By John Harrington

Chances are you won’t be able to go far this week without someone striking up a conversation with you about Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC Final between Galway and Waterford.

For some that can be an opportunity to display the in-depth knowledge they’ve built up from years of playing and watching the sport.

For those less hurling-savvy the default option is to just nod, smile politely, agree with what’s being said, and perhaps tentatively suggest the game is likely to go down to the wire.

But if you’d like to be a bit more involved in the conversation and maybe even convince others you’re some sort of hurling oracle, here’s our 10-point Bluffer’s Guide to the All-Ireland Hurling Final.

1: A famine will end

What makes Sunday’s All-Ireland Hurling Final such a novel one is that it features two teams in Galway and Waterford who have both endured long waits to get their hands on the Liam MacCarthy Cup again.

Galway were last crowned All-Ireland Champions in 1988, while you have to go all the way back to 1959 for the last time Waterford were the best hurling team in the country.

2: Two tribes go to war

You’re going to see and hear Galway and Waterford referred to as ‘The Tribesmen’ and ‘The Deise’ a lot in the coming days, so no harm to know why that’s the case.

Galway are known as the Tribesmen because of the fourteen ‘tribes’ who dominated the city between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries the families of Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, D'Arcy, Deane, Font, Ffrench, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris, and Skerritt.

Waterford are known as ‘The Déise’ because of a tribe of native Gaelic people of that name who lived there between the 4th and 8th centuries.

3: History repeats itself

Sunday’s match won’t be the first time that Galway manager Micheal Donoghue and Waterford manager Derek McGrath have gone toe to toe in an All-Ireland Final.

The two actually marked each other in the 1992 All-Ireland Minor Final, a match Galway won on a scoreline of 1-13 to 2-4.

4: The great sweeper debate

Waterford’s use of Tadhg De Burca as a highly effective sweeper really gets up the noses of hurling traditionalists who would prefer if every team played with a standard 3-3-2-3-3 formation and hurled man on man.

But it’s worth noting that Galway don’t exactly set up with a traditional formation themselves. Joe Canning plays as a roaming play-maker rather than an out and out centre-forward, while centre-back Gearoid McInerney drops back into the space in front of his full-back line rather than follows a centre-forward wherever he goes.

Does this make McInerney a quasi-sweeper himself? You’ll certainly get a good argument going by suggesting as much.

5: Joe no longer the only show in town

While we’re on the subject of Joe Canning, he of course remains one of the very best hurlers in the country but one of the reasons that Galway are most people’s favourites to win this All-Ireland is because they’re no longer as reliant on him to the extent they once were.

Forwards like Conor Cooney, Joseph Cooney, and Conor Whelan have really excelled so far this year, and taken much of the scoring burden from Canning’s shoulders.

6: Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh is forever young

Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh has been one of the stars of Waterford’s run to the All-Ireland Final scoring vital goals against Kilkenny and Cork and giving his team a vital ball-winning platform in attack.

What makes his form all the more admirable is the fact that he’s 34 years old and the only survivor from the Waterford team that were beaten in the 2008 All-Ireland Final by Kilkenny.

7: Did you know?

There’s nothing like an arcane piece of sporting knowledge to convince someone you know your stuff, so it’s worth knowing that a Galway man, Ned Treston, is credited with making the first standardised hurling sliotar before a match between Galway and Tipperary in 1886.

Before the match there was a dispute over what sliotar should be used as the sliotars used by both teams varied in size and weight. Treston, a saddler by trade, resolved the situation by making a new sliotar at a saddlery near Dublin Castle which became the prototype for all others for many years to come.

8: The midfield battle

When it comes to debating the likely outcome of a match, it’s always good to settle on one particular key battle to make it look like you’ve thought deeply on the matter.

A good one to zone in on ahead of Sunday’s match is the showdown in the middle third between Galway’s David Burke and Johnny Coen and Waterford’s Kevin Moran and Jamie Barron.

All four have hurled brilliantly so far this year but something has to give on Sunday. If either pair can dominate, their team will likely win the match.

9: Tactical substitutions

If Sunday’s match is still in the melting with 15 minutes to go, then the impact of both benches is likely to be decisive. Waterford will ask their two starting inside-forwards – most likely Jake Dillon and Shane Bennett – to run themselves into the ground before replacing them with Maurice Shanahan and Brian O’Halloran.

Those two have made decisive contributions from the bench all year, but Galway have a potential game-breaker of their own too in the shape of man-mountain Johnny Glynn.

10: Hurling is the real winner

Unless the person you’re talking to is from Kilkenny or Tipperary, chances are that saying - ‘Regardless of the result on Sunday, hurling has been the real winner this year’ - would be a good way to end your hurling conversation and leave your counterpart nodding sagely in agreement. 

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