The league is done and dusted, now it's time to get down to the serious business for Kilkenny's senior hurlers as this year's Leinster championship gets underway at the weekend.

It's a home draw first for the Cats with UPMC Nowlan Park the backdrop for their opening-round clash with Westmeath. Despite a loss to Limerick in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 final earlier this month, Kilkenny has looked impressive to date this season but when it comes to Championship hurling, anything goes and with the round-robin nature of the competition, they'll be looking to get off to the best possible start with a win on home turf.

It was all one-way traffic in Mullingar around this time last year, Kilkenny seeing off Westmeath 5-23 to 1-19, TJ Reid scoring 1-4 in the second half alone in that game.