ALL-IRELAND SHC FINAL GALWAY v KILKENNY:Galway's management team are all too aware that beating Kilkenny twice in the same summer is a big ask, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

THE NOTION that you might beat this Kilkenny team once in the summer but you won’t beat them twice is not without foundation. It has never happened in the 14 years on Brian Cody’s watch, at least not to the same opposition, which makes Galway’s task in Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final that bit more interesting.

The only time Cody’s team were beaten twice in the one summer was 2004, but against two different teams – to Wexford, in the Leinster semi-final, then to Cork, in the All-Ireland final. Galway may have beaten them handsomely in this year’s Leinster final, 2-21 to 2-11, but how will they go about doing what no team has done to Kilkenny since Cody took charge?

One thing is certain: Galway aren’t coming to Croke Park on Sunday with fingers crossed and the same game plan that took Kilkenny apart in the Leinster final on July 8th. They almost certainly won’t go 1-6 to 0-0 in front, like they did that day too, and if that victory was even partly based on blind-sided tactics then Kilkenny won’t be as easily rattled this time.

What was telling about Galway’s attitude towards beating Kilkenny in the Leinster final was the way manager Anthony Cunningham appeared at the post-match press conference flanked by selectors Mattie Kenny and Tom Helebert, emphasising not just the collegiality of the management, but also the thought process: Galway hadn’t beaten Kilkenny by accident, and each of these three men had made decisive tactical calls long before the ball was thrown in.

They’re the same three men that last year delivered Galway’s All-Ireland under-21 title, and the role of Kenny and Helebert was further emphasised when Cunningham deliberately deflected much of the questioning in their direction at Galway’s pre-All-Ireland press evening. If Galway are to beat Kilkenny for a second time this summer then Kenny and Helebert will need to come up with something different – and no one knows that better than Cunningham.

“I think myself, Tom and Anthony would have a very similar philosophy on hurling,” explained Kenny. “When we took over the seniors this year it was about bringing through some of our under-21 team, gelling it all together, and that is a process we have been working on all year. So the game plan, the style of hurling we play, is an evolving process.

“Our focus has to be totally on the game, rather than the occasion itself, and with that in mind prepare for the game on our own terms, to get the best performance out of ourselves on the day. Everyone saw the intensity of Kilkenny’s game in their semi-final with Tipperary – very, very high – so we’re under no illusion, that’s the intensity that we have to get to. That’s the challenge, also knowing we have to keep the focus on our own performance.”

Kenny is under no illusion either that the Leinster final will have any bearing on the outcome on Sunday: “What is it, eight, nine weeks now, since we played the Leinster final? The game of hurling is a very fast open game, and usually turns on very small things. A few breaks of the ball went our way in the first half and we opened a good lead, but had we played again in Croke Park the following day we know the result could have been a lot different.

“What you have now are two very good teams in the All-Ireland final, and again it could come down to the break of a ball, a small decision one way or the other.”

The Galway management have also been emphasising the fact that Sunday’s showdown isn’t their first rematch of the year, but actually their fourth (if the Connacht-Leinster Interprovincial series is also included, which effectively was Galway against Kilkenny). On that basis the score is currently 3-1 in Kilkenny’s favour, as they won out in the Walsh Cup (2-20 to 1-14), the Interprovincial series (2-19 to 1-15) and the Allianz Hurling League (3-26 to 0-10), before losing the Leinster final.

For Helebert, the focus has been on what went wrong in the Leinster final as much as what went right, because Kilkenny did come back at them in the second half, and without such a glorious start Galway might well have crumbled.

“In terms of approaching this game nothing will be different,” he said, “other than working players up to where they need to be for an All-Ireland final. But in the Leinster final we had a very good first half, and lost the second half, in terms of play and scores. We had a comfortable lead that brought us over the line, but that will not be good enough on Sunday.

“So after the Leinster final we looked at the positives, and at the negatives, and one of the things we need to do is use the ball more efficiently. Against Kilkenny, of all teams, that is an imperative, and the couple of goals that they scored effectively came from situations where they put pressure on us, took the ball off us.

“Take the goal that Richie Hogan scored, he was one-against-three, and great credit due to him for getting the ball into the net with three defenders around him. So you can imagine the conversation we had with our lads after that.

“Those are the kind of things that you have to be wise to. Everything on an All-Ireland final day happens at 90 miles an hour, and you have to be on top of your game. Go back to last year’s All-Ireland final, between Tipp and Kilkenny, and the critical scores at the critical times were about the right players ending up with the right possession at the right time.

“That is what we have to work at, getting our preparation up to get the right intensity for an All-Ireland final. And we do have a lot of plans for that . . .”

And with that they broke off, aware if not wary about giving too much away – the exact plan to beat this Kilkenny team not just once in the summer but twice still carefully under wraps.