Tribesmen should have too much for hit-and-miss Cats

I’VE seen both of Kilkenny’s Championship games and they’re not going great. Brian Cody started seven new lads against Dublin and it backfired a bit. He put a few of them out against Offaly last weekend and the likes of Martin Keoghan (right) really grew into it. Luke Scanlon scored four points from play and yet he was taken off.

Cody spoke to him coming off the field which is very unusual — I’ve never seen that before. Maybe we are seeing a new side to him.

Liam Blanchfield was very good at fullforward in place of Walter Walsh but the Cats are still a work in progress.

They hit 21 wides and from being well ahead, Offaly came back to within three points. So I don’t think Kilkenny are the team of old.

This is a big game for Galway. After cruising through the season to this point, this will answer some questions. Is the bite back? Is the same hunger there? If this was the other way around and Kilkenny were All-Ireland champions, they would put a foot on the throat of a team – that is still only coming together – and go out and try and beat them by 20 points.

Galway have a really settled team, one reason I think they will win. They are very strong at three and six where so many other counties aren’t.