NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE: GALWAY v TIPPERARY: Keith Dugganon how it has been a long road since Tipperary and Galway produced the rivalry that was the epicentre of the hurling world and why tomorrow is just another mile on the journey back

IN 1988, Tipperary visited Nowlan Park for an eagerly-anticipated National Hurling League match with Kilkenny. Galway were the All-Ireland champions then but the meeting of these two still generated a lot of heat.

The previous year, Tipperary had awoken in Munster, winning a rapturously-greeted provincial title and the prevailing enthusiasm probably contributed to the swelling crowds that were still trying to get into the ground as throw-in time approached.

It was estimated 20,000 people turned up for that game and afterwards few could have felt they got their money’s worth.

Tipp fielded a strong team – Ken Hogan, Conor O’Donovan, Pat Fox, Colm Bonnar, Nicky English were all on the starting 15. On the drive home, they decided this was a game to forget. The final score was 2-12 to 0-4 to Kilkenny.

THE VISITORS’ impoverished scoreline looks even worse given two of them came courtesy of frees from Fox. Michael Phelan got the Kilkenny goals, he struck early for the first one and soon, the match fell into something between a procession and a rout. Memories of the match flashed across Conor O’Donovan’s mind during the dazzling bombardment of goals and points that Kilkenny inflicted on Tipp a few weeks ago.

“Sometimes teams go through those blips,” he reasons. “We didn’t concede as many points that day, but it was still an awful hammering to take. Things like that happen every so often in Nowlan Park. It can be a very tough venue to play in when Kilkenny are in the mood.”

The former full back is not trying to gloss over what has been a fortnight of concern for Premier hurling, with the concession of nine goals – five against the Cats, four against Dublin – setting off alarms all over the county.

But it is, perhaps, worth pausing to reflect that the league – even one characterised by what is emerging as another declaration of readiness and appetite by Kilkenny – can throw up some freakish results.

Tomorrow, Tipperary visit Galway at Pearse Stadium. The presence of John McIntyre, Tipp’s former defender, on the Galway sideline will add a little spice to a rivalry that was, 20 years ago, the hottest in hurling. It seems peculiar to consider that now. The brief, intense enmity that flared between Galway and Tipp is well documented, orbiting around the Tony Keady affair, but perhaps best remembered in the scintillating championship matches they played in 1988 and ’89, when they were comfortably the best two teams in the country.

But something peculiar happened to both counties after Tipp’s 1991 All-Ireland victory.

IT WOULD BE wrong to suggest that, as far as hurling went, they fell off the face of the earth. But during that five-year reign of wanton unpredictability, from ’94 to ’99, when the championship seemed to possess the alchemy to transform traditionally down-trodden counties into supernova forces, Galway and Tipperary struggled to find a place in the super structure.

True, Galway appeared in semi-finals for most of that period. But successive losses to Offaly, Clare and Wexford – each of whom went on to win the All-Irelands – hastened the sense of crisis that came to grip the maroon game.

And it is true Tipperary effectively “made” the 1997 season, with their gripping Munster and All-Ireland final duels with Clare, then the supreme force. But both those occasions ended in defeat.

It took Tipp another four years to mount a successful All-Ireland challenge and it was fitting that Galway were their opponents in that 2001 final. It was an exciting if fretful kind of a final, lacking the incendiary exchanges that shaped the nature of their rivalry 10 years before that.

Nicky English’s comment that evening spoke of the relief at having won it again: “I think that in life if you keep hopping your head of a stone wall, eventually you will get a break. And we worked very hard this year, but no harder than in other years.”

Tipp enjoyed a “perfect season” that year, going unbeaten in league and championship. But they have yet to return to an All-Ireland final and Galway have made it to that stage just once, in 2005, when Cork won.

When they meet on Sunday, these are the background anxieties that will shape the way they are going. That Galway will start with just two men – Fergal Moore and Niall Healy – who were selected for the corresponding fixture last year is a striking affirmation of just how radically the appearance of the county hurling team can change in one year. Tipperary are more settled, but travel to Salthill with pre-occupations of their own.

“I do think there is concern and they will need a few encouraging league performances to alleviate those concerns,” O’Donovan states. “You have to allow for the fact they may be training with the championship in mind and that they have tried out a few young players. The irony is the defence had been playing very solidly.

“That seems a funny thing to say given the team has conceded nine goals in two games but prior to that, it was a fairly functional unit. You know, Conor O’Mahony came in and nailed down the centre back spot and is playing very well in it. That is a very important position in hurling.

“There were many years we had difficulty in establishing someone in that position. It is also true they are without Eoin Kelly at the moment. Now, Eoin Kelly is a very important player, but he is not a defender or a midfielder so we can’t really point at his absence as reasons for the nine goals.”

LAST SPRING, Tipperary and Galway qualified for the league final and both departed from the Gaelic Grounds taking a lot of encouragement from a minor classic of a match. Tipperary had been the form team under Liam Sheedy’s management and deserved to lift the silverware.

But Galway hopes soared after two terrific performances by Joe Canning in both the semi-final and the final.

In the end, both fell short: Galway blindsided by a valiant Cork second half in Thurles and Tipperary caught in the All-Ireland semi-final by a breathtaking Waterford effort.

In the end, given Tipp’s state of development and the form that Kilkenny displayed in the All-Ireland final, losing that semi-final may have had been a mixed blessing for Tipperary.

In Nowlan Park, they experienced just how demoralising it can be to face this Cats team. Galway suffered a similar blow-out at the hands of Kilkenny. But they both still have a strong chance of progressing to the league final against Kilkenny.

It leads to something of a conundrum – is it wise to risk facing – and getting beaten – by Kilkenny twice before the championship even begins?

“Absolutely,” contends O’Donovan. “The best way to learn about where you are at that particular moment is to play Kilkenny. If you get beaten by 10 points, so be it. If you do well against them, you can sense that you are on the right track.

“It could do wonders for a team’s confidence and it might help the selectors to arrive at a more settled 15 come the championship. They might beat you twice, but it is the best way to gauge if the improvements you are making are working. After what Kilkenny did to Waterford in last year’s All-Ireland final, it sent out a strong message to all other counties as to how much work they have to do.

“They won’t be relying on that element of surprise then on the day, that it required working harder to match them and fresh thinking and by two or three notches. That is inevitable.

“Traditionally, there was the chance that they might be caught napping, but Brian Cody seems to have eliminated that. But for all that, the day will come when Kilkenny are beaten. In any given game, a team can improve dramatically and it has to happen sooner or later.”

THAT IS WHAT Tipperary and Galway – and all teams – must keep telling themselves. But for now, just trying to keep in touch with them is sufficient.

After a turbulent start, John McIntyre has enjoyed a decent run with Galway and has named a side characterised with seven players from recent All-Ireland club champions Portumna.

“I believe we have turned a corner, although we still have ground to make up in the league,” he said this week. “Tipp have two points more than us and a better scoring difference, so there is still work to be done.”

And under Liam Sheedy, Tipperary have not been found wanting for the fundamental qualities of team ethos and working for one another.

Better that the humbling hour against Kilkenny took place on a forgettable league encounter in Nowlan Park rather than at the peak of the championship.

Of course, you never fully forget those days, as O’Donovan will testify.

It has been a long, slow road since the days when Tipperary and Galway sparked to produce the rivalry that was at the epicentre of the hurling world.

Tomorrow is just another mile on the journey back.