Plenty of fresh faces are set to feature as Cats get campaign up and running

The new intercounty hurling season is just days away with Kilkenny set to meet near neighbours Carlow in the opening round of the Dioralyte Walsh Cup in Netwatch Cullen Park on Sunday afternoon at 1.30pm.

It will be the Cats’ first competitive outing since last July’s All-Ireland hurling final defeat to Limerick and win or lose, a meeting with Wexford will follow on either of the next two weekends as Derek Lyng gets the opportunity to look at a couple of new faces ahead of the start of the Allianz Hurling League.

The upcoming league campaign will be the last in its current guise before a revamped structure in 2025, where the 1A and 1B split will be merged into one and it should result in more competitive fare throughout the early spring months.

As regards this year’s league schedule, last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists have been dealt a tough group of games with away trips to Munster sides Clare, Cork and Waterford.

Kilkenny will entertain Leinster rivals Wexford and Division One newcomers Offaly in their two home outings in UPMC Nowlan Park with the game against the Model County kicking things off on Sunday, February 4.

Everything the Cats do in the Walsh Cup will be geared towards those five games in the league and even more so looking ahead to the Leinster Championship round-robin in the summer.

It all starts with Carlow this weekend and Lyng admits that they are down a lot of bodies at this time of the year.

“We’ve only been back since the end of November and took a break over Christmas,” he said. “There are lads who came back from the club campaign with niggles which need to be sorted out, so there’s a lot of that ongoing with plenty of lads rehabbing with injuries. Hopefully over the next month we will start to see them get back on the pitch, but for some that will take a bit of time.”

The Urlingford man has opted to keep the same management team of Peter Barry, Peter O’Donovan, Michael Rice and Conor Phelan for the year ahead as he aims to improve on a very promising first season in charge.

“Last year was a big learning curve,” he said. “You were even getting used to the schedule and the intensity of the games that came thick and fast especially in the championship.

“We saw the importance of having a really strong panel as one of the big learnings from the year and we’ll hopefully carry that into this year and manage it as best as we can.

“We were reasonably happy how last year went but ultimately we didn’t get what we set out to achieve - we just fell short against Limerick. The challenge is how do we improve on different aspects of our play again.

“I’d like to think we’ve a better idea of that and where we can target for the year ahead,” he added. “While there’s plenty of work to be done, everyone involved is looking forward to it.”

Kilkenny are currently working with a training panel that will be cut in the next few weeks. A number of players are also unavailable, with the likes of Walter Walsh, John Donnelly, Mikey Butler, Paddy Deegan and Huw Lawlor all club-tied until the end of January while Richie Reid got married last weekend. Add in that some of the older players will be rested, experimentation will certainly be the name of the game in the coming weeks.

Bennettsbridge’s Liam Blanchfield returns to the squad after a two-year hiatus. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Lyng brought in the likes of Timmy Clifford, Gearoid Dunne and Billy Drennan from his All-Ireland under-20 squad for last year’s campaign and a huge number of that team are expected to get a chance to impress in the Walsh Cup.

“We have a panel of about 46 at the minute and we called up a number of players that impressed during last year’s club campaign,” Lyng added.

“At some stage though we will have to call a halt to numbers as there’s only so many you can bring in and invest time with.

“Some lads you will see on Sunday and then others you will see in the next few weeks as the Walsh Cup is all about giving lads opportunities.

“Unfortunately some of the new lads have one or two niggles at the minute so it might take a few weeks before we see them, but it’s an open panel all the time - the door is never fully shut on anybody. We will be constantly looking at the panel and looking at players so it’s about fine-tuning that and ensuring we’ve the right balance in the squad.

“In terms of panel numbers we will be down a good number of players for the next few weeks at least and then there’s obviously the challenge of managing a lot of lads who will need a break but that’s something we will just have to manage and make sure we have lads fresh as the season goes on.”

The Cats will also have a huge amount of players involved in college action from the middle of this month and while a big fan of the Fitzgibbon Cup competition, the Kilkenny manager feels it could be scheduled a little better to ease the workload on lads.

“The Fitzgibbon Cup will take a great deal of management and it’s a great competition, but I would have question marks around the scheduling of it,” he said.

“I see league games down for decision and they might only be two days before or after college matches. They are going to cause a lot of concern for a lot of teams, including ourselves.

“I think we need to be a bit more clever with the scheduling of those games but that’s just the way it is at the minute and because the league is now so important as well, it’s probably even more relevant now.

“There was probably a time when the league wasn’t do or die, but it’s a lot more important for this year in terms of the changes for 2025 but again it’s something we’ll just have to look at.”

The off-season saw Kilkenny lose two of their main assets with Padraig Walsh and Richie Hogan confirming their retirement from the intercounty game.

Derek Lyng is entering his second year as Kilkenny manager

The duo both helped the county to a number of titles and with the likes of Richie Leahy and Conor Browne still away on their travels, a few changes in personnel have been made to the squad but for Lyng, there was nothing but praise for Walsh and Hogan.

“The two of them were fantastic servants and great people in the dressing room,” he said. “The reality is that their loss will be felt with regards their presence in the dressing room.

“The guidance with players around them and how they managed themselves was second to none and how they went about their business was always top class.

“That’s that nature of sport at the same time and when you see two fellas like that stepping away, you need to have players who see that as an opportunity and try and step up to those roles.

“In terms of the two lads, what they’ve given last year and in previous seasons to produce such great careers will ensure that they will be a big loss, but again there’s an opportunity there for new lads to hopefully leave their mark on the team.”

There’s no time for looking back in modern GAA however and supporters will be anxious to get a look at this new look team at the weekend and it won’t just be on the Kilkenny team that there will be a few familiar faces.

Glenmore’s Tom Mullally is moving into his third year in charge of the Barrowsiders and he led the county to Joe McDonagh success.

Mullally also managed the Naas senior hurlers to a Kildare senior title last October and managed against his own club as recent as 2021, so he will be out to make a mark against his native county with the two teams also meeting in the Leinster Championship.