In the fast-moving world of Gaelic games it looks like you can’t turn your back for even five minutes without – as that fine Sligo Junior C footballer, WB Yeats, wrote – all being ‘changed, changed utterly’, muses a rueful An Fear Rua…

There you are, one Saturday night, settling into the seat on a flight to the land of moules et boules (the South of France, in other words) after receiving confirmation from Croke Park that Tipp had duly disposed of Wexford’s challenge and confident in the knowledge that Kilkenny will whack Galway in the other semi-final in Croker the following day. By that time, however, you will be ensconced on a sun-stroked beach, far from radios, mobiles or other types of phones, internet cafes and all the other nuisances of modern life - with a book in one hand and an Armagnac in the other.

Some days later, as you again settle into your seat for the return journey, the Aer Lingus stewardess hands you an Irish newspaper where the first headline that catches your eye is: ‘Galway for the Double’. You look again. You fiddle with the ridiculous light switch above the seat, in case you’re not seeing properly; you inadvertently turn on the cold air and simultaneously call the stewardess who makes some glacial response when you sheepishly admit you weren’t calling her. (It reminded AFR, by the way, of the great Myles na gCopaleen’s sardonic commentary about the in-flight staff in the halcyon days of Aer Lingus, when he said: ‘They perform tasks for complete strangers at thirty thousand feet above ground that they would not dream of doing in the comfort of their own homes in suburban South Dublin’.) You rub your eyes again. Maybe you’re still on that sun-kissed beach in the South of France and you’ve nodded off in the heat and all will be right again in the world of Gaeldom when you awake.

But, no! The headline is still facing you. Then it dawns. Galway, of course, have beaten Derry in senior football, but some crowd like the minors, the women footballers or the Junior hurling side have scraped into an All Ireland final and an exuberant sub-editor (maybe from Attymon, Athenry or Gort) has sneaked the front page headline past an unsuspecting Chief Sub, whose only sporting interests are ladies hockey and horse racing. After all, it couldn’t be the Galway senior hurlers defeating Kilkenny! … ‘Shurely Shome Mishtake ?’ But, when you read on, you discover that - a week earlier - the senior hurling score-line in Croke Park was Galway 2-15 Kilkenny 1-13 and this has opened up the potential Double the sub-editor is proclaiming to the world.

Elsewhere on www.anfearrua.com, An Moltóir and An Maor have given their expert, on-the-spot reactions and analyses as to the whys and wherefores of what looks like – on the day – a deserved victory over the All Ireland champions. AFR uses that phrase on the day advisedly, however. The reason being that he has always felt that the easier access enjoyed by Galway to the closing stages of the hurling All Ireland competition is extremely unfair when compared with counties like Wexford, Offaly, Waterford, Limerick, Dublin, Laois and so on, all of whom have to battle their way through testing provincial championships (even more so in the case of the Munster counties) before reaching the stage where Galway just stroll into the competition. If counties like these got the kid gloves treatment accorded to Galway over the years, they would have carried home the McCarthy Cup a lot more often. If Galway today are capable of thrashing a good Kilkenny side in an All Ireland semi-final, isn’t it time they had the courage of their convictions and took their place with the Offalys, Laoises and Wexfords of this world in a proper provincial championship, or see how long they’d survive in the hell’s kitchen of a Munster championship? (Last time they tried this, in the Fifties, the true value of Galway hurling was revealed).

Galway’s advent into this year’s final, if past form is anything to go by, means that more than a few maroon-shirted hurlers will get an All Star accolade. Just wait and see how their All Star numbers compare with those accorded to Limerick and Wexford - in AFR’s view - the two teams who really ‘made’ this year’s hurling championship

If the Tribesmen pull off the Double this year (and our friends in Bananabet.com are offering 5/2 on this possibility), then fair play to them, but it can hardly be compared with, say, the last Double, that of Cork in 1990. God knows, AFR could never be accused of being overly disposed towards ‘De Rebels Bhoy!’, but even he would acknowledge that the hurling campaign they faced that year was far more testing than anything faced by Galway this year.

So, 1990 was a ‘Double’ in the true sense of the word. By comparison, a ‘Double’ by Galway this year seems but a pale shadow of the real thing. Still, that won’t stop them roarin’ and shoutin’ if the two cups cross the Shannon …

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Galway's Real Man-of-the-Match: Mike McNamara
What if the Losers" Group had been Played in Hurling This Year?
Galway Fan’s Knickers in a Twist?
Kilkenny’s ‘Dog of a Man’ Fails to Bite
To Hell and Back