Kilkenny travels up to Croke Park for the first time with Derek Lyng in charge to hopefully put a tenth provincial title in his back pocket and a 75th Bob O’Keeffe Cup in Kilkenny’s Cabinet.
They go up against Henry Shefflins Galway, who are out for their fourth Leinster Championship, not bad for a team from Connacht eh?
There are concerns about the fitness of Adrien Mullen, Martin Keoghan, and Mikey Butler who all went off injured against Wexford.
See also: Aidan “Taggy” Fogarty looks ahead to Leinster Final
Speaking to KCLR Scoreline during the week Derek Lyng has stated that the decider may have come a bit too soon for some. If it has proven come too soon for some of the players, nine-time All Ireland winner Tommy Walsh believes The Cats will go into the game as underdogs, but that is not a bad thing;
“We are under pressure with the injuries, if we have four or five injuries going into it, we will be under pressure and we’ll be underdogs going into it. But listen how many times in the past have Kilkenny teams gone in as underdogs? We like going in as underdogs. “
“The one thing about them is they always perform in finals and big games. They don’t affect us too much. It’s like going out playing any normal game, so you’d expect a huge performance from the lads. The one thing about this Kilkenny team is that they have good forwards.“
“If the lads come back from injury, it probably has a major say on the game Sunday, so hoping for a win, but we’ll be under pressure with the injuries.”
See also: Michael Fennelly sounds off on Leinster Final between Kilkenny & Galway