Dublin hurling manager Mattie Kenny is ignoring the talk that Kilkenny are there for the taking for his Dublin side in his first Leinster championship game as a manager.
Dublin reached the league semi-finals at the first time of asking under Kenny, a two-time All-Ireland winning club boss with Cuala, who replaced Pat Gilroy in the county hot-seat late last year.
Brian Cody's side are seen as vulnerable by many, with Kilkenny only winning two of their five league fixtures in Division 1A, allied with the loss through injury of Eoin Murphy, Conor Delaney, Cillian Buckley, James Maher and Joey Holden.
But Kenny insists that Cody's latest rebuilding job is coming along nicely - and is wary ahead of the Nowlan Park showdown.
“Well, 18 months ago they were saying Kilkenny are on the wane," said the Galwegian.
"But then came the turnaround - Kilkenny won the league and were getting stronger as the championship was going on. They were unlucky to eventually lose out to the All-Ireland champions."
Kenny added: "Brian Cody is a legend in the game. A guy that’s so well respected and admired throughout Ireland. A guy that I've huge admiration for myself.
"I've met Brian on a number of occasions in the last 10 or 15 years – he's always such a gentleman, willing to give you time to talk about hurling. Everybody knows what he’s achieved with Kilkenny in those 21 years – something that will never be matched again.
“What I believe, under his reign, that Kilkenny team of a number of years ago was the greatest team ever to play the game. It was managed and built by Brian.
"There were a few times when he went back and rebuilt the team – on two occasions at least, and I suppose this is the third time that he’s rebuilding the team again.
"And somebody that you could have nothing but the utmost admiration for what he has achieved in his career – and continues to achieve.
“We saw that last year with Kilkenny – a brilliant league campaign and, at the end of the day, they were actually to lose out to Limerick, the eventual All-Ireland champions.
“At the time, people mightn’t have realised how good Kilkenny were that day – and how good Limerick were.
"And, six or eight weeks later, Limerick were All-Ireland champions and I think we’re only seeing now, from the All-Ireland final, how good and worthy champions Limerick are. Such an outstanding team.
“So, if you measure Kilkenny against that, they weren’t far off the mark last year and there’s no reason to think that they won’t be far off the mark this year.”
Hurlers from the capital can express themselves as well as anyone, says Mattie Kenny
