The concept may be causing uneasiness in Galway, but the county is now in line for its first football and hurling double. This is the first time in 76 years that Galway have reached both finals. Of itself this is not a common achievement. Since the first All-Ireland finals in 1887, the same county has contested both finals on only 19 occasions - excepting London who automatically qualified for finals at the turn of the last century.

It's already well known that Cork and Tipperary have each won the double twice but the evidence of the remaining years is that a county in that position is likely to win one of the finals, with only four counties failing to win either in the same season.

Although Sunday was the first time that Galway have won both hurling and football semi-finals, the county was present in both finals in 1925 - the footballers as a result of mass expulsions at the All-Ireland semi-final stage. They were successful in the football final but lost the hurling, as it happens, to Tipperary.

The last coach to negotiate the double was Cork's football manager Billy Morgan in 1990. He doesn't remember the demands of the season's climax unsettling the team. "If anything it probably spurred us on. I certainly didn't feel any extra pressure. When the hurlers won, people came up to me and said: 'The pressure's on ye now'. But we didn't really feel it. To be honest we'd have felt under more pressure if the hurlers had lost. There was a huge buzz around the county after they won and that was quite uplifting."

Galway have taken a different tack and over the past week appeared keen to play down the chances of dual success. Galway football manager John O'Mahony says that the prospect of the two finals hasn't created any additional tension. "I don't think so. To be honest I'm not that aware of the whole thing, although I know the supporters are. From our perspective we'll be looking forward to next Sunday (Kerry-Meath) to see who comes through to play us in the final. That will be more interesting to us than the hurling final, although we obviously are anxious that the hurlers do well."

O'Mahony says that the structures within the county lend themselves to separate preparation. "We have two boards, football and hurling, so there's not the one group of officials caught up in both at ground level."

Morgan remembers the arrangements in the county being excellent, although Cork doesn't have separate boards. "The county board was very fair to us but we had excellent liaison between the teams, between ourselves and Fr (Michael) O'Brien and Gerald McCarthy, who were in charge of the hurlers."

Like Cork 11 years ago, the county has only one player common to both teams and Alan Kerins is in a slightly different position to Teddy McCarthy - the only man to win both hurling and football medals in the same year - in that he was something of a surprise declaration after years of playing exclusively with the hurlers. By 1990 McCarthy was an established dual player, already with All-Ireland medals in both codes.

Denis Walsh, who been a dual player in the three preceding seasons with Cork, lost ground in the historic year after sustaining an injury in the Munster final. By the time he had recovered, he had missed the All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon and although he was on the successful hurling team, found himself out of the loop when the panel was named for the football final.

Galway can take encouragement from the fact that it is 45 years since a county was unfortunate enough to lose both finals. Cork lost the 1956 hurling final to Wexford and the football to Galway - and, for good measure, the camogie to Antrim.

Finally, Morgan agrees that the pressure is structurally always on the footballers. "I think if you'd any say in the matter, you'd prefer to be first in a situation like that. But at the time the pressure of coming two weeks after the hurlers never crossed my mind."