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If you were to watch the Galway v Cork All-Ireland semi-final as a highlights package you wouldn't get a proper feel for the subtle changes that have come over Damien Hayes' hurling this season.
Neatly, he bookended Galway's progress to a first All-Ireland final in seven years with the first and last of their 22 points. They were typical Hayes points, too, his legs working like pistons to attack open space in front of him.
He finished the day with four points, a haul that disguised his new role as a creative force, working away from the areas that have allowed him to amass 19-75 in almost a decade of championship service to Galway.
He reminds you of how it was against Kilkenny in the Leinster final last July, though, scoring just one point from the 2-21 that handed Brian Cody only his second ever provincial championship defeat.
disconcerting
There have been days -- like the All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford and that most disconcerting Leinster semi-final defeat to Dublin earlier in 2011 -- when he has drawn blanks and has braced himself for the inevitable flak that goes with the absence of scoring figures after his name.
But, this year, he has been asked to accept it and not feel almost duty-bound to be in Joe Canning's slipstream as the alternative finisher.
Being able to run so fast and carry so well, the Galway management have gradually tailored his game to suit those strengths.
John McIntyre commenced the process of dropping Hayes deeper -- remember his performance against Sean Og O hAilpin in the 2010 league final -- but since then, it has been fine-tuned even further.
"Against Dublin (in the relegation play-off), I switched out to midfield, and I really enjoyed it. Playing in the corner you're waiting for the ball, concentrating, trying to make runs. You might make 20 runs in 20 minutes and you might touch the ball only twice," he explains.
"When you're out the field, you're more involved, and our team is so young, Mattie (Kenny) said it first, that my role is now gone from being expected to score 1-3 in every game to creating five to 10 points per game for other players.
"My job is to bring lads into the game, to make unselfish runs. I only scored one point in the Leinster final, but I did a lot more than score one point."
At 30, he's an old dog willing to try any new trick. He's also an old dog with reconditioned knees, who knows the value of looking after himself well.
"I mind myself very well. I don't drink.
"When you're younger you'd be eating the Supermacs, but you wouldn't now. You'd be minding the recovery, getting into the sea, and taking time- outs. You can't go to the hurling wall all the time."
This year has been particularly busy, with his marriage to Tipperary camogie player Claire Grogan on the horizon and a house under construction. But the routine pain management associated with his knees has been lessened by the double operation he underwent in late 2010.
Still, his itinerary is packed with hurling commitments from Monday to Sunday. "There is so much more required than 10 years ago. People don't realise it," he says. "I'm sorry. People haven't a clue. Training four nights a week, at 7.0, so I'm out of work at 5.0, trying to get something to eat.
"Then, it's onto the pitch before training for some physio, followed by an hour and a half of training, then an hour and a half to get home from Athenry. So, it's 10.30 or 11.0 when you arrive home.
"What I find the hardest is leaving work at five, getting a quick bite, training as hard as I can, and then how tired you'd be the next morning.
"(But you still have to get) up at eight and I know other lads who are up even earlier. Then, I'm dealing with the public (in the family car sales business -- Al Hayes Motors)."
When a much-changed squad was released last November and the roll call of experienced players on the way out was made known, there might well have been a temptation to seek out Hayes' name after an indifferent 2011 and what was ahead of him on the domestic front in 2012.
"In fairness, I'd spoken to the management, in November," says Hayes.
"They knew I'd a lot of commitments this year, getting married, business as well.
"They spoke about the training, I told them I was on board and the following Tuesday Mattie rang to say they were happy with my attitude and enthusiasm and I was part of the plans."
For Hayes, the defeat to Kilkenny in the league in early April has shaped their season much more than the Leinster final triumph over the same opponents in July.
"Sure that was the makings of us, to be honest. Everything changed and the set-up actually got a lot more enjoyable. A lot more messing and that's been honest.
"It got serious when required. But we went 100pc on ball drills and our hurling got sharper.
"Then came the Dublin games -- the extra game. When we played them on the same weekend as the league semi-finals there was no doubt it was really intense. That stood to us, big time."
He bristles at the notion that having to play Kilkenny again so soon after the shock and awe of the Leinster final is a problem.
His response is based on simple logic.
"Sure how many times do Real Madrid play Barcelona? How many times do Liverpool play Man United? Kilkenny are the top team in the country, we know what's ahead of us. It won't be easy.
"But this is our fourth time to play them this year. It's another game, that's all."
