Under-21 hurling final: Gavin Cummiskey finds one Kilkenny star determined to make amends for the county's senior defeat to Galway by winning Sunday's All-Ireland under-21 final

The Erin Under-21 Hurling Championship has produced a role reversal. Twelve months ago, Kilkenny were coming off the back of a senior All-Ireland final defeat to Cork but had the underage equivalent to ease the pain. They duly obliterated Tipperary to clinch their ninth title.

Galway find themselves in the very same position on Sunday with David Collins and Niall Healy the two returning starters from last weekend's senior final against Cork.

Nothing like hurling to ease the pang of defeat. Only problem here is they are on a collision course with Kilkenny.

Motivation is not going to be a problem for the two bright sparks that broke into the Kilkenny senior ranks this season as Richie Power and Eoin Larkin have the shock defeat to Galway still prying on their minds.

Larkin simply exploded onto the national consciousness with All-Ireland club champions James Stephens earlier this year.

"I remember the week leading up to the under-21 All-Ireland final he just seemed to take on a role of his own in training and it continued on into the club scene," said Power of his team-mate.

"Everyone knows he won hurler of the year in Kilkenny and led, you could say, James Stephens to a (All-Ireland) club championship in the end. He's a phenomenal player and a great character as well. He is really one of the experienced guys in there this year."

In contrast, Power's path to greatness has been laid out for some time. His hurling pedigree is unquestioned with his father Richie claiming two senior All-Ireland medals in 1982 and 1983.

Noting short of success will suffice this Sunday as Kilkenny hunt a first ever three-in-a-row in this grade, while Power seeks a similar personal feat having captained the minors to the highest accolade in 2003 and being part of last year's under-21s. It's been a long time since he finished a hurling campaign empty-handed.

Having made the step up to the senior line-up this year he was subsequently dropped for the Galway encounter but made an impact off the bench as Kilkenny almost overturned a substantial deficit.

"It is very important that there is a trophy in Kilkenny. People are saying in Kilkenny that there is pressure on the under-21s to produce the trophy now the seniors haven't. We're taking no notice of that and are going in as if it's the first All-Ireland. A lot of lads in there haven't played All-Irelands before and are really looking forward to it.

"For the seven lads involved (with the senior panel) we only had six days to prepare for the semi-final against Antrim, which helped us an awful lot. It refocused us straight away. The seniors had been such a disappointment but at least we still had a chance."

Power does admit, however, that Galway have an advantage if they can refocus their disappointment correctly in an attempt to provide a real boost for their county.

"It helped us a lot last year. Everyone in the county was on a low leading up to the under-21 but I remember Tommy (Walsh), Conor Phelan and Cha (Fitzpatrick) coming through the gates for training on the Tuesday night. The lift they gave the whole dressing room was great.

"They had lost an All-Ireland the week before but they came in really eager and looking forward to the game on Sunday. And the part they played that Sunday was enormous."

It has been a strange year in general for this Kilkenny under-21 team. They struggled to get out of Leinster with Dublin, Wexford and even Carlow dragging them into trench warfare.

All the semi-final humiliation of Antrim (6-33 to 1-8) proved was how poorly structured the competition is at present. Then there was the change in manager.

"Everyone was hoping Martin Fogarty would stay on and go for the three-in-a-row but he stepped up to a bigger stage with the seniors. Aidan Finan came in after leading Freshford and James Stephens to a club All-Ireland so he came in with high credentials.

"His training methods are different from what we did in previous years but they are after working for two club All-Ireland teams so hopefully he will have a under-21 title to add to that on Sunday."