Hartley hopeful for hurling's chasing pack

Former Waterford captain Fergal Hartley believes that the winners of tomorrow's All-Ireland SHC semi-final between Waterford and Tipperary will not be blown out of the water by five in-a-row chasers Kilkenny in next month's decider.

The Deise legend believes that both Waterford and Tipperary have the firepower to compete with Brian Cody's Cats on September 5.

"They did blow Cork out of the water last week but I don't think Kilkenny will blow Tipp or Waterford out of the water," he said.

"I think both teams will be ready for Kilkenny if an opportunity comes about.

"The first thing to do is get there. Of course it's going to be a difficult task - there is no doubt about it. Generally speaking, I think this (Kilkenny) team is perceived to be one of the greatest - if not the greatest of all-time at this stage.

"It's a huge, huge task, but if you are in a final there is always hope - any team who gets to the final has to be a good team. You can't get to an All-Ireland final without being a good team.

"Whether Waterford or Tipperary get there I think they will be going in quite confident, under the radar as complete underdogs.

"Kilkenny are without Henry Shefflin. He's a huge loss - probably one of the two players, himself and Tommy Walsh, that their loss would impact on the Kilkenny team.

"It's not a concern for anybody at the moment, but whoever gets there I think they will go in with a certain level of confidence.

"They will certainly believe in themselves, the rest of the country won't. But the team themselves will believe that they can do it."

Hartley was getting a taste of the build-up to tomorrow's semi-final at the Centra Hurling Roadshow in Waterford City this week, and is giving his native county the nod to overcome their Munster rivals.

"Things have been building nice and steadily for Tipperary and I'd say they are coming in full of confidence.

"What makes for an interesting affair is that both counties will really believe that they are going to win this game.

"Both teams will go at it full-on in the belief that they are going to win the game. I think both teams coming through very tight games really builds confidence. They will be brimming with confidence going into the semi-final."

He added: "In last year's Munster final, Tipperary beat Waterford quite well and quite convincingly - but a year is a long time ago and I don't think we can take form from that.

"Sometimes it is hard to take form from the current year. I think the best place to take form from is that period between your last game and this game where you are training.

"That's something that nobody knows, just the people involved in both camps. Sometimes it's very hard to predict where a team is going to be.

"Based on the form we have seen it's going to be hard to predict a result, but I'd give Waterford a slight nod by a couple of points."

Hartley reckons Davy Fitzgerald's men would love a crack at the Cats, to try and avenge the crushing 23-point defeat in the 2008 All-Ireland decider.

"Absolutely, Waterford would love to get another crack off Kilkenny, because I think they would certainly feel that they didn't do themselves justice in 2008," he said.

"But Waterford will be purely focused on just reaching an All-Ireland final this weekend firstly."