SHC Qualifier Third Round: Keith Duggan assesses the recent history and rivalry between the teams who clash in a do-or-die encounter at Pearse Stadium tomorrow

Two years after contesting the All-Ireland final, Tipperary and Galway meet by the seaside for the right to extend their summer as far as August.

For both counties, it is a significant moment. Galway, as ever, can read much into the potential benefits of a win. For them, it is a strange encounter. A home game in Pearse Stadium, a fine venue now that it has been restored but one that has virtually no spiritual resonance for today's hurlers.

"Any time I hurled in Galway, it was always Ballinasloe," remembers former Tipperary defender Conor O'Donovan.

"I think I played in Pearse Stadium once for a benefit game or something."

Tipperary is the county with which Galway, the eternally displaced hurling county, can feel something akin to a true rivalry. The taut and often fractious games they played in the late 80s are probably ruminated upon more frequently in Galway than in Tipp, whose main preoccupations naturally lie in Munster.

When they were emerging in 1987 after the long sleep, it just so happened that Galway were in an unprecedented era of pomp. Goals from Steve Mahon and Joe Cooney swung the All-Ireland semi-final of 1987. Tipp's Cormac Bonnar had a chance to win the All-Ireland final of 1988 before Noel Lane, at that stage a substitute, brushed in a goal that retained the McCarthy Cup for Galway. It would be the last year that they could claim ownership.

Tipperary won the 1989 semi-final in a game soured by "the Keady affair". Tipperary won the All-Ireland that year and from then, the thing see-sawed. Michael Cleary put 1-9 past the maroon in the 1991 All-Ireland semi-final, prompting the famous retort from Pete Finnerty after he was asked about how he enjoyed his novel role as a full-back: "Did I look happy?"

Two years later, Galway squeezed through the latest semi-final encounter by a couple of points. In 2000, the same margin separated the sides, a painful game for Tipp that proved to be the turning point of the Nicky English apprenticeship.

A summer on, Tipperary were All-Ireland champions and Galway's Noel Lane, the beanpole scourge of those earlier seasons, was the losing manager.

Since then, all has changed. Legends have taken their leave and both counties are in the first season of fresh managerial contracts. Expectations have been tempered accordingly.

"I think people in Tipperary acknowledged that there would inevitably be a small slip back after 2001," says O'Donovan, "with a massively influential player like Declan Ryan retiring. Then Nicky decided not to go on and I think people feel Michael Doyle has done very well. He was just unlucky the way the league final went and then losing Philip Maher and Eamonn Corcoran is something you just can't legislate for. So in that regard, I don't think Michael is going into this game under massive pressure."

Neither, curiously, is Conor Hayes. Since taking over, he has cut and pasted his team in a way that bears little resemblance to that which contested the All-Ireland two years ago.

Gone is the Cloonan-Rabbitte axis, for so long at the epicentre of Galway's plans. Fergal Healy, a forward that afternoon, has been moved to a radically altered back line that has no place for Cathal Moore. David Tierney, a loose and dashing midfielder under Lane, operates at wing forward.

Hayes used a lot of players in the league and was rewarded with that tight win against Clare last month. It was, critics of the Galway game remarked, precisely the sort of game that Galway had developed the fatalistic habit of losing. In fact, it was the kind of game that the Galway teams used to treat as bread and butter when Hayes was captain.

"You could say that we started off in January with a disadvantage because up to 10 players from last year's panel were not available, either because of their commitments with Athenry or injuries," said Hayes's confidant and selector Gerry Dempsey earlier this week. "There was no choice but to go out in search of new players."

After a mixed league and that restorative win in Ennis, there is an attitude of come what may. Tipperary represent the toughest team Galway could have drawn but they are going to have to test themselves sooner or later. At the very least, they feel ready.

"Certainly, that's the impression you get," says O'Donovan.

"And I think that if Galway do get past this match, it is not impossible to see them contesting an All-Ireland final. Seasons can gain momentum like that. Beating Clare will have given them a lot of confidence. For Tipperary, I don't see any major additions other than the possible impact that Denis Byrne could make among the forwards. Obviously it is great that Eamonn Corcoran is back but he has not had a lot of competitive hurling for a while so maybe this game is just a step beyond Tipperary."

The expectation is that Tipp folk will travel to Salthill in droves. The Galway support is a moodier beast but Pearse Stadium ought to be a full house.

In a way, both teams are curiosities. The sight of Tommy Dunne at centre back perplexes many Tipperary folk, while the sheer volume of disjointed seasons means that every summer game is treated as a thing of mystery by Galway fans.

With a win comes the sudden blossoming of summer. For the losers, it is back to the drawing board. As ever between these two, it will be heartfelt.