“IT’S the little luxuries you miss,” sighs James Ryall, looking at his Lucozade Sport bottle as he prepares to take a gulp heading to Graigue-Ballycallan training.

THE Kilkenny management do not expect Henry Shefflin and John Tennyson to fully recover from their respective cruciate knee injuries and be back in the black and amber jersey until the All-Ireland championship.

KILKENNY defender James Ryall has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.

KILKENNY defensive duo Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall last night denied suggestions that they have made a decision to retire from inter-county hurling.

Newspaper reports confirming the retirement of three inter-county hurlers - Waterford's Tony Browne and Kilkenny duo Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall - have been rubbished by official sources.

LONG-SERVING Kilkenny hurling defensive pair Michael Kavanagh and James Ryall have brought their inter-county careers to a close in the wake of last Sunday’s All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary.

LET’S deal with Henry’s situation first. Even back in 2000, when all this began for both Brian Cody and Kilkenny and when DJ was still the main man up front, a young Henry Shefflin was starting to emerge as a real force on the big stage.

KILKENNY centre-back Brian Hogan will miss the All-Ireland final after suffering a hand injury.

1. Kilkenny Goals

‘SHOCK and awe’ is a term employed for a warfare doctrine conceived in 1996 in the United States’ National Defence University by Messrs Ullman and Wade; in plain speak, however, it’s called ‘rapid dominance’, and is designed ‘to overwhelm the opposition by the use of massive firepower, superior battlefield awareness and dominant manoeuvres, an intimidating display of force to paralyse the opposition’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight.’

Kilkenny 3-22 Cork 0-19

The Kilkenny team to face Cork in Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final shows two changes from the side selected to play Galway in the Leinster final.

1. Noel Hickey: Kilkenny got away without him last year simply because they were still just that bit too good for everyone else.

John Tennyson and Eoin Larkin will make their first appearances of the season when Kilkenny face Tipperary in the sides' refixed All-Ireland NHL Division 1 duel at Semple Stadium on Sunday (throw-in 2.30pm).

Brian Hogan will make his first appearance of this year's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship when he lines out for Kilkenny in tomorrow's semi-final clash with Waterford (Croke Park, throw-in 4pm).

ALL-IRELAND winning boss Brian Cody has described the current turmoil surrounding the Liam MacCarthy Cup relegation battle as ‘unfortunate’ and has warned that demoting a top-flight hurling county will not benefit anyone.

AFTER a lack-lustre football decider the week before and all the hype created by the Heineken Cup semi-final, this epic Allianz National League final in Thurles yesterday was just what hurling and the GAA needed to reclaim the feelgood factor.

ALL STAR Eddie Brennan has been included on the Kilkenny team to play Galway in the NHL clash on Sunday following his successful appeal against his dismissal against Waterford last weekend.

THOMOND Park night with a twist. Munster’s rugby cathedral had its beaming floodlights and immaculate playing surface on Thursday night, but the stands and pitch were quiet.

BY general consensus he was man-of-the-match in Sunday’s All-Ireland final, inspiring Kilkenny’s treble success with those two early goals and turning in a superb display.

ALL-IRELAND hurling champions Kilkenny make three changes in personnel and five positional switches from the win over Offaly for tomorrow’s Leinster hurling final with an unchanged Wexford.

HOW’S this for a list of injuries: Henry Shefflin (cruciate), John Tennyson (cruciate), James Ryall (hamstring), Noel Hickey (groin), Richie Power (hamstring), Aidan Fogarty (shoulder), Derek Lyng (ankle).

Offaly captain Kevin Brady has emerged as a doubt for the Faithful County's clash with Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling semi-finals on Sunday.

Aidan Fogerty has added to Brian Cody's injury worries ahead of Kilkenny's Leinster Hurling Championship semi-final against Offaly on Sunday week.

All-Ireland champions and four-in-a-row Walsh Cup chasers Kilkenny were sensationally knocked out of the 2008 Walsh Cup today as they went down to a 2-15 to 1-17 defeat to Antrim.

MUNSTER football manager Sean Geaney last night joined the chorus of criticism regarding the timing of the inter-provincial championship. His selection options for tomorrow’s football semi-final against Leinster in Fermoy have been decimated by a combination of factors.

KILKENNY are expected to name an unchanged team tonight for Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final against Wexford.

JJ Delaney will make his first competitive appearance for Kilkenny since last August when the Cats take on Dublin in the National Hurling League tomorrow (Parnell Park, throw-in 2.30pm).

Kilkenny 3-18 UCD 0-14

NINE DAYS before the All-Ireland hurling final, Kilkenny are training. Many of their U21s are absent, so the remaining players are having a game of keep-ball when the sliotar flies in towards JJ Delaney.

IN A welcome change, there was not an awful lot to disagree with in the recent All-Star hurling selection.

Kilkenny’s all-conquering hurlers, as expected, dominate the list of nominees released today for Vodafone GAA All-Stars awards for 2006.

Losing two-time All-Star winning defender JJ Delaney gave Kilkenny "extra motivation" to win the All-Ireland SHC title, according to the Cats' wing forward Richie Power.

TWENTY points was the Cork target coming into this All-Ireland final. Twenty points was their average all season, and would have won them yesterday’s All-Ireland final and secured that sacred three-in-a-row.

ONE word best explains it: pride. It was what made underdogs Kilkenny such a driven team going into yesterday’s excellent Guinness All-Ireland hurling final in Croke Park and ultimately inspired a memorable victory.

Aidan Fogarty might have been one of the lesser-known players in the Kilkenny senior hurling panel, but that looks set to change after his starring role in today’s All-Ireland final triumph.

Kilkenny 1-16 Cork 1-13

Henry Shefflin guided Kilkenny to a 2-21 to 1-16 win and another All-Ireland SHC final appearance as his personal tally of 1-13 left Clare crestfallen at Croke Park this afternoon.

NATIONAL LEAGUE champions Kilkenny have made wholesale changes on their team to play Galway in the All Ireland Hurling quarter-final in Thurles on Saturday.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has wielded the axe for Saturday's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Galway, dropping his own son Donnacha and team captain Jackie Tyrell (Semple Stadium, throw-in 6pm).