"Following in the footsteps of greatness"- Walsh hails young Kilkenny star

Kilkenny’s 2-11 to 1-13 win over Galway was arguably even more impressive, given that the Marble County travelled up to Duggan Park in Ballinasloe, they dominated the first half and then rallied again when Galway rattled off five points in a row to draw level with the wind behind them in the second half.

It’s a great start to the campaign for the Cats and with three home games to come and a new management in place, the 2022 Al-Ireland champions have put themselves into a very positive position which they will be delighted with ahead of Tipperary’s visit this weekend.

“Kilkenny needed that more than Galway did,” declared team selector Michael Walsh.

“It’s a new management team in there, they’re trained very hard since they came back and the players put in an outstanding effort – we were just looking for a performance, but to get the victory was great."

Caoimhe Keher Murtagh scored the decisive goal with a superb finish early in the final quarter, and Walsh acknowledged that the UL student, a granddaughter of Kilkenny hurling legend Eddie Keher and talented to boot, has a lot of expectation on her shoulders.

“She wasn’t due to start, she’s been dealing with a bit of illness, but there was an injury there in the warm-up and she came in and played really well.

“She’s following in the footsteps of greatness and that’s not easy, but she’s carrying it well and hopefully there’s more to come from her.”

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Walsh didn’t go so far as to say that Kilkenny are All-Ireland contenders, but Galway manager Cathal Murray was unequivocal on that topic.

“Kilkenny deserved the victory in fairness, their level of performance was better than ours, we created enough chances but we didn’t take them.

“People are talking about Kilkenny as if they’re in the middle of rebuilding, I don’t buy that for a second. They had a really good minor team a few years ago that won an All-Ireland, they had a really good U23 team last year, they’ve got the players and they were very unlucky against Tipperary in the quarter-final last year, with new players in to boost them for 2026."