Can Saturday night possibly match what happened three weeks before on the first of this year’s All-Ireland senior hurling final days?

Unlikely in terms of quality, but highly probable in terms of drama. Because something has to give. The greatest team of all time either reach the end of the road or the greatest team of all time summon greatness once more. And that’s just one side of the equation. On the other, a team that scored 1-28 while playing out of their skin, now have to find those high performance levels again to finish the job.

I love replays. Mainly due to the facts we can take from the drawn match. From 7 September we can take plenty. Tipperary finished the stronger and were marginally the better side over the 70 odd minutes. Kilkenny had fewer standout performers but managed to lead by four points late on.

Optimists and pessimists from both counties will have had a field day these last three weeks. The glass is half full merchants from Tipp will point to the conviction that their team were the better outfit in the drawn match and can prove that on Saturday and finish the job.

They’ll look at their stars in attack, the rejuvenated Lar, the clinical Bubbles, the brilliant Callinan, the hard-working Ryan and effective McGrath, not to mention the all-action Bonner. That was a forward line that clicked and caused the Cats’ problems all day long. They appeared to have the measure of their men.

Naysayers from Tipp will worry about the goalkeeper and a defence that appeared to have some excellent performers but still conceded 3-22. They’ll wonder out loud if they can be as good again all over the field. The smarter ones will bring up the three-week gap between the games, something Kilkenny put to excellent use back in 2012 when they had the same time to play with before their replay against Galway.

Around the Marble City some eternal optimists will be rubbing their hands at the thought of a second crack at Tipp, with so many of their players sure to play better, not to mention two or three potential new starters.

They’ll be confident that Brian Cody will mix and match, that he will have learned much about Tipp’s forward threat from the drawn encounter. They’ll muse out loud that Henry might even be on from the start.

Kilkenny however, for all their All-Irelands, will still have a few doubters among their own. It is, after all, human nature. They will have plenty to consider. Their legs looked gone at the end, they did not dominate in the air, they conceded 29 scores for the first time under Cody and their manager did not appear to have much faith in the much-vaunted bench at his disposal. Some will be justifiably nervous.

There are grains of truth in all of those hopes and concerns. Tipperary were the better team. They probably had about 12 players that were on top and played their best game of the year. However, for that statement, you can parry with the thought that, because of that, Kilkenny have the most scope for improvement.

The obituary writers, myself among them, have been gathering like vultures over this Kilkenny team for three years now. Yet here they are. This is not a new team either. Apart from perhaps Joey Holden, it is the essentially the same panel that fell at the quarter-final stage last year to Cork and lost (in a replay) to Dublin. They’re just a year older.

Saturday will see them out in a blaze of glory or will see the kill shot being applied by their greatest rivals. What a prospect either way.

The Kilkenny team won’t be known until Friday night and I for one will be very surprised if King Henry appears on the first 15. If Brian Cody felt he wasn’t good enough to come into the drawn match until there were just four minutes left on the clock, how can he now be up to starting?

I do suspect changes, however. There have to be. Walter Walsh, Holden and Conor Fogarty appear under pressure to retain their jerseys, but there has to be a question mark over their replacements given that the Cats’ sideline was so slow to make changes the first day. A fully fit Padraig Walsh should be on from the get-go, but after that Cody will probably be in rabbit-from-a-hat territory.

Of course he has previous. He plucked Walter Walsh from a losing All-Ireland U-21 team and hey presto, he wasn’t seen in the drawn 2012 final but won man of the match in the replay and grabbed 1-3. This team selection could be Cody’s last, it could be the one he agonises over the most. It’s no secret that he needs at least two more forwards to contribute above and beyond the norm and I wonder could Tommy Walsh possibly come into his thoughts? The Cats’ full-back line also buckled the last day, apart from Paul Murphy.

So Cody’s the one with all the problems, apparently. Of course, we don’t believe a word of it. Cody will be viewing this team sheet as an opportunity. And that’s what it is. He will challenge the 15 picked to go out and do what it is Kilkenny do.

It is probable that the Cats will show up. And that’s one hell of a start. No matter what the team is, they will perform. The question is, has the bird flown?

Tipperary will be unchanged. In personnel and in thought. They stood up the last day and took the game to Kilkenny. They have less to fear now. They have to be the favourites.

Under lights there will be a special tingling all over Croke Park on Saturday night. My daughter will witness her first ever hurling final with her Dad and we couldn’t have picked a better one, (apart from the obvious Clare versus, well, anyone else). This will see out the year in some style. How lucky we are.

Tipperary to win.