THE FIRST All-Ireland final hurling replay in 53 years brings strains for both Kilkenny and Galway. It’s not just that the last drawn final was in 1959 but in recent years it’s unusual even to have matches replayed in the latter stages of the championship.

Two managers who have had important matches against both the All-Ireland finalists have a similar view of next weekend’s contest and tend to the view that Kilkenny have more potential for improvement.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s Cork side lost the league final to Kilkenny and lost the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway. He believes the unexpected additional weeks present a challenge for both teams.

“The first thing that strikes me is that it drags things out and makes it very hard to maintain things at the pitch you want, which can be a big problem.”

His Dublin counterpart Anthony Daly, who is expected to be reappointed as manager this week, faced Galway in April’s relegation play-off and saw his side well beaten by Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final. He also had extensive experience of championship replays as a player and like Barry-Murphy, who managed Cork to All-Ireland success in 1999, was involved in a final decided by a point.

“It’s a fair bit of time and gives a chance to adjust to what’s a desperate anti-climax. During the summer it doesn’t matter but a final is supposed to be the end of the season and players have given everything. Afterwards you’re supposed to be licking your wounds or having a ball and it’s very hard to get used to that not happening.

“This is very different, if only because we’re not used to it.

“We had a lot of replays: Tipperary and Galway in 1999 and Waterford and Offaly in ’98. But they were all in the middle of the season and you were happy that even if you hadn’t won you hadn’t lost either. Midstream, it’s just another game. Finals are different.

“In 1997, it was looking on the cards and I was getting worried because my wedding was on the next Saturday. It was bad enough for me but (now wife) Eilish was in the Cusack Stand, appalled at the prospect.

“Players would have planned a bit of a session before getting back into club training so you can imagine the anti-climax.

“Anthony Cunningham put them on the bus and took them home that night. Fellas would have been there with their new suits and banquet tickets and they have to go home!”

Barry-Murphy says the final demonstrated the extent to which Kilkenny need to get improved performances from established players and how Galway need to address the tendency to drop back on leads.

“I was interested in the Kilkenny subs bench not being used because I think there’s a misconception about strength in depth. The fact is in any county once you go beyond the top 15 you’re probably going to struggle a bit.

“There’s a number of Kilkenny forwards who didn’t play well and will be looking to improve after the last day. Henry Shefflin gave an unbelievable display but all of the others have room for improvement.

“I’m fascinated by Galway and the way they cede territory and possession to opponents as soon as they get a lead. They did it against us and we hadn’t the experience to take advantage; we should have had taken more scores when we had the chances.

“I’d discount the Leinster final because the margin made it irrelevant but I’d imagine Anthony Cunningham will be looking closely at this and the way Joe Canning can become marginalised.”

Daly was working at the drawn final for RTÉ radio and suspects that just as Kilkenny had targeted Dublin in Leinster before performing disappointingly in the provincial final, the All-Ireland semi-final demolition of Tipperary may have drained them a bit for the final.

“I though they were flat. They took it out on Tipp in the semi-final and that fury and fire were missing in the final. They seem to have forgotten that they’d been humiliated in the Leinster final and that Galway were expecting a backlash.

“But the second-half performance was huge. One way of looking at it is they won’t be as bad again. I said on radio that they had been very flat and then allowed the referee issue sidetrack them. They allowed funny things to happen, like Tommy Walsh ending up spending so much time on the edge of the square and leaving Richie Hogan on Iarla Tannian for the whole match.”

Kilkenny’s stamina at this level has been nearly unprecedented. Should they win next weekend they will have won more than Mick O’Dwyer’s Kerry football side from the 1970s and ’80s. Both currently have accumulated eight All-Irelands in 12 years but Kilkenny could move to nine in 13.

But there have been signs of faltering.

“Any team that’s on top for a long time can find their edge going a bit and it’s hard to keep that at the level needed to win an All-Ireland,” says Barry-Murphy.

Daly agrees but isn’t sure that the champions are there for the taking just yet.

He does, however, remember the process through which his own team’s desire became blunted.

“We never won what they won but by the end of 1999, we didn’t have the edge any more to keep winning and hating other teams! But Kilkenny are so unique they keep digging and going to the well.

“I think we trained 21 nights out of 23 before playing Tipperary in 2000 but it wasn’t there. No matter what Ger Loughnane said about Tipp, we couldn’t get going.”