It may be a cliche to describe hurling as a religion in Kilkenny, but the language of the locals does nothing to dispel the notion.
"We don't believe in football or anything else, it's a hurling county," says John Hayes from Gowran, not so much dismissing the merits of other sports as denying their existence.
Mr Hayes will be in Dublin for the All-Ireland final and expects to see his county beat Offaly by about eight points. "Offaly beat a bad Cork team, and we lost to a bad Cork team last year. Only for it rained, we'd have wiped them off the board." Such confidence is not unusual in Kilkenny, where success on the hurling field is taken for granted. But this year optimism is tempered with fear. Nobody can bear the prospect of Kilkenny becoming the first county to lose three All-Ireland finals in a row.
Concern that too much hype last year unbalanced the team before the final, which Kilkenny lost to Cork, has prompted the team management to keep the build-up as low-key as possible. But it's not an approach which has found favour with everyone.
Complaints about the scarcity of tickets are also part of the pre-match routine, but this year the problem is more acute than usual due to the reduced capacity of Croke Park, currently under reconstruction. Sean Gaule has not missed an All-Ireland involving Kilkenny since 1947, but he has no ticket for tomorrow.
