Hurling's wholesome undead defying gravity by hook or spook

ALL YEARS settle to grimace or smile and down the line 2012 will be a rictus in collective memory. Rain pilfered so many skies, June and July and August. The forecast for tomorrow is good and sunshine would be a sliver of compensation after so Gothic a summer, one in which Kilkenny chimed with the weather by becoming the undead.

The ultimate result is pending and victory for Galway, for the first time in 24 years, would be a hallmark delivered with an axe.

And yet the champions, whatever happens, will have left an impression unlikely to dissolve even if there is a downpour from here to Christmas and the Nore swells round the Castle and the Corrib swallows the Twelve Pins and Marty Morrissey morphs into Vincent Price.

Four weeks past, hurling pundits must have felt they were locked in a rackety mansion, fearful of mirrors. There has come to be something uncanny about Kilkenny, an energy in excess of meadow physics. Things are meant to come and flourish, have their day, and then die back, leaving all to compost.

“We only bloom once,” said John McGahern.

Then Kilkenny, the wholesome undead.

They might well go down tomorrow but it would be a loss rather than a defeat. Whatever happens, they will be front force in 2013. Would anyone have predicted such with confidence in late 2010, as Tipperary eyed the decade like a vampire hoisting his cloak before a maiden?

The moment passed.

You could call it the wonderful and frightening world of counter-intuition. Had the five-in- a-row been won, Tipperary would probably have taken 2011, leaving them in rude health for a right spell. The death of the coveted drive for five sent blood to Kilkenny parts mere success could not reach.

Which or whether, the current team endure in open air, hurling’s version of those Easter Island statues, all the more impressive for their part in the inexplicable. The Dublin footballers were deemed hoist last weekend with lack of hunger. Seven seasons in a row, Brian Cody has sent out ravening sides.

It has gone beyond a poke, mere rousing of the troops. Gravity is being defied, by hook or by spook.

Galway supporters must love this narrative. Ten weeks after they eviscerated Leinster final opposition, they are back in the same place, hands hanging in scant chance saloon.

I would be nothing so sure.

The bookmakers’ odds are a farce. Three of their forwards – David Burke, Joe Canning and Damien Hayes – are in better form than any Tipp attacker mustered this summer.

Again, unlike almost every other outfit, they have a corner back to mark Henry Shefflin. Presuming the match up happens, Fergal Moore’s clash with same will be a fascinating subplot.

The co-ordinates stack easily enough for a Galway triumph. To a remarkable degree, pressure has sluiced away from them. If they have the nerve, they have the verve.

Same time, Galway would want to fork hay. There are no guarantees about soon being back on September grass. The rest of this decade should see the most competitive seasons in hurling history, with eight serious contenders around 2015. Maybe even a couple more, if Offaly and Wexford square their shoulders.

Allow me the cliché about no time like the present. Galway are 70 minutes away from highest heaven with a backline whose spine has prompted much muttering. What else, though? Tellingly, when their U21 management went looking for a replacement defender in the All Ireland semi-final, they introduced a minor, Paul Killeen.

Kevin Hynes and Tony Óg Regan might not be Brian Lohan and Seánie McMahon, but Galway look already to have harvested the one candidate of requisite quality in that back six, Johnny Coen.

Some version of the current defence will have to serve for a while.

So, the present, first and last and always. Hurling’s undergrowth is astir.

Clare are favourites for next Saturday in Semple Stadium and should be there again in 12 months’ time.

The under-21 Munster final reiterated Tony Kelly’s brilliance. Consistently sent zipped ball, Darach Honan and Conor McGrath would be a laxative for any full-back line. Will Davy Fitz do zipped ball?

Limerick leave the season far haler than they entered it. Dublin are nothing like as unpromising as self-painted. Nor have Tipperary gone away, so long as a proper manager sits down. This time round, Cork are probably more asparagus than mushrooms, cropping in the third year.

We shall enjoy all that seeing in the coming times. Right now, one last facet.

A preview in these pages of the Kilkenny-Limerick quarter-final mentioned a certain stripe of fastidiousness, a strain that would blanch at an All- Ireland won via the back door.

Such sentiment exists in the county. If anything, it became more pronounced after the semi-final, once the havoc wreaked on Tipp was weighed and pronounced the measure of several All Irelands. The maiden has been decked with garlic.

As per Peter Mandelson on the filthy rich, much of the Kilkenny support is intensely relaxed about coming home disappointed.

Mainly, their desire centres on seeing the reign of Henry the Ninth.

But it is not the supporters who will be out on the pitch. Planted there will 15 good hurlers, iron intent to right matters.

All men have secrets and here is mine: Galway in a tight one or Kilkenny by eight plus.

Any queasiness about the indirect route, should the latter win by a bit, is offset.

Basically, Kilkenny would have been beaten in the championship but twice since 2006, carrying four injuries on both occasions.

2010: Brian Hogan, Henry Shefflin, John Tennyson, Tommy Walsh. 2012: JJ Delaney, Colin Fennelly, Michael Fennelly, Michael Rice.

Like sex, sport rarely does neatness. Tomorrow should surprise.

Goalkeeping performance will be crucial. Neither man has convinced.

The sun, having every choice, shone this week. Emphatically an outdoor occasion, tomorrow is Croke Park and daylight, far from Bram Stoker and moonlight.

Praise be, after such a summer, whatever the result.