Feast of hurling in store for Kilkenny teams this week

It’s a busy week for Kilkenny hurling sides with three of the county’s teams in action at UPMC Nowlan Park over the coming days.

The action commences with Matthew Ruth’s under-19 side facing Dublin in the Development League Final on Wednesday evening.

The throw-in for that final is 6.45pm and it is preceded by the Shield Final involving Offaly and Wexford at 4.45pm.

While it’s open to debate what sort of buy-in there has been from other counties, the competition has definitely served Kilkenny well as not only are the instigators behind its creation but they are also the holders after beating Wexford in last year’s decider.

The treadmill will then roll onto Saturday as the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship throws-in with a bang where old adversaries Kilkenny and Galway collide in a late afternoon slot.

While the Cats have defeated the Tribesmen in a number of Leinster Final meetings, the Noresiders are still awaiting their first victory in the round-robin series and they would love to put that right here.

They go into the game as heavy favourites despite Galway turning them over in the Allianz League with Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody in a good position to return from injury while Mikey Carey and David Blanchfield are also free from their recent red card suspensions.

The Easter Saturday treat will also be live on RTÉ television where there is a 3.45pm start.

The other games in Leinster also take place on Saturday with Wexford taking on Antrim at Chadwicks Wexford Park at 2pm while later in the evening, there is a 6pm start for Dublin and Offaly in Parnell Park.

The Minor Hurlers will then round off the weekend’s action where they are in the slightly unfortunate position of going up directly against the Munster Championship and All-Ireland final repeat of Clare and Cork in Ennis at 2pm.

Niall Bergin is in his third year in charge of the Cats and they will enjoy home comforts when they meet Wexford.

After winning last year’s Leinster minor crown, Kilkenny will be hoping to kick off the round-robin schedule in style with further games against Galway and Dublin to come.

The Cats still have eight players from the team that reached the All-Ireland Final with Tipperary last June so expectation will be high that the current minor crop can go on another extended run in the coming weeks.