We are only a week into July and already we have a mouth watering clash on our hands.
It’s been a mighty week for Kilkenny with Minors and 21s both winning Leinster titles and all of a sudden a resurgence looks like it may happen a little sooner than some people may have thought.
Okay so Senior is a different level but the buzz within the county carries through to everyone including the players and that will have buoyed the lads as they prepare to hit Thurles Saturday evening.
Former Waterford Senior manager Justin McCarthy says Kilkenny will need goals to defeat Waterford in tomorrow (Saturday) evening’s All-Ireland Qualifier.
“Kilkenny are not as good as what they were and some of the younger players coming through haven’t matured, but having said that if Kilkenny get goals you would have to say there in with a great chance.
“If they don’t get goals and Waterford play to some bit of form, they (Waterford) should be able to take it,” said Justin.
Judging by what McCarthy has said there, Waterford will fancy their chances of finally getting past Kilkenny in a crucial Championship game and 1-35 was fair shooting the last day against Offaly, but that feeble test will not be much good to them on Saturday.
The fact that Kilkenny had to grind out victory against Limerick may stand to them that bit more because it will have made them that bit more battle hardened.
From a Kilkenny point of view there is plenty to work on still.
They must be more clinical in front of goal this time and as Justin McCarthy stated they might struggle to win if they don’t get goals.
They are creating those opportunities however and that is a big positive so it’s only a matter of time before they put these away and after all they still scored three goals against Wexford.
Much has been made about the positioning of Austin Gleeson and it will definitely be interesting to see where he lines out on Saturday.
I spoke to Derek McGrath earlier this year and he said the big thing is to let Austin go where he wants but I think this appears to have changed now and in my opinion I’d love to see him go toe to toe with Cillian Buckley.
For the loser, this game would go down as a big disappointment in what would be an underwhelming season, but for the winner it would open things up big time for the rest of the year.
It’s such a hard game to call here but I think Kilkenny might just edge it on the day.
