All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final: Galway v Limerick, Croke Park, Sunday, 3.30pm – Live on RTÉ2, BBC TwoOnce again, the air of inevitability surrounding the All-Ireland hurling championship has been dispelled. All the assumptions that the season would be cornered by a Cork and Limerick cartel ended up confounded.Again, there is a surprise or unexpected finalist, as Galway’s rapid evolution under Micheál Donoghue has returned them to the top table for the first time in eight years. They follow in the footsteps of Clare and Tipperary, who entered the last two All-Ireland finals as underdogs but who got the better of Cork.Galway share last year’s Tipperary template with a handful of All-Ireland winners to bedrock the less-experienced and rookie campaigners.Limerick, though, are different from Cork. Most of the team are after a sixth Celtic cross whereas Cork, famously and traumatically, are trying to bridge an ever-widening gap back to 2005.This year’s balance comes from Limerick ostensibly being in the team’s final phase and Galway on the way up.The most obvious comparison for John Kiely’s team is the Dublin footballers, who, after significant serial success, went through a two-year hiatus before regrouping for one last shot at what turned out to be a ninth All-Ireland for some players.The old band was put back together and if Limerick haven’t suffered premature retirements that can be reversed, one significant member of the managerial team, performance psychologist Caroline Currid, did agree to come back this year.Limerick manager John Kiely and coach Paul Kinnerk at the Munster SHC final between Limerick and Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on June 7th. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho If involvement in the team’s six successes isn’t sufficient testimony to that impact, the blank years that accompanied her absence from the dressingroom in 2019, 2024 and ’25 underlines the point.Limerick’s clean sweep of available trophies this year is a manifestation of the seriousness the team has exhibited from the start.[ ‘Once you get one, you want it again’: Tom Morrissey says Limerick still hungry for successOpens in new window ]Galway have won two of the three titles contested and even if they couldn’t add the league because Limerick took it, the counties’ final regulation match nearly derailed the eventual winners when a big second-half comeback came up narrowly short.The issue with Limerick is that they have required great swathes of the contest in the past two matches in order to register minimalist wins. In the Munster final and All-Ireland semi-final, they conceded second-half totals of just 1-6 to Cork and 1-3 to Clare but only got home with injury-time scores.They put up the same total in each match, 1-21, which is a long way adrift of the 30-point standard they pioneered.The outcome in both of those matches was partly based on the complicity of the opposition. It would have been interesting to see the response had a relentless team, like Galway have been, continued to move the scoreboard and ratchet up the pressure.A certain unease is detectable in John Kiely’s two changes for this weekend – the first he has ever made for an All-Ireland final. The replaced players, Dan Morrissey and Darragh O’Donovan, each had a disappointing semi-final but there must have been corroborating concerns from the training ground.Limerick's Mike Casey. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho Morrissey looked like he was ideal for managing Jason Rabbitte’s extraordinary solo performances, winning and protecting possession, but Kiely obviously preferred Mike Casey, who in the breakthrough year of 2018, spiked Galway’s then big gun Jonathan Glynn in the final.Similarly, O’Donovan had an off day, having been most impressive in the Munster final. Given his big Munster final must have left some credit in the bank and his game suits a busy middle third, the omission is a bit of a surprise.Perhaps the unease comes from recognising something of themselves in their opponents: young and carefree, trailing distortedly long odds, full of beans and willing to shoot fearlessly and often.That’s how Limerick came into the final against Galway eight years ago when they got the bandwagon rolling with a first title since 1973. Now, the same cohort of players is on the verge of nearly doubling the county’s roll of honour haul by adding a sixth in nine years to the seven it took more than a century to accumulate up to 2018.Galway start 10 players in their first All-Ireland final but they have the guidance of four previous starters – the Mannions, Conor Whelan and Daithi Burke – plus Tom Monaghan, who has been a replacement on the big day.Darragh Neary of Galway scoring a point against Cork in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final at Croke Park on July 4th. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho There’s no doubt that Galway will find the middle third a more congested and, more importantly, contested space on Sunday. There will be physical barriers to their overlapping wingers, whether breaking from the back or looking to support Rabbitte and the full forwards.Darragh Neary’s engine has looked inexhaustible and wing back Ronan Glennon and Monaghan at wing forward have been shooting accurately from distance. Will Limerick decide to man-mark Cathal Mannion, Galway’s brilliantly effective libero (to borrow from another code)?Can Glennon shoot the lights out if he has to contain Gearóid Hegarty, Limerick’s most important outfield player?Let’s assume both teams get some of what they want this weekend and the match is in play going down the stretch. Does it come down to Galway’s youthful exuberance or Limerick’s experience of finals?In the opening scene of Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life featuring two angels, the first, Clarence, is told that a man on Earth is in trouble.“Is he sick?” “No, worse. He’s discouraged.”Galway have cut their teeth impressively in Croke Park in their two most recent matches. The issue may be that this was achieved against two of the game’s more easily discouraged teams.The one attribute Limerick have shown to be undimmed in their season to date is their resilience. They simply don’t get discouraged. In the end, that may be what gets them over the line.