GAELIC GAMES/Galway v Tipperary:DESPERATION HANGS over both these hurling teams. Elimination tomorrow afternoon will bring an abrupt curtain fall to a season that cannot be viewed as anything other than a disappointment.

The summer has not gone according to plan for either county and it is as though both teams have stumbled to this point rather than reached it. This is where the road divides. Get through this and new possibilities emerge. A fierce and potentially excellent match is on the cards.

The Leinster final seems to have done nothing for Galway other than to produce a fresh list of questions. Their second-half retreat was alarming.

The changes to their half-forward line, with Aidan Harte and Aonghus Cullinane replaced by Éanna Ryan and Cyril Donnellan, reflects an on-going quest for something resembling consistency in that sector of the field.

The rare sight of no brackets after Joe Canning’s name was in itself a shock but it happened. Getting sufficient ball to their go-to man – who is likely to merit additional cover to full back Paul Curran – is the most obvious task facing Galway.

But if they base their entire attacking game around Canning’s potential to go supernova, they run the risk of making their game predictable for Tipperary.

Almost all of Galway’s notable successes of the last decade have come out of the blue, when they have managed to tap into that livewire instinct of relentless attack and fearlessness.

David Collins, a superb all-round hurler, is certain to feel he is due to make a statement in this championship and his presence will be vital to a defensive unit that has not fully gelled.

David Burke returns at midfield, where Galway should have an edge.

Poise is everything for Galway now: if they start bombing for Hail Mary points, it is a sure sign they are in trouble. Measured ball to Canning and the flying Damien Hayes has to be their approach. Iarlaith Tannian might well reap the rewards from the attention his full-forward colleagues command.

Tipperary have responded impressively since the sky crashed around them against Cork in early June. They disposed of Wexford and Offaly in businesslike fashion but beneath the easy progress is the sense of a team and management desperately scrambling to be ready for a defining date.

The notion of building on last September’s gallant performance has been scrapped: the urgent task now is to rediscover something approaching that form and organisation.

A big afternoon is required of David Young at midfield and Patrick Maher, around whom the Tipperary attack revolves. They have a scintillating full-forward line and the placing of Shane McGrath at left-half forward will present Donal Barry with plenty to pre-occupy him.

Tipperary have to remind themselves they are still the team who pushed Kilkenny so close less than a year ago. Getting a second bite has been their chief aim since but the pesky business of returning to that stage has proven more complicated than might have been imagined a year ago.

The problem here is Galway are such an unreliable proposition. When the teams met in the league, Galway managed to use that game to revive their spring form to spectacular effect. Since then, they have been a mixed bag, with the old habit of drifting through periods of a game a recurring problem.

The make-or-bust nature of this game could well bring out the kind of bright fury they managed for an hour against Kilkenny in their first Leinster championship match just over a year ago.

Should that happen, they are capable of reminding the Tipperary players of their vulnerabilities and going on to win. Nothing but the odd point has separated these teams in recent years and this could be another edge-of-seat encounter.

Tipperary still have much ground to make up and precious little time to do it but the disastrous consequences of defeat here should help them to edge through.

GALWAY: C Callanan; D Joyce, S Kavanagh, O Canning; D Barry, T Óg Regan, D Collins; G Farragher, D Burke; E Ryan, C Donnellan, A Smith; D Hayes, J Canning, I Tannian.

TIPPERARY: B Cummins; P Stapleton, P Curran, M Cahill; D Fanning, C O’Mahony, P Maher; B Maher, D Young; G Ryan, P Maher, S McGrath; N McGrath, L Corbett, E Kelly.