Against men, not giants, now is Galway’s time. But...

A few minutes after the 2012 All-Ireland final replay Conor Hayes, on duty with Galway Bay FM, was making his way out of the press area in Croke Park when he stopped for a moment. “I once asked an old man what was the best time to cut a hawthorn stick,” Hayes announced.

“Now,’ he said.” Now. Today. When Galway enter the fray with, unprecedentedly, six outings behind them. Tried, tested, planed, sanded, burnished.

Now. Today. When Kilkenny enter the fray with Richie Power, the man who dragged them over the finishing line 12 months ago, not having hurled a single inter-county minute in the meantime.