Lane no lover of long lay-off

Noel Lane may not have planned it, but since the quarter-final win over Derry last month, events elsewhere have mostly distracted attention away from Galway's role in the All-Ireland hurling semi-finals.

For a start there was Wexford's win over Limerick later that July afternoon, then the dramatic chain of events that brought about tomorrow's replay with Tipperary. More recently the talk has been of Kilkenny's team changes, or how the All-Ireland champions have tried to stay motivated through their six weeks of idleness.

Yet the Galway manager has remained entrenched in thoughts of what lies in store in Croke Park on Sunday. Kilkenny are still the most daunting opposition in the country, and the modifications announced in Brian Cody's team have done nothing to alter Galway's task.

"Well I wasn't a bit surprised to see them make those changes," says Lane. "I thought Brian McEvoy would be going back to midfield and obviously John Power and Peter Barry would return once they were ready.

"They have a very strong panel and so it's not just a question of who starts, it's also a question of who is introduced. They have the strength on the bench as well so it's a tough challenge and a huge test for this team. But the most important thing is that we go up and do our best."

Lane is still working on his final game plan, and the decision on who will play in the vacant left corner forward position won't be made until the final moments before throw-in on Sunday. Darren Shaughnessy, who started against Derry, is again in the running with the likes of Ollie Fahy and Fergal Healy.

So far Lane has seen nothing to suggest that Kilkenny are any more vulnerable than last year. "Well I actually think they are stronger," he says. "When you are winning, you have that extra confidence and I do believe it's a case of success breeding success.

"I experienced it myself back in the 1980s when we were beaten in the 1985 and 1986 finals, and then came on and won in 1987 and again in 1988 off of that. I think we would have won in 1989 as well but for the Keady affair as we all remember and then in 1990 we were just caught by Cork.

"But it was hungrier we were getting all the time, and I have no doubt that it's hungrier that Kilkenny are getting, as well as better and stronger. That's been epitomised by the way they just waltzed through the championship to this stage."

At this point last year, Galway had beaten Tipperary on the road to meeting Kilkenny and that resulted in greater expectations in the meeting with the Leinster champions. The pressure may be less tangible this time out but Lane nonetheless sees it as the same road.

"It's another All-Ireland semi-final and it brings the same pressure no matter what. If you are to get into a final and win a final then you have to win the semi-final first and that's no different than it was last year or 50 years ago."

At least Galway had managed to learn a bit about themselves in the game against Tipperary last year. Derry, in contrast, was nothing more than an afternoon of shadow boxing, a slow workout of worthless knowledge.

"There was nothing to learn from that game but then we didn't intend to learn anything from it. The one difficulty we've had since then was trying to get challenge games but it turns out that we've got none.

"You were left with Wexford, Tipperary and Kilkenny. We were drawn against Kilkenny so we couldn't play them. Wexford were after having a gruelling battle with Limerick and couldn't play us and Tipperary were into their club championship. We've relied on games amongst ourselves, but that is second and third fiddle stuff compared to what is expected on Sunday."

For the time being, Lane hasn't given any thought to either Wexford or Tipperary, although the re-emergence of Wexford has come as no surprise.

"That (drawn) game may have taken some of the media and supporters attention but it doesn't take away from our focus. I wasn't surprised to see Wexford come back into this championships because I was at the Leinster final and I've said it before but they created enough opportunities to score about 1-5 in the opening 20 minutes on top of what they actually did score.

"Once Kilkenny got their classic half-chance goal from DJ and the trend of the game was totally different than what it would have been had Wexford got the early start. They've proved since that they are a good team and they have a great future.

"And it also shows that the back-door system is a great opportunity for teams to prove their worth in the championship. Hopefully the powers that be will see that, and that it's time all the other teams were given second or third chances."