He's not sure how far out from the opposition uprights he was when the moment arrived. Somewhere near the 20-metre line anyway and in a reasonably central position.

The sliotar came his way. He took aim. It skittered across the face of the Dunloy goal and went wide on the far side.

Dunloy held on to win by three. "That, " sighs Canning, "is the way it goes."

Were Portumna undone by overconfidence? By inexperience? By a combination of both? No, says Canning. Too easy to attribute it to that.

They were simply beaten by a better, more seasoned team.

"Dunloy played very well, hit seven points in a row midway through the second half and were in control from then on." As well they might have been, for Portumna, in their first All Ireland semi-final, were facing a side not only used to competing in All Ireland semi-finals but also well used to winning them. Experience, and Dunloy's superior hurling, carried the day. End of story. Move on.

Portumna have. Twentyfour months on, they can truthfully say that the disappointment of 14 February 2004 marked a bend in the road rather than the end of the road. They've contested both Galway county finals held in the meantime, losing the first to Athenry before overcoming Loughrea in a 321 to 3-14 extravaganza last autumn. They're back.

What's more, this time the club situated on the western banks of the Shannon are not heading into the unknown.

How far they've travelled over the past two decades can be gauged from a few minutes in the company of Sean Treacy, their trainercoach and a former All Ireland medallist and All Star.

Treacy's first adult action with the club occurred in 1982 as a 16-year-old sub on the team that won the Galway junior A championship for the first time since 1914. The stone was rolled away at last.

Magic. Despite the mountains Portumna have scaled since, that junior title was, considering the point they were setting out from, Everest.

"I'd say there are clubs on either side of the bridge who can't believe we've progressed to winning county senior championships from where we were in 1982, " Treacy muses. "Some clubs around us were senior then and aren't any more. But winning junior and competing in intermediate was the level of our ambition then." No longer.

A thriving underage setup that's been producing annual blooms since the mid1980s provided Portumna with the material to win the intermediate title in 1992 and reach their first senior decider three years later; losing to "that Sarsfields team", as Treacy puts it, was no disgrace. As you've probably read more than enough in recent months about their latest starlet Joe Canning, we'll merely mention that he and their current All Star Damien Hayes scored 3-17 between them in last year's county final (Canning 1-11, Hayes 2-6) and leave it at that.

Their task today is as eminently achievable as their opponents are entirely admirable. James Stephens think their way around the field; their default objective is to use every square metre of space; they don't concede cheap frees; and putting a message on every delivery is the name of the game. Curiously for an outfit whose vicepresident is one B Cody, they could almost be described as the anti-Kilkenny.

Yet if the All Ireland champions hurl with imagination, they don't hurl with flair; they don't have the forwards for that. In the Leinster final, having looked nailed-on winners after drawing level 10 minutes from time, they took an uncomfortably long time to dispose of a UCD side whose decision-making in attack was awful. After successive county and provincial titles, they'll run out of road sooner rather than later.

And where Portumna have Hayes, Andrew Smith . . . who was bright and brisk for UCD against these opponents two years ago . . . and the youngest Canning each offering a different kind of threat up front, the Village continue to overdepend on Eoin Larkin's contribution from placed balls, Brian McEvoy's fine form notwithstanding.

Portumna have the heavier ordnance. Now that they're not venturing into terra incognita, it should suffice.

ALL IRELAND CLUB SHC SEMI-FINAL JAMES STEPHENS (Kilkenny) v PORTUMNA (Galway) Semple Stadium, 2.30 Referee S Roche (Tipperary) Live, TG4, 2.15