All-Ireland SHC Final Cork v GalwayTomorrow's Guinness All-Ireland hurling final brings to its climax a championship that started slowly and is finishing in style. Last month's bristling semi-finals turned around the season that had been flat and delivered a final that virtually no one would have foreseen at any stage of the season, let alone the start.

Kilkenny's absence cuts two ways for Cork. Like everyone else manager John Allen was expecting to see the Leinster champions join his team for what would have been an unprecedented third successive final. But the unexpected arrival of Galway, just as its novelty has triggered a ticket frenzy, complicates things for the champions.

As Allen acknowledged last week, Kilkenny hadn't been in hectic form this summer and were vulnerable. He left unspoken the collateral hope that they might have survived and brought this vulnerability into the final weekend.

Instead Cork take on a side that has been picking up momentum like an express train, shedding low expectations and inhibition as they close in on the final.

There are sound reasons to accept this is a match that Cork should win. Galway haven't anything like the experience of Kilkenny and nothing of the bitter resentment that fuels losing finalists, a motivation that the champions used to good effect last year.

John Allen's serene management has ensured continuity and minimised the loss of Donal O'Grady by meticulously preserving the systems he had introduced that resurrected Cork hurling.

This year the team, for all its uneven performances, has responded with formidable intent whenever threatened.

This was most obvious in the semi-final against Clare. Much of the attention after the match was paid to Allen's replacement of Brian Corcoran and Ronan Curran but the team had already begun to rumble and would have been value for a wider winning margin.

Unlike the challengers, who had to improvise like a stoned jazz band to keep their defence in business against Kilkenny, Cork have a settled unit who can even afford the luxury of equanimity in relation to Curran's faltering form because of Wayne Sherlock's presence on the bench and the majestic form of John Gardiner, who can comfortably switch into centre back.

Yet this is a deadly match to call and one carrying considerable menace for Cork. Challengers with momentum have on balance a better recent record than even slightly stale champions.

Kilkenny found out this to their cost last year, as did Offaly 10 years ago.

Galway have the pace and mobility to match Cork, particularly around centrefield, where Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor so frequently provide the turbo boosts the team requires going forward.

Manager Conor Hayes has been through his own trial by fire - and it's been hotter than simply making big, albeit astute, substitutions.

Nearly dumped with customary Galway patience at the start of the year, he has had to make his own hard calls, as the number of conscientious objectors in the county testifies, and without the public acclaim that Allen has been afforded.

The contrast between the defences is the starting point for Galway's challenge and nowhere will that be more demanding than in the task of hustling Cork's half backs.

Kilkenny's half-back line posed a similar threat in the semi-final but Alan Kerins, David Forde and Richie Murray gave them very little time and space to build a winning platform.

It's hard to see Gardiner and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín being disrupted to the same extent.

Galway have in common with Cork the presence of a top player on the bench. The availability of five substitutions means teams are more willing to hold an ace in reserve and it's only a question of when Kevin Broderick takes the field.

That scenario either inspires Niall Healy or intimidates him but the teenager's reaction to seeing the great man warm up in the semi-final was fairly spectacular - although few will imagine him picking up a second successive hat-trick off Diarmuid O'Sullivan.

But there's more to Galway. Damien Hayes was quiet in the collective interest against Kilkenny but remains the attack's most menacing presence, whereas Ger Farragher's dead-ball accuracy was complemented by a continued dramatic improvement in his contribution from general play.

How the match unfolds tactically will give a broad indication of its outcome. If Cork manage to impose their controlled possession game the match is unlikely to be high scoring and Galway won't thrive in the claustrophobia.

Should it turn into a helter-skelter affair with fast ball predominating over slower, more deliberate possession, that will be to Galway's advantage.

There are, as stated, good reasons to believe that the champions with their unflappable poise and admirable focus stand a superior chance of dictating the course of a match.

But hurling can't always be controlled and Galway, liberated from neuroses and insecurities thanks to the new system and its more demanding schedules, have the ability to play this free-form.

They mightn't take five again but they can click.