Cillian Buckley was confident that Kilkenny would come out on the right end of their epic battle with Waterford.

The sides proved almost inseparable over the course of nearly 160 minutes of championship hurling but, as is their wont, it was the Cats who eventually prevailed on Saturday to seal another All-Ireland final date:

"We always know we have the ability to close out games," Buckley tells The Irish Daily Mirror. "We have serious leaders there and we have lads putting up their hands.

"Liam Blanchfield caught a ball there at the edge of the square with a few minutes to go and won a free. Then we've Eoin Murphy down the far end, I still don't know how he took the ball down from over the bar. So we know we have those leaders around the field."

The wing back adds that the Cats simply had to up the intensity after the drawn game six days earlier: "It took the very best of character to dig that out. First of all, we had to pat ourselves on the back for still being in this.

"But we definitely acknowledged that there was more there in us and there needed to be more in us. It really came down to work-rate and upping the intensity."

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