Bonnar braced for Kilkenny backlash

UNDERSTANDABLY, Colm Bonnar wasn’t so pumped as to champion the advantage of hosting Kilkenny at Wexford Park for the first time since 1944.

The Cats are the Cats, after all, and battles against them are rarely won, never mind days before the games.

However and most interestingly, he claims Kilkenny won’t dominate the physical stakes against Wexford as they have so often done in recent years.

“Some of our players are as big as you’ll get,” said Bonnar. “There is a balance in every game you play, and that’s the one thing Kilkenny had over the last number of years, that power and pace.

“The advantage Kilkenny had was they were doing it (physical training) on a consistent basis for six or seven years, and it took teams a while to catch up. Dublin have caught up, Tipp have caught up, Galway are catching up and we’re catching up.

“Next Saturday will show how much that gap is closed, how close we have got. That area has been nullified; it will be down to matching Kilkenny’s power and pace when they turn it on in the championship.”

Bonnar was an intrigued onlooker as Dublin put it up to Kilkenny with almost brute-like force in the league final, provoking them to lash out.

Did he get any ideas? He won’t say. “Some of the Kilkenny players reacted, and that will have been brought home by Brian Cody.

“It was a bit of a shock to them, that performance and how strongly Dublin finished the game and how comfortably they won it.”

However, he’d have much preferred Kilkenny to be league champions coming into Saturday’s Leinster semi-final.

“They got such a backlash after the league final against Dublin, which for this Kilkenny team would be very, very unusual, I’d say they were a bit peeved with some of the reports saying are they a spent force?

“Brian Cody would have been rubbing his hands with it because they did get to a league final without the likes of Richie Power, Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and these players.

“We are missing Gizzy Lyng; he is our kind of Henry Shefflin. Miss one or two and we’re in trouble.

“But they were able to go through the league with four, five or six injuries to major players, and another two or three retired.

“It just goes to show the calibre of the team they are, that they were able to get to a league final.”

To win, Bonnar insists Wexford must stop Kilkenny scoring goals. He doesn’t believe his team have the scoring capability of registering much above 20 points so the onus will be on the Wexford defence.

Although he knows several of the Kilkenny players who played under him with Waterford IT, this is his first time in his three-year tenure crossing swords with the Cats in championship fare.

Despite there being talk of a capacity Wexford Park crowd (25,000), he doesn’t believe it will have much impact on intimidating Kilkenny.

“They are too long on the road; they are used to big crowds.”

Bonnar had a couple of players in U21 action against Kilkenny last night -Matt O’Hanlon and Harry Kehoe — but his main injury concerns are a couple of Oulart-the-Ballagh players.

“Darren (Stamp) came back on Tuesday night after the Antrim game,” revealed Bonnar. “He hadn’t much hurling done; we were forced to play him when Paul Roche didn’t line out for us.

“We put him in at centre back but he pulled a calf muscle there on Tuesday week.

“Paul Roche should be just about right. He hasn’t hurled yet. Eoin Quigley had to pull out as well, so he should be available for selection tomorrow night.