KEANEY IS A HUGE LOSS

DUBLIN put a lot of eggs in that Kilkenny basket last Sunday and almost pulled off a massive coup. Kilkenny’s fighting spirit is one thing but ultimately Dublin should have won the match – the crucial goal against them came after it should have been a free out. They deserved more.

Chris Crummy, Eoghan O’Donnell, Sean Moran, Shane Barrett were all brilliant in and around the half-back line. Conal Keaney’s hurling brain saw him score four points and keep Cillian Buckley out of the game for long periods – he was phenomenal. His injury was key and he’ll be a massive loss in Wexford.

Playing with a sweeper, they wasted a lot of ball against Kilkenny before getting into their rhythm. They can’t afford to do that against Wexford who will set up with a sweeper of their own.

At Wexford Park, the home side really feed off the crowd. Wexford are very hard to beat there and have produced big performances if you think of the qualifier replay with Clare in 2014 and against Kilkenny last year.

Diarmuid O’Keeffe and Paudie Foley bombing forward from wing back in the league showed their attacking capabilities from deep and you have Lee Chin, Conor McDonald and such an exciting talent in Rory O’Connor.

Wexford to win.