Francis Forde: This Galway team refuses to die

It’s a statistic you’ll have already come across this week, but one that is worth repeating: Outside of Kilkenny, only Cork, in 2004/05, have successfully defended Liam MacCarthy in the 30-year period since Galway’s back-to-back triumph of 1987/88.

Tipperary are the example routinely put forward to highlight how difficult the task is. No Premier team has managed said feat since 1965. There have been six All-Ireland final victories in the meantime, six one-in-a-rows.