LEINSTER SHC SEMI-FINAL REPLAY: IAN O'RIORDANtalks to Kilkenny's experienced full back, who says it's difficult to call tomorrow's showdown

AS IF Kilkenny weren’t in an enviable enough position already, they get to sit back and watch Saturday evening’s replay between Galway and Offaly – thus enjoying a full preview of what to expect in the Leinster hurling final the following Sunday, and knowing, too, their eventual opponents will by then be facing into their third hard game in as many weeks.

The first sign, perhaps, that the gods are already behind Kilkenny in their drive for five?

The fact is Kilkenny are now just three victories away from landing that historic fifth successive All-Ireland hurling title. Clearly, defending their Leinster title on July 4th would make that task considerably easier, as it would put them straight into an All-Ireland semi-final, with a full five weeks to prepare.

But if Kilkenny thought Galway were always likely to be their Leinster final opponents then they’ve been surprised once already when Offaly very nearly eliminated them – and probably should have eliminated them – in Croke Park last Sunday, shortly after Kilkenny had left the field after their 19-point win over Dublin.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody had instructed his players to have a quick shower and then get back out to enjoy the second semi-final – not realising, like most us, the epic battle that lay in store.

“Yeah, we saw the second game and thought it was a great game of hurling,” says Kilkenny full back Noel Hickey.

“If there are more games like that in the championship it will be a great. I suppose when Offaly got the man sent off you would have thought Galway would have picked it up from there. But fair play to Offaly, they stuck in there and it was great performance out of them.”

Shane Dooley’s equalising free in injury-time was no less than Offaly deserved – but an enormous relief nonetheless, as the reaction of his father and manager, Joe Dooley, demonstrated.

Offaly had been six points clear at one stage, and even when Galway later got their noses in front, it was unanimously agreed a draw was the fair result (especially given Ger Farragher’s dubious point early on).

So they go at each other again in Portlaoise tomorrow evening, and Hickey, understandably, is slow to predict the outcome.

“It could go either way the next day. It’s hard to call. A lot of people would have been expecting Galway to win the first day, but the way Offaly hurled the last day they would be a match for anyone. They really tore into Galway and it has to be 50/50 on Saturday evening.”

As for Kilkenny holding an advantage over the eventual winners, given their easier run-in, Hickey offers a more decisive call: “No, because whoever comes out of next Saturday will have the tough games and you can’t beat tough games. We’d be happy enough though to have the one game.

“We’ll be back training hard, and we can kind of gauge ourselves what our form is like in training, and how things are going. It doesn’t really concern us too much, really.”

Dublin’s heavy loss to Kilkenny last Sunday was in some way compensated for by their under-21s beating Kilkenny on Wednesday night – and beating them well.

Several of the Dublin seniors featured on that team, including Liam Rushe, Oisín Gough, David Treacy and Peter Kelly, plus senior footballer Rory O’Carroll, who played at centre back.

Hickey had ended up marking Rushe last Sunday, and saw the latter’s potential, even if things didn’t work out for Dublin that day.

“Yeah, he’s a handful all right. A big lad, strong, good pace on him. I suppose there wasn’t a huge amount of ball coming in there in the second half but he’s certainly a good lad. We were expecting a big challenge off Dublin. I suppose they were a bit like us, their league form wasn’t great.

“In the second half we got a couple of goals and we kicked on from there. And I’d imagine Dublin are fairly disappointed all right, the way it worked out.”

Whether it’s Galway or Offaly on Sunday week, Kilkenny have no complaints – and especially not about Galway playing on their side of the provincial border.

“They definitely have increased the profile of the Leinster championship, and the game last Sunday was a terrific game of hurling, so I’d imagine Galway would be here to stay all right.”