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Usually when previewing Offaly matches I prefer to do it with a week to go, because at that stage I'm still thinking with my head rather than my heart. Unfortunately it's a little past that point now, so if you do notice any traces of optimism in my post, then you know what to attribute it to.

The post above by POTH is very well thought out, and covered a lot of key points. However the overwhelming feeling is that we need to do everything right, including things we're not traditionally known for, and then still hope that Kilkenny have an off day. In particular we need our half forward line to break even against the Kilkenny half backs. In Barry and Delaney they have two of the best half backs in Ireland, and it's not like Mullally or Dowling or whoever will fill the five shirt will be a muppet either, and we're depending on a centreforward who's a good scorer but not a fantastic ball winner, a 6'4" wing forward who plays like he's 5'4", and a debutante. In modern hurling it's just too big an ask to win a game without asserting yourself on puckouts, and we just struggle too much to win our own. As for our half backs, again we're not exactly laden with proven players. I've been very impressed with Danny Hoctor so far this year, but this is still a massive step up for both himself and Kevin Brady.

From what I can see the areas where we might trouble Kilkenny are

(1) Joe at Full Forward. It was very encouraging to see the damage that Michael Webster was able to inflict last Sunday, even on a full back who should be well able for that kind of game. Certainly Noel Hickey is not Brian Lohan, and even if he's a little bit faster, if Joe can get the ball into his hands and lay it off or better again draw the foul and win plenty of handy frees, then we could be on to something.

(2) Brendy at midfield. As I mentioned above, I'd still prefer to see him closer to the Kilkenny goals where he might get a chance to raise a green flag, but if he can cover the ground and give Barry and Lyng something to think about defensively, maybe even break loose and give us a man over in the attack, then we should be able to make good scoring chances from that.

(3) The full back line is three good dependable players. If we can keep Kilkenny out of the goal for a good while, then I don't see them running away from us with points only. We might get into the last fifteen minutes at a score like 0-16 to 1-10 behind and suddenly we're in with a shout and they might start to get nervous. This would be fine if I didn't think 2-16 to 1-6 was more likely.

Ultimately though, we're going in to this game with a weaker team than them, less experience than them, a lineup full of lads who have never known anything but hammerings at the hands of Kilkenny teams and a lot of young lads who might flinch in the face of the "borderline" tactics that we know Cody's boys will use. If it was this time last week I'd have said I'd take a ten point defeat. But then irrationality is kicking in now, so I just need to make it through the week without having a crack at the handicap of ten available at Powers.

you can talk about it till the cows come home but the fact is kilkenny are full of big hardy hurlers. we only have the bradys who will really get stuck in and give it to them. danny hoctor might to a lesser extent. kilkenny wont outhurl us but they will outfight us.

I agree with that, a bit of fight is even more important with the way the game of hurling has changed. I reckon we need a couple of wild fella's in the forwards who are prepared to take on anything, someone like Mullane for Waterford!

I see Galway's Michael Haverty is nominated to referee our match. Jeeesus, why do we always get lumped with championship debutant Galway referees when we are up against it facing physically stronger opponents. Now Haverty is said to be the best ref in Galway (thats saying something) but how many division 1 league matches has he handled this spring? Abd why wasn't he given a match in Munster?

To be honest, as the underdog, the more random-ness you can introduce the better. I agree Haverty might let a lot of Kilkenny heavy-handed play go unpunished. On the other hand he might over-react to a crowd roar as somebody late tackles and give a red instead of a yellow.

I'm not saying he's any more likely to suit us than them, just that if I were a fan of the team who had the better hurlers, I'd want to eliminate as much randomness as possible and let hurling decide.

A rookie ref would probably suit Kilkenny. He might baulk at sending off players and Kilkenny's high hits might go unpunished.

Look at the way Cody intimidated Diarmuid Kirwan last summer when Kilkenny decided to lower the blades and sledge Galway.
Though maybe Haverty will remember this and be sympathetic to Offaly

To be fair though, I don't think Kilkeny will feel the need to get stuck into us. It was only after they lost to Wexford that they became particularly aggressive.
Hopefully the anger in them has abated.