Onto infinitely more mundane matters. Just because the parallels with 2001 are blindingly apparent doesn't mean they're too obvious to mention. Galway had a Clareman on the bridge that year; they have a Clareman on the bridge this year. Kilkenny beat Offaly by 12 points in that year's Leinster semi-final and Wexford by 13 points in the final; they beat the same counties by 14 points and 15 points at the same stages of the competition this year. The reigning All Ireland champions, softened by the lack of opposition in their own province, duly sleepwalked into a semifinal ambush that year against a Galway team who'd lain in wait; the reigning All Ireland champions, softened by the lack of opposition in their own province, sleepwalked intof Hang on.

Kilkenny aren't sleepwalking into anything at present, of that we can be sure.

Although they've lost twice in the championship to both Galway and Cork on Brian Cody's beat, they've never lost for the same reasons. The very identity of the opposition manager next weekend ensures that forewarned is forearmed. And 12 months ago Kilkenny demonstrated that they'd got a handle on the demands of a three-match All Ireland series campaign: be primed for detonation in the quarter-final while leaving enough in the tank for the momentum to assist them thereafter. The optimum outcome here would be to win by a point; progress and a real test in the same package.

Without the usual Fridaynight lineup to go on, we're left to hazard a couple of guesses as to the shape of the team.

Indications are that Brian Hogan will hold his place at centre-back. Patently a fully fit John Tennyson has more to his game but, give or take the ball he shanked to John Mullane in the second half, Hogan had a slightly better league final than he was given credit for. His point in the Leinster final may have been an indication of his growing confidence; it was unquestionably an indication of the absence of lust for combat among Wexford's defensive ranks. Thou shouldst be living at this hour, Liam Dunne!

Should Galway break even against the ballwinners ranged along the champions' half-forward line, they'll have less to fear inside. Willie O'Dwyer's two-goal haul against Wexford was an unrepeatable trick; Eoin Larkin continues to find the next level a plane above his reach; Richie Power is unlikely to be able to last a full-blooded 70 minutes; Eoin Reid was three misplaced shots away from a very good Leinster final. Nor can one say unequivocally that the bad defensive habits that hobbled them in the first half of the 2005 All Ireland semifinal have been fully eradicated; Kilkenny conceded seven pointed frees to Offaly in the first half at O'Moore Park last month.

Galway's pleasure at the choice of venue is simultaneously, and paradoxically, both understandable and puzzling.

If they have fast forwards and Kilkenny have slow backs they reckon can be turned, where better to do so than amid the pampas of Semple Stadium?

Still, if going to Croke Park makes them happy, good for them. One imagines Loughnane will shove his midfielders back on top of his half-back line, all the better to screen Henry Shefflin, and thus open up space for the forwards to zoom around in, a gambit they tried more than once during the league.

Has the great man been counting down the weeks and keeping his powder dry in preparation for a mighty conflagration on Saturday, or has he simply been making it up as he went along? Not until the opening 20 minutes have passed can a verdict be returned on that score. The sight of Fergal Moore, John Lee and Iarla Tannian . . . this year's Richie Murray? . . . helping to carry the load will go some way towards making it a positive one.

To conclude where we began, more or less. Barring a draw, one or other of the pair will lose next Saturday.

It'll be a disappointment for them. It won't be a tragedy.

Verdict Kilkenny ALL IRELAND SHC QUARTER-FINAL GALWAY v KILKENNY Saturday, Croke Park, 4.00 Referee D Murphy (Wexford) Live, RTE Two