decades a Galway senior hurling team has come to Croke Park with hopes high and so often, against Cork especially, those hopes have been dashed.

“Semi-finals are for winning.”

One thing that struck me on the way to Croke Park yesterday, the number of Galway supporters around the place.

There are some causes lost before they are even ventured.

There’s something to be said for naming the same starting 15 week after week after week – in fact there’s a lot to be said for it.

You can’t start anywhere else but Galway today and their aggression.

One is Yin to the other’s Yang, one is Zig, the other Zag — we’re talking about Tom Helebert and Mattie Kenney, not so much Galway manager Anthony Cunningham’s two right-hand men as one his right hand, the other his left.

Anthony Cunningham and his two selectors had yet to sit down before the first words were out of the Galway manager’s mouth.

Who would, or could, have predicted this result?

The Galway team named to face Offaly in Sunday's Leinster SHC semi-final shows three changes to the side that beat Westmeath last time out.

Westmeath staged a passionate and purposeful comeback to win Saturday’s lively Leinster SHC clash at Mullingar.

Waterford put a stormy week behind them to eke out a two-point win away to Galway yesterday, a gritty victory which owed much to Shane Walsh’s match-turning goal.

A first Allianz National Hurling League victory of the season for Tipperary and a first defeat for Galway were the main talking points from a high-scoring encounter at Semple Stadium yesterday.

There have been so many false dawns by the Tribesmen down through the years that Galway hurling folk must be afraid to look out the window this morning.

Joe Canning fired Galway into the Walsh Cup final and past a lacklustre Laois in a sodden Duggan Park in Ballinasloe yesterday.

It’s hard to know what was more impressive – the ruthless exhibition dished out by Galway to the students on the pitch or the marker put down by new Tribe boss Anthony Cunningham afterwards.

KILKENNY hurling legend Henry Shefflin is facing the prospect of six months on the sideline recovering from shoulder surgery, it emerged yesterday.

Thomas Codd and Murty Dempsey have been chosen to assist new Wexford senior hurling manager Liam Dunne for his first season in charge.

NEW Galway hurling boss Anthony Cunningham has dropped one third of the team which started the All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford this year in a massive clear-out.

As widely predicted, Anthony Cunningham was officially unveiled as the new Galway senior hurling manager tonight at a specially convened meeting of the county's Hurling Board.

ANTHONY CUNNINGHAM will tonight be named the new Galway senior hurling manager.