Given freedom, Cillian Buckley can bolster misfiring Kilkenny’s scoring power

Kilkenny have had little time to recover and re-energise since last Sunday. Fatigue will be a factor this weekend and it will be easier to defend a lead rather than chase a deficit in the finishing stretch.

The lack of time to prepare properly to deal with Limerick’s system of long diagonal ball, allied to their offloading support play, is less than ideal. The week gone by was about rest and recovery for the Cats with very light training sessions. So there will have been no opportunity to road-test their planning at match pace.