He's certainly picked the right county for a comeback. I've said more than once on national radio that if Jose Mourinho were a hurling manager and had the choice of teams to manage, he'd in all likelihood find Galway the perfect challenge. They have the talent. They have the tradition. They have the numbers. They offer the perfect canvas on which a strong-willed individual can imprint himself. Loughnane is no fool; he knows the raw material is there.

While only time will tell if Galway win All Irelands under his leadership, of one thing we can be sure. Their days of underachievement are behind them.

For the county itself, the timing is ideal. Not only have Galway been failing to punch their weight for more than a decade now, they've rarely presented the appearance of a united camp. Speaking as an outsider, there seems to have been too much faction-fighting and internal confusion over the years . . .

and even a little faction-fighting and internal confusion is too much. One gets the impression that the people in charge haven't been allowed to really and fully be in charge. Ger Loughnane will really and fully be in charge.

He played his hand cleverly. First he stepped in, then he stepped out, then . . .

after making the Galway hurling board sweat for a week or two . . . he stepped in again. This was smart political manoeuvring, not least because it ensured that, with the exception of one delegate who questioned the treatment of Mattie Murphy and Sean Silke, Loughnane was welcomed with open arms last Tuesday night.

It's right and proper that it's the intercounty game he's going back to. Having coached at this level for so long, there's no way he'd be able to go back to the club scene. He wouldn't be capable of dealing with club players and they wouldn't be capable of dealing with him. He'd place demands on them that they simply wouldn't be in a position to fulfil. No, a return to the inter-county arena it had to be.

And Galway it had to be too. Not, say, Laois or Offaly, for both the challenge and the potential rewards are bigger in Galway than in those counties. And definitely not Clare, where he's piled up the baggage over the last few years and where he wouldn't have a united county behind him. In Galway he'll have unqualified support.

I sat beside Ger on the Hurling Development Committee for three years and enjoyed my time with him. He was good, thoughtful, fair, honest and passionate.

He's always talked the talk. But he walked the walk with Clare and will do so again with Galway.

Being an outsider, he won't be encumbered by club agendas.

Being unencumbered by club agendas, he'll choose the players he wants and will get rid of the players he doesn't want without fear or favour.

First and foremost, he'll want players with character. Guys with even the slightest touch of mental softness about them will be out the door. Guys who don't toe the line will be out the door. Guys who'll give only 95 per cent effort will be out the door. Expect plenty of P45s to be flying around in Galway in the coming months.

Loughnane has already stated that 2007 will have been a waste of effort if Galway don't win the All Ireland. I'm not sure he quite believes that, but it's no harm to set the bar high from the beginning. At any rate they'll go all out to win the National League, not least because Kilkenny this year proved . . . not for the first time . . . that there's no downside to doing so.

Galway in 2007 will be gung ho to win absolutely everything. If they could enter the Eurovision Song Contest they'd probably try and win that.

At the risk of looking too far down the road, though, 2008 will be an even more important year for them. Among Galway's numerous failings of late has been their tendency to take one step forward followed by two steps back.

It happened in 2001-02, when they reached the All Ireland final the first season but bowed out in the quarter-final the following season. It happened again last year and this year, all the progress they'd made in 2005 was undone during the past summer. Whatever Galway achieve next season, they must manage to build on it in 2008. That will be absolutely critical and may actually be the yardstick by which Loughnane's tenure as manager will be judged.

After the controversies of 1998, he'll surely realise that a lower profile will be called for in his adopted county. Unnecessary sideshows could undo Galway.

The people of Clare united behind Loughnane when he took up his sword and went to war. The people of Galway may not.

I've no doubt Ger Loughnane can achieve great things for Galway. He has no doubt either. Now the ball is in their court. Galway's time for excuses has come and gone.