Pat Kelly reckons that Waterford are every bit as good as Kilkenny.

Speaking to RTE ahead of Sunday's Allianz Hurling League final, the Clare goalkeeper stated: "I genuinely think that Waterford are definitely up there with Kilkenny. They went through the league unbeaten last year, were beaten once this year by Dublin, so look their record speaks for itself.

"They've a serious system, a great management team, they're bulling fit, very fit and they're well able to play it around.

"They're good hurlers. I'm not bigging them up, I think they're a super team. Added to that, their main Pauric Mahony is back. He's a 90 per cent free-taker, he's going to score nine or 10 out of 10 any day he goes out. So he's going to be a big plus for them."

Clare have reached the league final on the back of an unbeaten run and Kelly knows from their All-Ireland success of three years ago just how important building momentum is.

"That's what you're hoping for, 2013 was all about building momentum," he said.

"Once we got going after the Wexford game (final qualifier) and then Galway (All-Ireland quarter-final), we really drove on. It's all about timing and we timed our run well back then.

"When you're winning games, there's a buzz in training and everyone wants to go training. There's no good going well in April. We saw that back in 2014, we were absolutely flying it in the league and then, all of a sudden, we were out of the Championship in July and it was the same case last year.

"Our ambition this year is to be playing into August, and then into September. That's what we hope anyway."

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