Listen to the full preview and club v county debate here 

This weekend, Galway v Kilkenny and Clare v Tipperary are the semi-final fixtures in the Allianz Hurling League.

Jamesie O'Connor and Daithi Regan joined Diarmuid 'Gizzy' Lyng and Adrian Barry to preview the games.

Galway v Kilkenny

Although Jamesie reminded us that Galway have been able to stop the Kilkenny juggernaut over the years, he thinks the Cats strength in depth makes them favourites on Sunday.

"Kilkenny have taken huge positives from the league. For me, Kilkenny are the team to beat," he said.

Daithi took up that point by adding that Kilkenny have made slight tweaks to their style.

"To me Kilkenny haven't massively changed their style. But I think there is a more support play there. I think players are making themselves more available at speed off the shoulder. This is a real fascinating battle," the former Offaly hurler said. 

But he feels that Galway have started to get their mojo back recently and thinks they will be fired up.

 

Clare v Tipperary

Jamesie has been impressed by Clare and believes the league has largely been "an unqualified success".

But he also feels Tipperary were unfairly maligned in the first part of 2014.

"I didn't buy into the talk that Tipp were as bad as people were making them out to be. I still think they have a lot of key players," said Jamesie, indicating that they deserve serious consideration.

Daithi believes Tipp will be a threat when they get their key players back and feels manager Eamon O'Shea is getting to grips with the issues within the team.

"Eamon O'Shea had a hard lesson when he came back. He showed great loyalty to the team that won the All Ireland final. At the end of the year Eamon O'Shea found a lot of things that he maybe wasn't aware of during the year - maybe some behavioral problems etc and I think some players had still been living on past glories. I think there's a more ruthless streak to be seen in Eamon O'Shea," said Daithi who added that the Tipp boss is an astute manager.

He believes the game against Clare will be a battle and an opportunity to lay down a marker for both sides, ahead of a potential Munster championship meeting in the summer.

Daithi added that Tipp need the win more than Clare.

 

Our own Colm 'Wooly' Parkinson joined the lads to debate the club vs county issue in the wake of recent developments involving Waterford and Donegal.