Kilkenny minor captain Canice Maher admitted he was relieved to have come through last Sunday's gruelling All-Ireland MHC semi-final against Tipperary. The Cats were put to the test at Croke Park, as Tipp ran them all the way, but in the end the All-Ireland champions came out on the right side of a 1-21 to 2-16 result. "It was definitely the toughest game we'd faced since last year's All-Ireland against Galway. That had also been a close game, and today was the same with end to end stuff," said Maher. "If it was very, very intense but in fairness to our lads they kept playing away and just never gave up. Luckily we came good right at the end." Maher insisted that there had been a number of telling factors in the game which swung the game in Kilkenny's favour in the end. "The was definitely a wind there in the first-half, it was a factor and the way things actually panned out in the second-half I thought the wind actually slowed the game down for a time. "It was frustrating I hit a wide myself late on but that goal for us was very, very important. Also I'm delighted for Martin Gaffney who came in late on, he was great in the Leinster final too," the Cats' skipper added. Kilkenny now await the winners of this Sunday's meeting between Galway and Waterford to find out their opposition in this year's All-Ireland MHC final. Tweet

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