He’ll be in the Galway dressing room today - the minor one. Two years ago Tony Óg Regan’s dream of a senior All-Ireland with his beloved maroon and white was smashed by a phone call from Anthony Cunningham. Bitter now? No. Hurt? Wouldn’t you be?

Mia Hamm is a legend of women’s soccer in the United States. She is retired some ten years but she is still revered Stateside.

Since 2008 Niall Corcoran has soldiered with the Dublin senior hurlers and after watching his native Galway take provincial honours last year, he was delighted to secure an historic Leinster SHC success with the Dubs yesterday.

Many question marks surrounded both teams before the Leinster hurling final.

Dublin manager Anthony Daly has unsurprisingly named an unchanged team for Sunday's Leinster SHC final against defending champions Galway at Croke Park (throw-in 4pm).

At this stage of the league semi-finals the remaining team managers have different needs.

Munster 1-22 Connacht 0-15

Kilkenny record breaker Henry Shefflin leads the nominations for the 2012 GAA GPA All-Star Hurler of the Year award, but faces stiff competition from his team-mate Paul Murphy and Galway star Joe Canning.

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.

Kilkenny 3-22 Galway 3-11

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

Kilkenny 3-22 Galway 3-11

The Galway hurlers suffered an injury scare last night which threatened to disrupt their preparations for their All-Ireland SHC final replay against Kilkenny.

Before I talk about the game I want to compliment the GAA on the whole package yesterday.

Galway 2-13 Kilkenny 0-19

Galway boss Anthony Cunningham was in bullish form following yesterday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final, insisting his players will “kick on” and improve considerably for the replay with Kilkenny on September 30.

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

Galway 2-13 Kilkenny 0-19

Kilkenny and Galway have both made one change from their respective semi-final wins for tomorrow’s All-Ireland SHC final.

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.

As is my practice before All-Ireland finals, I visited both counties during the week and discovered contrasting moods.

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.

The last 50 minutes of yesterday’s game may have betrayed the intensity of the opening 20 but Andy Smith insists the game will have battle-hardened Galway going into next month’s All-Ireland final.

Wing forward Cyril Donnellan has been included in the Galway team for tomorrow's All-Ireland SHC semi-final clash with Cork at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).

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.

Galway came to Croke Park on Sunday with a game plan and took the final to Kilkenny from the throw-in.

A historic day in Croke Park yesterday, Galway crowned Leinster senior hurling champions for the first time after a first-half display of crushing dominance; a day that may also go down in history for another reason, however, the day an empire began to crumble.

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?

David Collins has recovered from injury to take his place in the Galway team for tomorrow's Leinster SHC final against Kilkenny.

You want to know the challenge facing Galway in the Leinster SHC this Sunday?

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.

Happy days for the Galway senior hurlers in Portlaoise on Saturday afternoon after this Allianz Hurling League Division 1A relegation replay, their top division status maintained for another year, Dublin demoted to 1B just a year after being crowned champions.

Peter Kelly and Paul Ryan have returned from injury to take their places in the Dublin team to face Galway in Sunday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1A relegation play-off.

Kilkenny 3-26 Galway 0-10

The Tipperary senior hurling team to play Cork in the Allianz NHL Division 1A clash at Semple Stadium on Sunday shows four changes from the team which started in last weekend’s drawn game with Dublin.

Cork U21 football captain Rory O’Sullivan will miss the rest of their campaign after damaging his cruciate ligament for the second time in just over a year during Wednesday night’s Munster semi-final victory over Clare.

A youthful Galway were given a lesson yesterday as Kilkenny swept them aside to claim the Walsh Cup at Pearse Stadium.

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

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

AS is traditional, the sky looked as threatening as the bookies on the first day of the Galway Races in Ballybrit.

The Galway hurling team is unchanged ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford in Thurles.