“After winning in ’80, we got to the final the following year and I just think there was a certain complacency playing Offaly,” recalls the former Galway manager.

“The one thing I would say to the group now is don’t think a game is won. I think there was an element of it last week not just with the players but the whole county that we’re big, we’re strong, we’re physical, we’re ticking all the boxes, we’ve a good full-back, a good centre-back, a good free-taker. I think it got to us and we nearly got caught.

“The one thing I would warn them of complacency. It’s the one thing you can’t afford because everybody is talking and writing you up as All-Ireland champions but you have to go out and perform every day and every team out there is aiming to take you down.”

Lane argues when such a belief is prevalent as it was in the county it can’t but infiltrate the camp. Even if Micheál Donoghue’s team had held onto their three-point lead at the end, there were worrying signs for the man who guided Galway to an All-Ireland semi-final win over Kilkenny in 2001.

“Maybe our discipline and our attitude cost us more than anything lacking in our hurling. We definitely need to improve in our discipline. We were conceding frees and frees were being brought forward because we were mouthing to the ref. The attitude should be different going into the replay.

“I think it might have been a bit of frustration last Sunday. We all went up to Dublin and we were all expecting. People were asking me about it and you’d be saying you expected Galway to win. Deep down in our gut, the supporters, management and players were saying to ourselves: ‘We will win it. Yes, it will be tough but we will win by five or six points’.

“When that wasn’t happening and Kilkenny were putting it up to us, we might have reacted and bitched a bit, which isn’t something that Galway do a lot, in fairness to them.”

Even if the draw could benefit Galway as a reality check, right now Kilkenny appear to have taken most from the game.

“Brian Cody knows now that his team is going to be competitive against anybody and he has to be happy with where they are at,” says Lane.

“As well as that, Kilkenny might be hurting that the media and other teams were thinking they were lambs to the slaughter.

“Kilkenny are never that. They don’t like anybody to think they’re afraid of anyone or for anyone to insinuate that they might fear playing Galway.

“We are the Leinster and All-Ireland champions and we are the team to beat but I would say it hurt Brian Cody that it was said Kilkenny had to play Galway to see where they stood but deep down they knew it was probably right.”

With his comments, Lane is nodding towards Galway captain David Burke’s comment last week that Kilkenny “still fear us in a way”.

“David has been a great captain, leader and player and he would be very dignified and measured in his comments. In hindsight maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to say. Maybe it was something that was taken up wrong but he said what he said and he’s a honest man and an intelligent man.

“Sometimes these comments can be picked up and I think it did hurt Cody and Kilkenny and gave them an opportunity to say: ‘Look what these guys are saying about us’. Sometimes a slip of the tongue can be a headline tomorrow.”

Now the consensus is the Tribesmen have more capacity for improvement, which is just as ignorant, warns Lane.

“I think it’s dangerous talk. Yes, Galway have room for improvement if it’s there and is something like last year. Kilkenny will also improve. It’s hard to put back-to-back titles together. We were in second gear right through the league and the Leinster Championship didn’t pose any real problems for us. It was a lesson we had to learn.”

Lane has a lot of time for the current Cork team and a Limerick side who, should they see off Carlow this evening, will face the losers of tomorrow’s replay in an All-Ireland quarter-final next weekend.

The three-time All-Ireland winner can’t stress enough how the Leinster final has taken on more significance in the past week.

“The losers only have six or seven days and it’ll be a third weekend in a row and likely Limerick in the long grass although Carlow had a fine win last weekend. I’d be very worried about the losers and that’s why in hindsight both counties would prefer to have won or lost last week. The extra game might help but injuries could be a factor and an injury to either full-back would be huge. It’s a bigger game in Thurles than it was in Croke Park.”