Kilkenny’s intermediates are enjoying the challenge presented by representing their county in an All-Ireland final this Saturday.
Nowlan Park beckons this Saturday with the defending All-Ireland champions and Cork set to contest this year’s accolade in a one-off fixture.
Speaking to KCLR ahead of this weekend’s All-Ireland final, manager Dave O’Neill has been outlining his side’s buildup
“Preparations have been going very well. We had a game against the Wexford U21s in Nowlan Park last night (Monday) and everybody got a run. We had 19 players on the field before the end of the game, for a great atmosphere.
“It’s a very young outfit. I’ve been with the lads (Kilkenny Intermediates) for the last three years. This year, because we won last year, we were faced with the prospect of coming up with an entire new panel. There’s only one play from last year’s group eligible to play for us this year.”
“Unfortunately, other counties haven’t seen the importance of the intermediate championship, as we see it. There’s only two teams in the competition. It looked like it wasn’t going ahead but then Cork made the offer 2-3 weeks ago, if we were interested, they would come to Kilkenny.”
“Cork will have all of last year’s players eligible, where as we had to go away and find an entire new panel – bar one player. ”
“There was a big challenge in it, but the challenge was based on the fact we had so much success over the last two years.”
Listen to the full conversation below.
We’ll have updates from Nowlan Park this Saturday with the game underway at 2pm.
