Kilkenny keen to make a clean sweep of titles
“There is a great incentive for Kilkenny to make a clean sweep of all the All-Ireland hurling titles this year,” said intermediate coach Maurice Power, “but it puts us under added pressure to get off to a winning start.
“In normal circumstances there wouldn’t be too much interest in the intermediate grade, but the fact that we are grand slam contenders guarantees us plenty of support in Thurles.
“For the players and the team management it’s a huge day. Most players get very few chances to win an All-Ireland medal, so from that point of view I’m expecting our lads to give this final a right go.
“Having seen Cork in their semi-final win over Galway I was hugely impressed even allowing for how poor Galway were. I also saw them in the Munster final against Waterford.
“They are a very skilful hurling team. So are we. It should be a great final between two teams who always play hurling. It’s a difficult grade to try and organise with players being pulled in every direction.
“Having said we have managed to play about 20 games over the championship and we’ve been together over the last week. With senior panellists Eddie Mackey, Aidan Fogarty, Diarmuid Mackey and John Maher along with under 21 players Richie O’Neill and Ger Joyce on the team, I would be confident enough of giving a good account of ourselves.”
Cork have played three games to reach the final, which should give them a slight edge.
They defeated last year’s finalists Tipperary (last year’s defeated All-Ireland finalists) and Waterford in Munster before dethroning champions Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Kilkenny, defeated Wexford in the semi-final and Dublin who were very poor, in the Leinster final. They had no All-Ireland semi-final as Ulster did not take part.
Cork have made just one change from the team which defeated Galway in the semi-final. John Murphy (Courcey Rovers) is preferred to Dave Moher at corner forward.
Like his opposite number in Kilkenny, team coach Sean O’Brien is looking forward to what promises to be a great final.
“It’s the first of a possible two for us against them while Kilkenny are chasing all four,” he said.
“We’ve had a very good campaign so far with the Munster final against Waterford perhaps the most difficult game of the three we’ve played.
“As I said after the win over Galway, we’ll have to step up a gear or two if we are to win, but we are more than capable of that.”
Certainly a number of the Cork team will have to improve greatly.
A lot of the team were in action with their clubs and divisions in last week’s county championship games, and didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory.
