Croke Park, 10 days ago, and Galway have just been drawn against Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Finally. Forget the rematch of the league final. Here, at last, is the renewal of one of the championship's most gruelling rivalries of recent times.

Their last meeting in 1993 ended a seven-year era when competition between the two counties reached a heated peak. The era when both counties last won an All-Ireland. When fate may well have denied Galway a three-in-a-row and Tipperary ended an 18-year famine.

Four All-Ireland semi-finals and the title decider of 1988 have created enough electricity to still feed into this Sunday's meeting.

The saga began early in the summer of 1987. Tipperary had ended their 16-year Munster famine by beating Cork, but only after extra time in a replay. Standing in their way of an All-Ireland place was Galway.

"We had absolutely no fear of Galway back then," says Conor O'Donovan, full back of that Tipperary team. "It was our first meeting with them and they were a whole new experience for us. I mean, there was absolutely no rivalry at that time.

"But we met a Galway team that year that was very settled. They had played the previous two All-Ireland finals and were very much the seasoned team. I suppose we caught them at their best."

Battle number one to Galway, but under manager Babs Keating, Tipperary were on the climb. The following year, the war moved on to the All-Ireland stage.

"In many ways it had been a 12-month build-up to our meeting in 1988," says O'Donovan. "We were assuming all along that we would meet Galway again if we came out of Munster, but they really had done their homework on us. They completely stopped us from getting into our stride that day and it was very frustrating for us. But it was still a cracking Galway team."

Galway had indeed cracked the country. They clinched their second successive title, only their fourth ever, and laid down the foundations to become team of the decade.

Tony Keady, Galway's pivotal centre back, was named hurler of the year for his performance in that final. "The way I always looked at it, if you didn't beat Tipperary on the way to an All-Ireland then it wouldn't have been as enjoyable," he says now.

"If another county had beaten them along the way and you didn't get the chance to meet them, it would have taken away from winning it. Of course there was tremendous rivalry. But there were some super games as well."

Into 1989 and all hell broke lose. On July 7th, Keady was banned for 12 months by the GAA after it was revealed that he had played hurling illegally in America. Despite manager Cyril Farrell suggesting that Galway wouldn't show up in Croke Park if he was banned, the GAC stuck to their books.

"Obviously it was a low point," says Keady. "I still feel that I was only promoting hurling at the time, something I was doing in my own free time. I really don't think it was fair of the GAA to do what they did. Today you have them handing out one or two-month suspensions for a lot worse."

Galway lost their focus and that semi-final, billed as "the virtual All-Ireland", was a close encounter of the bruising kind. Galway had Sylvie Linnane and Michael McGrath sent off, although John Leahy was lucky to escape censure after baiting McGrath as he left the field, apparently saying: "It's not before your time."

O'Donovan feels it is unfair to concentrate on the Keady affair: "What a lot of people forget about that year was that we had earlier met in league final. It was another cracking game that Galway won, so we had taken three beatings in a row. So there was inevitable hype about the championship meeting.

"Of course the Keady affair added fuel to the hype, but more because of what the media was saying. It was irrelevant to us and we never discussed it as a team. We were trying to beat 15 players and it didn't matter if it was 15 Joe Cooneys or 15 Tony Keadys. Still, it was a brave decision by the GAA to do that to such a high profile player coming up to the highest profile match of the year. It was all so unprecedented."

While it added to the rivalry, O'Donovan makes it clear that he had no personal animosity for any Galway player. What bothered him most was the team's inability to deal with Galway's style.

"They had such a unique style of play. They would run and handpass between five or six players before a player would strike the ball and we found that very difficult to contend with. And it wasn't just a question of trying to stop Joe Cooney. All the forwards could link together and score so well.

"For me, the biggest regret was 1987. I think if we had won that day, then we would have been set up for a couple of All-Ireland wins. I think Galway would have been forced to rebuild. More of the older players would have moved on."

"It was a great period and I have no regrets," says Keady. "I was around for 12 years, but for me the main year was 1988. I won every award under the sun that year and opened more pubs and supermarkets than I can remember. It's like what they say about even a blind man recognising you."

As for Sunday, O'Donovan doesn't expect this to be a game spun on the old rivalry, but perhaps it may be the start of something new. "You certainly can't compare the recent league rivalry to that last championship period. The league has been very much undermined since it was moved so close to the championship. Even though Galway always want to win it, I don't think Tipperary get too worked up about a league final."

The championship, of course, is different.