Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan always knew Ger Aylward would make an impact with the Kilkenny senior hurlers.

The Glenmore clubman enjoyed an extraordinary Leinster SHC debut as he hit 3-5 from play against Wexford last month. The performance raised a lot of eyebrows outside Kilkenny, but Hogan was amongst those who were not surprised:

"Anyone who was following Kilkenny will know he had a great league two years ago when we were missing a few players," he notes in The Irish Times. "He has just been dogged by injuries since. Broke his ankle last year and missed the whole season. He's pulled hamstrings, he's done ankle ligaments, he's done knee ligaments. He's been savagely unfortunate with injury and if it wasn't for that he definitely would have been in earlier.

"But he's after getting a great run at it. As you can see, he has outrageous power and speed. His touch is brilliant, has a great eye for a goal.

"He was probably unfortunate with the U21 teams he was involved with. He played two years minor and I thought he was excellent. In U21 the year they got to the final and were beaten by Clare, I think he was underage the following year again, but he was the main man that year.

"I think he got about 2-6 in the Leinster final from play and he scored a good bit in the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway. Really destroyed his man.

"He tore his hamstring just after the semi-final and was lucky to be playing in the final. He didn't play particularly well that day but none of the Kilkenny lads did. They were kind of wiped out by a better Clare side. Following year, they were beaten by Wexford in the first round, so he didn't really get a chance to impress.

"There's a lot of lads like that. He came in training with us maybe 2012-ish to make up the numbers. I was obviously impressed with him and a number of other lads there - Cillian Buckley, Brian Kennedy, John Power - that vintage, they all came in around the same time.

"Never any doubt in my mind that he would play at some stage, that he would get his chance. He was definitely deserving of a chance."

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