Kilkenny will be hoping to seal safe passage into the All-Ireland series and also book their Leinster final place on Saturday evening in UPMC Nowlan Park when they take on their neighbors Wexford at 6 pm, with live coverage of that game here on KCLR with thanks to Laharts.
A defeat for Brian Cody’s side could see the Yellowbellies advance to the next stage at the Cat’s expense if Dublin gets a positive result against Galway at the same time.
Looking ahead to the game four-time all-star Eddie Brennan says Brian Cody will be looking to keep his own house in order ;
“The winner takes all, and Wexford comes to Nowlan Park knowing nothing less will do. When you are in the scenario of looking at other fixtures, there is only one thing you really can do, and that is get your own house in order and look after your own business.”
“Brian Cody’s approach will be to focus on yourselves and not worry about anyone else. That is what Kilkenny has to do and equally, I would imagine Wexford is thinking the exact same.”
“They will say they cannot afford to give Wexford forwards like Rory O’Connor or Conor McDonald space and allow the quality ball to go into them. He will look at his half-forward line, and middle third and say we cannot allow backs to come out without pressure and supply that kind of ball.”
The loss
Embed from Getty ImagesIt’s been a positive round-robin so far for The Cats with just the one defeat away to Galway out of four games played. The running riot over a Dublin side last weekend looked impressive on the scoreboard, but the Dublin performance has been regarded as quiet overall. Considering this we asked Eddie if he thought Kilkenny was in a good place heading into this tie and a potential Leinster final ;
“They are in good order, personally I felt they would beat Galway, and they were close to doing that. In some way, we did not hurl great, but we still hung in and we were there knocking on the door, and that is the aspect that pleases you because it is always a difficult place to go. It sets you up nicely and primes you.
“Nowlan Park had to be a fortress in my time, nothing less than a win was good enough. It is a challenge they will surely embrace and Cody will be pushing them hard to get business done and onto the Leinster final for a big re-match.”
Embed from Getty ImagesNot far off
Brian Cody seems to be more animated than ever before on the sideline this year. From a man so used to being involved in a Brian Cody camp, we needed to know if this was a sign of a man really believing in what they’ve been building over the last three or four years has a real prospect of culminating in an All-Ireland title for the first time in seven years ;
“The special occasions we have seen him animated over the years, and that is because it is important to him and matters. Sometimes if you are standing on the sideline looking on and things are not going as you like you need to get that urgency across to your players. that is just Brian being Brian.”
“If you look at last year, while Cork were worthy winners on the day, Brian would of looked at the All Ireland final and said to his players that we would of given a better account of ourselves on the day.”
“I think it is fair to say Kilkenny is not far off the best two or three in the country. Anything can happen.”
You can listen to the full interview on Scoreline.ie tomorrow from 5 pm but if you want to hear about Eddie’s career, regarded as one of the greatest players of his era, multiple-time All-Star & All Ireland winner. Listen to Eddie Scally’s chat with Eddie Brennan on The Clash Act.
