Apply to John Fahy, PO Box 1988, Galway.

THE man who woke up our neighbourhood summer after summer? For a while there, Ger Loughnane didn't sound like him. He said he wasn't missing hurling. He said he'd rather go beagling or whatever of a Sunday than watch a championship match if his media commitments didn't insist otherwise. At times one almost believed him, for there are only so many afternoons a man can sit in the RTE box and say the same things over and over again about Cork's professionalism, Waterford's failings and how you should never let Kilkenny get a run on you.

Then there were other times one didn't believe him at all. Times like St Patrick's Day this year.

It was a few minutes after the All Ireland club hurling final and there he was in the press room at Croke Park, passion in his voice and a glint in his eye, singing a Te Deum to the Portumna tactics that had undone Newtownshandrum. That, he declared, was the way to crack Cork's running game. Hassle them and harry them. Try and build a lead. Flood the midfield to stop the runners and leave your two best and fastest forwards on their own up front to keep their defence stretched.

In that instant there seemed to be nothing that Loughnane would relish more than the opportunity of being an inter-county manager again and . . . an even bigger attraction for him, arguably . . . the challenge of pitting his wits against his rivals. As it turned out, the honour of outthinking the All Ireland champions would fall to another man. But it won't be long before Loughnane is tilting at the game's biggest windmills once more.

Following the bushfire of support for him from delegates at last week's meeting of the Galway hurling board, some of it emanating from quarters that would previously have been regarded as being in the Mattie Murphy camp, he looked all but assured by Thursday night of being named the county's new manager. Some nicely-calculated sabre-rattling on his part next day in the media triggered the exit of Murphy and Sean Silke from the race.

Barring some last-minute hitch, Loughnane will be appointed Galway manager in the Meadow Court Hotel in Loughrea next Tuesday. Winner all right, winner all right.

He'll return at a timely moment. Although more than a decade has passed since he took over in his native county and six years have elapsed since he stepped down there, in some ways nothing has changed. Loughnane joined Len Gaynor's Clare management team for the 1994 championship, at a stage when the last five All Ireland finals had been won by one of Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny. He's set to take over in Galway at a stage when the last eight All Ireland finals have been won by one of Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny. The symmetry of the situation . . . a man who put a spoke in the traditional powers' cycle of dominance back then returning to try and put a spoke in the traditional powers' cycle of dominance now . . . is unmistakable.

Not that his second coming should be construed as a crusade to upset the superpowers, much as that notion may appeal to him.

The only imperative here is that of helping Galway achieve their potential. Or, perhaps, of forcing and driving and cattle-prodding Galway into achieving their potential. It is fair to say, the county's hurling board chairman Miko Ryan concedes with some understatement, "that we need to get it right this time".

Galway was the obvious canvas for Loughnane. Their successful under-21s having either made the grade or fallen permanently through the cracks, Limerick are no longer the attraction they were to potential outside managers a couple of years ago, irrespective of the largesse of their Swiss banker. Clare? Clearly not; Don't Go Back, end of story. No: if Loughnane were to manage at inter-county level again, Galway it had to be.

He arrives at what's also, unquestionably, a timely moment for his adopted county. This year's championship was nothing short of a fiasco, the late comeback against Kilkenny in Thurles notwithstanding. The minors were heavily defeated in the All Ireland final, the under-21s likewise in the semi-final. And fair enough, not even Galway can be expected to produce starlet-laden underage teams every year, but ponder the following.

Three years ago they were touched off by an injury-time Richie Power point in a sumptuous All Ireland minor final in which the luck was entirely Kilkenny's. Last month, when the equivalent under-21 teams met in Tullamore, Galway were beaten by nine points, with 2-4 of their total of 2-12 coming from the stick of a 17-year-old substitute. Niall Healy, the hattrick hero of Croke Park 13 months ago, was barely a factor throughout. Kerill Wade, who'd tortured Kilkenny in last season's under-21 decider, didn't score from play either. While there's no contradicting Miko Ryan when he argues that the result was "not a true reflection of the ability of that team" and that Galway have been doing so well at underage level for the past 15 years that a small lapse can be forgiven, there are ample grounds for believing that more than just the county's senior boat will be lifted by Loughnane's mere and sheer presence.

Loughnane certainly won't be going in with his eyes closed. He was at Semple Stadium on the evening of 22 July when Galway trailed Kilkenny by 1-6 to 0-5 with 23 minutes of the All Ireland quarter-final gone. With 45 minutes gone they trailed by 2-19 to 0-8, a collapse of spectacular . . . albeit not astonishing . . . proportions. Afterwards, in lamenting Conor Hayes's decision to start with three of his biggest names on the bench, Loughnane spoke of the physical presence Eugene Cloonan had brought to the team when introduced. "You can have a pile of players who have great talent and are very skilful lads, but you need a fella with presence. Eugene Cloonan has presence. He's a danger. He has that bouldness you need on the big day." Ger Farragher, who wore the number 14 jersey that evening, may regard himself as being on protective notice.

In the next mouthful, following the inevitable discussion about Galway's lack of a commanding spinal column, Loughnane was asking Cyril Farrell . . . on camera . . . who he'd pick at full-back and centre-back. (For the record, Ger Mahon and John Lee. ) Knowing what we now know, it was scarcely for the sake of form that Loughnane was enquiring.

He'll have questions of his own to answer in due course, mostly in relation to the whys and the whats and the hows. Galway are not Clare, so the sense of vocation that once drove him will be absent. He's a decade older, so that heart once pregnant with celestial fire surely cannot rage as furiously. And after years of talking a good game, can he go back to once more coaching a good game?

A shame the 2007 National League isn't starting next Sunday. Virtually every Galway fixture will be less of a match, more of an event. Galway versus Tipperary? Loughnane meets Babs in the Clash of the Titans! Galway versus Kilkenny? The meeting of former college contemporaries! Galway versus Clare?

The return of the king! (What a pity Anthony Daly is no longer Clare's managerf) Galway versus Wexford? Loughnane against the crowd he dissed in 1997! Here's one competition that won't require an expensive PR campaign.

In the end, however, there will be only so much that Loughnane can do for his new charges. The overriding dynamic must come from the players themselves. On which point, last week saw the retirement of Brian Lohan, the most ferociously single-minded hurler of modern times and one of the rocks on which Loughnane founded his new church.

Manager wanted, yes. And two or three Galway versions of Brian Lohan along with him.

Time for Loughnane to wake up our neighbourhood again.

emcevoy@tribune. ie