BRIAN HOGAN’S thundering display in Sunday’s All-Ireland final won’t be forgotten in a hurry, but the decision of referee Barry Kelly to penalise Jackie Tyrrell for fouling Davy Glennon in injury time, it seems, will eventually fade into obscurity.

“Ah, as I said to the lads you will get those decisions some days and you won’t other days,” said Hogan. “There is no point in giving out about them because there is plenty there we are better off expending our energy on. Things that are in our own control – our performances, our use of the ball.

“There is no point in worrying about things that are out of our control. The referee makes his decisions as he sees them and that is the way it is.”

It also gave Joe Canning a slice at redemption, something Galway people and most neutrals were hoping the 23-year-old would receive before the finish.

But some things inevitably get lost in the fire. As the flames died around Croke Park, after this titanic struggle between established and burgeoning heroes of hurling, there stood Michael Rice.

The midfielder played no part in what should have been the biggest game of his career.

Nor will he feature in the replay for that matter. A blow from Pádraic Maher’s hurley in the All-Ireland semi-final – deemed legitimate by the match day officials and a subsequent review committee – has left the Irish and Economics teacher at St Kieran’s College with a mangled right paw.

It took a collection of medical experts to decide how to mend the shattered bones and crushed knuckle.

He was still in a sling Sunday, with a noticeably swollen hand, having also missed the start of the new school term, such is the severity of the injury.

“No, I’m out from school as well,” said Rice. “The surgeon is not letting me back.”

It still seems remarkable that he merely stood up and walked down the tunnel to receive treatment after receiving the blow.

When Iarla Tannian raged against the Kilkenny storm, dominating the midfield breaks, the presence of Rice was missed, as it will be come September 30th.

“It’s not for three weeks now, which is quite a long time, but we would usually have three, four matches with that time period between them so it is a natural cycle to wait three weeks again,” said Rice to visiting foreign journalists who showed up for hurling’s showpiece event.

“At half-time if someone had offered me a draw I would have taken it. But seeing the second half we clawed it back, we were confident and they seemed to be on the back foot.

“I think we had a huge chance but at half-time we were under serious pressure.”

And the pressure was ratcheted up once again with 15 minutes remaining when a fortuitous clash of Kilkenny bodies gave Niall Burke a sight of goal, his accurate low bouncing finish put Galway two clear, ending a six-point Kilkenny hot streak.

However, within a few pucks of the ball Henry Shefflin gifted Colin Fennelly what was arguably an easier chance to put Kilkenny back in control.

“Yeah, I’m going to go in to the lad and tell him to bounce it into the net, makes it a lot more difficult to save!” Rice joked while helpfully explaining the nuances of this sport to the outsiders peering in.

“We probably would have driven on from there – confidence would have seeped from them – but that’s the way it happens.”

The biggest losers from a drawn All-Ireland – after women’s football of course – are the clubs. The Galway and Kilkenny championships are going to be forced into wintry months as a result of the three-week break.

“It would be nice to have it sooner from the perspective of the club guys,” said Hogan. “It is going to drive the club championship back into the winter which is tough on them. It is what it is.

“We will gladly take this week to recover. There will be a lot of tired sore bodies. Obviously the under-21s are in the All-Ireland final this weekend so we will take this week to recover and then we will go at it next week.”