“I'm not sure if they leave Mikey Butler out to centrefield to mark him (Kelly),” Keher reckons. “He could be marking Shane O’Donnell. Thinking back to my era or the not-too-distant past, the game has changed so much you don’t know where anyone is playing at the moment. It’s very hard to follow. For me as a spectator, I find it very hard to see. The full-forward line are back in the full-back line clearing balls – it’s very hard to track everyone.

“Shane is beautiful to watch, I love watching him. His first touch, his skill level, his footwork is unbelievable. He’s a player who should be out there and let the world see what his skill is.” 

Adrian Mullen is another player who Keher believes has emboldened his team. Mullen picked up the man of the match award in the Leinster final win over Dublin, his first game back after missing four rounds of the provincial championship.

“Adrian is a super hurler, very important for loads of aspects. From a scoring point of view obviously but also from a defensive point of view, he’s a great reader of the game so he’s very important to us. It showed with the impact he had against Dublin.

“But there’s a lot of players on the team that have those sort of qualities. The Leinster final was the first time we had a full squad to pick from so I would definitely think Kilkenny have strengthened over the last month or so. They will be very competitive from here on.” 

It gives Keher great pride to see the same principles espoused by Brian Cody emerging in Derek Lyng’s reign. “Brian had great players and developed great players during his period but fair play to Derek he came in and put his own stamp on it. He’s a great guy and very well respected in Kilkenny and with the players.

“From a Kilkenny point of view, I was delighted that in recent weeks the spirit that was there for Brian’s teams is there in the Kilkenny team at the moment, and I think Derek has to take a lot of credit for that.” 

Keher’s thoughts on the lack of promotion for hurling are well known and the Saturday billing for this game is not appealing. “I don't like Saturday games any time – I think they should be on show on a Sunday on a prime part (of the weekend) for supporters and for television.

“Like Saturday, it just seems to me, 'Oh, we’d better fit it in somewhere – we’ll find a Saturday somewhere'. That to me seems the attitude. Which disappoints me greatly.”