Kilkenny Football is on the forefront this weekend as the Cats face London in the All Ireland Junior Championship Semi-Final.

‘We’re One game away from Croke Park’ but Kilkenny looking ‘No further than 7pm this evening’ Cats Coach JJ Grace said speaking to Final Whistle earlier. 

Kilkenny and London face off in Abbotstown today with throw-in set for 7pm, this fixture being preceded by the battle of Warwickshire and New York at the same venue penned for 5pm. 

The reward for the winning teams is to grace the field of Croke Park and do battle for Junior glory which will be in front of a huge crowd as Kerry and Dublin follows in the AISFC Semi-Final.

The Cats have been taking this opportunity seriously with a big squad committed to this tournament for the last ten weeks. Grace noted that ‘Some lads would be competitive in their clubs with hurling’ which might throw up an injury concern or two but on the flip side will stand to their fitness levels as they prepare for the potential of two huge games in three days.

Speaking on the congested fixtures, Grace noted that he would be ‘Disappointed that any of the four teams would have to face two games in two days’, also mentioning that some of the lads on his own side would not have faced this challenge since playing Féile. 

The tournament which features Kilkenny, New York and two top sides from the British Junior Championship which on this occasion sees London and Warwickshire travel across the Irish sea, the sides will have had very little opportunity to prepare for their opposition. Grace noted of this that ‘we’re all going in blind but this is part of the challenge itself’.

The Cats have not featured at the top level of Gaelic Football in Ireland since their league campaign in 2012, but a return to the top table is ‘Always the goal’ in the Marble County.

‘A lot of structural work would need to be done in order for that to happen’ but as JJ Grace put well ‘Everyone aspires to be our best’, saying that of course ‘ neither of the four teams featuring in the competition this weekend would turn the opportunity away’.

Kilkenny have featured in the British Championship in recent years having flown over to participate but Covid put a halt to that leaving them with this three-year gap in inter-county action.

Another AISHC final awaits the Cats in the Hurling but this is a chance for the footballers to make history of their own and win their first All-Ireland Junior title. 

The tournament has been restructured since the stoppage where previously Kerry won five-in-a-row, but this weekend we will see a team lift the cup for the first time ever, or in London’s case, for the seventh time, having had success at Junior level up to 1986.