Same again won’t work for Galway

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.

“They should just hand over the MacCarthy Cup now and let us get on with watching Euro 2012 and the Olympics,” declared the unhappy (albeit not half as unhappy as he would be on the evening of August 19th) youth.

Chances are Liam O’Neill will still end up handing over the MacCarthy Cup to Eoin Larkin tomorrow evening after the Terminator — more battered than before, but still tooled up and still scenting blood — kicks in the door in the final scene to exact predictable revenge on the opponent who gave him such a going-over earlier in the movie.