What a weekend of hurling awaits.

Former Kilkenny selector Noel Skehan has slammed John Gardiner’s claim that games involving Kilkenny are refereed differently.

A little insight into how Kilkenny deal with media requests.

Brothers Richie and Paddy Hogan have been drafted into the Kilkenny team for Sunday's Allianz Hurling League final against Cork at Semple Stadium (throw-in 4pm).

Kilkenny progressed with their customary assurance yesterday at Semple Stadium but received an adequately stern examination from Clare to earn their right to a spot in the final.

Jackie Tyrrell has recovered from injury to earn a place in Brian Cody's Kilkenny team to face Clare in the Allianz Hurling League semi-final in Semple Stadium, Thurles, tomorrow.

The Kilkenny team to play Clare in the Allianz Hurling League semi-final at Semple Stadium, Thurles, tomorrow at 2pm shows a number of positional and personnel changes from the side that defeated Galway in their last League outing.

TWO late goals gave James Stephens a flattering victory margin in yesterday’s Kilkenny SHC semi-final, the city club ending with a nine-point win over St. Martin’s after an entertaining battle which could have gone either way until Eoin Larkin’s crucial 57th-minute strike.

IT was Monday, it was early afternoon, it was raining, but there were no blues in Kilkenny yesterday, just black and amber, a city en fete as the 2011 All-Ireland senior hurling champions were welcomed home.

Upwards of 30,000 spectators braved the wet conditions to welcome home the victorious Kilkenny All-Ireland SHC title-winning team in the Marble city tonight.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has made one change in personnel to his starting line-up for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC final against Tipperary at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).

It comes as no surprise that Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has tonight opted to name an unchanged team for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Waterford at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).

Tommy Walsh will start for Kilkenny when they battle it out with Dublin in tomorrow's Leinster SHC final at Croke Park (throw-in 4pm).

WITH two crucial games in the qualifiers this evening and the Leinster final tomorrow, it has the makings of a great weekend for hurling.

Henry Shefflin will make his first competitive appearance for Kilkenny tomorrow since aggravating a cruciate knee ligament injury during last September's All-Ireland SHC final.

Kilkenny 1-27 Offaly 1-19

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has made seven changes in personnel to his team for tomorrow's Allianz Hurling League Division 1 encounter with Offaly at Nowlan Park (throw-in 2.30pm).

KILKENNY football boss Dick Mullins has blamed the winter collective training ban for contributing to his side’s failure to register a score in Sunday’s 28-point Allianz Division 4 mauling by Leitrim.

Kilkenny 0-14 Cork 1-10

FROM the time Ballyhale Shamrocks made the breakthrough in the 1970s, the Fennelly name has become synonymous with Kilkenny hurling.

IT would happen, wouldn’t it? This being the opening game of the 2011 Allianz Hurling League and thus the first official appearance of Tipperary since their All-Ireland triumph last September, the draw drum was kind enough to pair the Premier men with Kilkenny – their victims in that match.

I AM probably an exception to the rule but I’m not a lover of hurling under lights.

IT MAY have taken a late quality point from full-forward Keith Hogan to save UCD’s bacon in this thrilling Fitzgibbon Cup game at WIT’s Carriganore venue yesterday, but it was well deserved on a day hurling itself was the real winner.

A LEADING international criminal profiler has dubbed the Scissor Sisters killing as one of the most macabre crimes ever carried out.

Ballyhale Shamrocks, the All-Ireland club hurling champions and five in-a-row championship chasers in Kilkenny, got a sharp reminder of how difficult life will be without Henry Shefflin when they crashed to defeat against great rivals James Stephens in the SHL final.

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.

I started my hurling weekend in Semple Stadium on Saturday, and it was torture.

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

THE crown still rests easy, the Cats are still king – that was the message from this first of the two Leinster semi-finals in Croke Park yesterday as Kilkenny got their 2010 championship campaign off to an emphatic start.

Kilkenny Senior Hurling manager Brian Cody has stuck with 10 of the side that started last year's All-Ireland final for Sunday's Leinster SHC semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park (2pm).

Kilkenny have chosen a strong side to face Waterford in a Senior Hurling game to mark the opening of Mooncoin GAA Club’s new complex on Sunday.

Kilkenny make a number of changes in personnel and positions to their team from the side which defeated Limerick, for the final League game against Waterford.

THEY travel to Parnell Park in two weeks still bearing thoughts of survival in NHL Division 1, but after another emphatic defeat in the Gaelic Grounds yesterday, Limerick remain on course to drop to second tier hurling next spring.

NHL DIVISION 1:

Kilkenny 1-23 Galway 2-21

Kilkenny welcome back James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick and T.J. Reid from the All Ireland winning Ballyhale Shamrocks side in time for this weekend's clash with Galway.

NHL DIVISION 1:

ISN’T it very easy to be a hurler on the ditch?

A THIRD win for unbeaten Cork in the National Hurling League, a second defeat for Kilkenny – is hurling witnessing a turning of the tide?

Cork 0-18 Kilkenny 1-13

BEFORE I go into any preview of this weekend’s action, I’d like to get one thing off my chest. Why don’t the GAA return to the system where you had quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, with the two top teams in Division Two brought in at quarter-final stage?

Tipperary 1-14 Kilkenny 0-13, Thurles

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).

AS Kerry last night named their side for tomorrow’s vital Allianz NFL Division 1 clash with Derry at Fitzgerald Stadium (2.30pm), the Kerry County Board confirmed the news that former Kingdom great John Egan is being treated at Cork University Hospital following a recent accident at his home in Cork.