Sport

BY NIALL SHERRY SPORTS EDITOR

SPORTSEDITORKILKENNYOBSERVER.IE

2023 Leinster GAA SHC

Round 4 Kilkenny vs Dublin

UPMC Nowlan Park, Saturday 6pm

>> SHERRY SAYS DUBLIN PREVIEW

Kilkenny welcomes the Dubs to UPMC Nowlan Park tomorrow evening in round four of this year’s Leinster Hurling Championship, knowing that victory will keep them on the right path for successfully defending their provincial crown. With just two group games remaining, Derek Lyng will be seeking to record another win before the team makes the short trip to Chadwicks Wexford Park a week later to face Darragh Eagan’s struggling Yellowbellies.

Dublin will roll into town tomorrow, buoyed by recent results, particularly their recent win in Croker over Wexford. Micheál Donoghue’s men had 2 points to spare over the Slaneysiders and will not be lacking in con dence when entering Kilkenny’s den.

e men from the capital have a real talisman in Donal Burke and the Na Fianna man has been in ne form as his side have navigated their provincial campaign. Last day out Burke nished the game with 0-13, a tally which included 10 placed ball scores. Burke is to Dublin what TJ is to Kilkenny. His accuracy from the dead ball is unerring.

is season’s battle for the Bob O’Keefe Cup has seen Dublin records two wins and a draw from their opening three games. eir rst outing saw them take the trip north to Corrigan Park to face Antrim and it took a late score from Cian O’Sullivan to claim a share of the spoils on a wet day in Belfast. O’Sullivan hit 0-6 that day to keep top scorer Donal Burke company as they denied Darren Gleeson’s men a con dence boosting win.

eir second group game saw them face Westmeath in Parnell Park, and they had to go through the gears before a dominant second half performance saw them claim maximum points with 12 points to spare at the long whistle. e Lake County men lead for most of the opening period, but that man Burke again spearheaded the Dublin revival, notching 1-9 while Cian Boland hit 1-2 as no fewer than 10 men in blue got on the scoresheet. ere are some quality hurlers in the Captial other than star of the show Burke, and the likes of Alex Considine, Paul Crummey, Cian’s Boland and O’Sullivan along with Ronan Hayes and Danny Sutcli e can all o er options to Micheál Donoghue as he seeks to engineer a huge upset tomorrow.

Dublin’s game at headquarters against Wexford saw them see o the Yellowbellies challenge by 2-points, and again as mentioned, Donal Burke was in superb form notching 0-13, while Cian O’Sullivan hit 1-2 as they got the better of a Lee Chin led side.

At the back Eoghan O’Donnell, Daire Gray, Paddy’s Smyth and Doyle will look to quell the Cats attack and try to prevent keeper Sean Brennan from being called into action too often. O’Donnell is their Rolls Royce in defence, and they will hope he leads by example