Emmet Moloney Sports columnist edit@farmersjournal.ie

All roads lead to Wexford Park this Saturday – if you are lucky enough to have a ticket of course.

There is huge excitement in the southeast, with the Yellow Bellies smelling a hurling renaissance.

The truest test of Wexford’s credentials though is whether they can live with Kilkenny in championship hurling. They fancy their chances.

The box-office attraction that is Davy Fitzgerald has reignited Wexford hopes, with a league campaign which included a trip to Nowlan Park that ended in a pitch invasion from the away supporters!

Saturday night cannot come quickly enough for them and hopefully their team relishes the occasion.

That deserves to be mentioned because none of these Wexford players can ever have experienced the hype around this fixture, even if they reached All-Ireland quarter finals in recent years, beating Cork in 2016 and the then All-Ireland champions Clare in 2014 en route.

This, after all, is Kilkenny, a team Wexford haven’t beaten since 2004. It is also still Brian Cody’s team, albeit one that pundits are currently in the habit of downgrading from greats to mere contenders.

This has happened the Cats a couple of times in recent years, usually after years in which they didn’t win the All-Ireland. Entering the championship of 2011 they were written off (won next two All-Irelands), the same in 2014 (won next two All-Irelands), so that should be a warning to said pundits, (myself included).

As usual the Kilkenny training camp is emitting little information, but the spies around Nowlan Park report training sessions as savage as ever held in the field. That rumour is now an annual one.

What we do know is that both Michael Fennelly and Ger Aylward have been playing senior club championship in recent weeks, so both are in the thoughts of Cody and his selectors.

Both are potential game-changers, but Fennelly, fully fit and mobile, would be a huge boost for the Cats. While the LIT lecturer is now 32 years old, the miles on his clock aren’t that many due to a succession of injuries in recent years. It is no coincidence that when he is missing, his county struggle – as they did in last year’s All-Ireland final.

If Fennelly is back for Saturday it is another player for Davy to plan for. If he’s not, then TJ Reid and Richie Hogan will get all the attention they both deserve. That’s the formula to stop Kilkenny these days, curtail these two with man markers – usually more than one – and you are halfway to holding the perennial champions.

Fitzgerald will have a strategy just for this game, and knowing Davy, it will not be straightforward. I doubt he will put too much stock in the league encounter because this will be a very different Kilkenny, although Shaun Murphy’s success in the sweeper role that day should see him on mop-up duty.

Wexford’s first task will be to quench the early black and amber flames. A good start doesn’t win you a game, but a bad one can be fatal. Wexford must not let the Cats out of the traps, so that might also mean Wexford beging by employing eight or nine backs.

After that, with confidence flowing, Wexford can start to take the game to their illustrious opponents and the crowd can get properly involved. They need Lee Chin and Conor McDonald to have big games but Kilkenny know that too, McDonald will likely see a lot of Paul Murphy. If Murphy can be enticed out of the full-back line, then Wexford will have Kilkenny right where they want them.

That scenario would give us a game that ebbs and flows, one that goes down to the wire, which is what all neutrals want.

My gut feeling is that Kilkenny still have enough to survive occasions like this, but not in the manner we are used to. It will not surprise me in the slightest if they have their own tactics in place too, designed to counteract the traffic their forwards will be meeting. Contrary to popular belief, Cody does do game plans.

Kilkenny to emerge intact by about four points. Wexford to come back even stronger and take a big scalp before the year is out.

Football action

The rest of the weekend will be about the big ball, Cork and Tipperary starting the festivities off at 5pm in Páirc Uí Rinn in the first of the Munster football semi-finals. On the evidence of the Rebels’ close shave against Waterford, Tipp would have to be strong favourites; they were after all in the last four last year.

But that doesn’t take into account the newly redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh , awaiting a Cork and Kerry Munster football final to officially open it on 2 July.

Like the hurlers did, the Rebel footballers must find a way to win. They will too, to give them the dream opening they want less than a mile down the road.

It might not, however, be the dream pairing that they crave, against the old enemy, because I give Clare a decent chance against the Kingdom in Ennis on Sunday. Dismiss my view as the ravings of a devout Clare man all you want, the Banner have it within them to rattle Kerry. A cold and distracted giant, against a fresh, hungry up-and-comer? The ambush is on!

Mayo and Galway are centre stage on Sunday in Pearse Stadium and the forecast isn’t conducive to flowing football, with rain and wind a possibility.

The Tribesmen are going places, we can all sense that, but it mightn’t be to the Connacht final. Mayo to exact revenge for last summer, Aidan O’Shea to sign autographs and have selfies taken until it gets dark!

Offaly and Westmeath meet in the forgotten Leinster quarter-final in Tullamore. The winner’s reward is a dubious one, the Dubs in Croke Park. Westmeath are the confident selection.

Cavan and Monaghan, meet in Breffni Park and the RTÉ cameras will be there to record Monaghan’s progress into the semi-final.

There is potential for this to be an explosive GAA weekend. Wexford (3/1), Tipperary (15/8) and Clare (8/1) are all better than the oddsmakers have declared. Just one of them winning will set fire to the summer (up the Banner!). CL