2014 Leinster Senior Hurling Final - Dublin v Kilkenny - Sunday 6th July @ 4pm

T0001

A very poor game when compared with the two crackers last night.

GrandSoftDay

I thought Dublin did some great defending today but their forwards just aren't up to it. Wasn't massively impressed with kk either even though they won at a canter towards the end. After this weekend I fancy Cork to win it out this year!

donnem33

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

I thought Dublin did some great defending today but their forwards just aren't up to it. Wasn't massively impressed with kk either even though they won at a canter towards the end. After this weekend I fancy Cork to win it out this year!

have you forgotten their display against waterford in the drawn match? i think the championship is very open. i believe, with the exception of dublin, offaly and wexford, all the teams left would fancy their chances of winning in sept.

after galway being knocked out last night, i would love if limerick win it out. always had a soft spot for them

kilns

kilns wrote: »

It has now come to a stage where Daly for all the great work he has done is holding this Dublin team back

He is tactically poor and has a soft spot for players who are not up to it and are passengers in most games i.e. McCrabbe and McCaffrey

If Dublin could get a Donal O'Grady in, he'd be an ideal appointment for them. All of his teams play a nice positive fluid brand of hurling and are very hard to beat.

GrandSoftDay

donnem33 wrote: »

have you forgotten their display against waterford in the drawn match? i think the championship is very open. i believe, with the exception of dublin, offaly and wexford, all the teams left would fancy their chances of winning in sept.

after galway being knocked out last night, i would love if limerick win it out. always had a soft spot for them

Nope I haven't but they turned it around for the replay and wiped our lads off the field after. They have shorn improvement with every game. I'd love to be heading to Croker again in September but after yesterday I can't see it happening. I was expecting a big backlash after losing to Cork and if anything we looked worse and I don't know exactly what the root of the problem is, they have the ability but look worn out to me. Kk will be thereabouts now but they are not the same team of old and seem to have lost the ruthless streak they had. With the consistency of tipp the last few years I wouldn't fancy putting my money on them but wouldn't rule them out. A bit like Dublin I'm not sure Limerick have the forwards (and maybe the bottle) to win it but like you said it's fairly open all the time. Still if I was put to the pin of my collar and asked to call it I think Cork have played the best hurling so far this year outside of the first game with Waterford.

donnem33

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

Nope I haven't but they turned it around for the replay and wiped our lads off the field after. They have shorn improvement with every game. I'd love to be heading to Croker again in September but after yesterday I can't see it happening. I was expecting a big backlash after losing to Cork and if anything we looked worse and I don't know exactly what the root of the problem is, they have the ability but look worn out to me. Kk will be thereabouts now but they are not the same team of old and seem to have lost the ruthless streak they had. With the consistency of tipp the last few years I wouldn't fancy putting my money on them but wouldn't rule them out. A bit like Dublin I'm not sure Limerick have the forwards (and maybe the bottle) to win it but like you said it's fairly open all the time. Still if I was put to the pin of my collar and asked to call it I think Cork have played the best hurling so far this year outside of the first game with Waterford.

i think kk are only going to improve though. Michael Fennelly and Richie Power will be big additions

GrandSoftDay

donnem33 wrote: »

i think kk are only going to improve though. Michael Fennelly and Richie Power will be big additions

Fennelly in particular would be a huge addition alright. It would be no fun if we knew who was going to win it I suppose!

djPSB

GrandSoftDay wrote: »

I thought Dublin did some great defending today but their forwards just aren't up to it. Wasn't massively impressed with kk either even though they won at a canter towards the end. After this weekend I fancy Cork to win it out this year!

KK won't win the All Ireland playing like they did today. Would expect them to step it up a few gears though.

dubliner 2

My most depressing day as a Dublin hurling fan in about a decade.

There was some oul schite in one of the papers during the week that Dublin may have felt that KK didn't respect them and that was a driving force for them today.

I would like to respectfully suggest that that is absolute bullschite. I believe that Cody has respect for Dublin.

Ironically when it comes to respect I feel at this stage that the biggest problem is actually Anthony Daly. Once again when faced with a team HE feared he set the team up to contain the opposition rather than attack them. Just because KK beat Galway well does not mean they are the KK of 06-11 and even after today they still aren't as far as I am concerned. The two man full forward line showed up again as soon as KK even looked like getting the upper hand and then ball after ball came dropping from the skies on top of as many as five Cats while Dublin had two, maybe three men competing for the ball.

Even after a League and a Leinster title I do not believe that Anthony Daly thinks that this Dublin team can be trusted to go mano a mano against the likes of Tipp (see semi final in 2010) or KK (virtually any time they play). At this stage I reckon it's all over. They may win a quarter final depending on who they are playing but the All Ireland is gone. Daly has never been a good in game manager and while I would always give credit for the huge strides he has made with Dublin until we get a manager who lets lads go out and hurl away rather than show more respect to opponents than they are entitled to then we're stuck where we are.

Mind you he has way more going for him than the utterly inept and clueless minor management team. Having barely fell over the line vs. Wexford putting out the same team to start today bar one enforced change due to injury was unbelievable. I thought the days when managers just picked a heap of lads from their own club and hoped for the best were gone in Dublin. Clearly not.

Mountainlad

Was at the game. Have to say I was very disappointed with Dublin's efforts. Having seen Wexford yesterday, you would have expected something from them. Their touch and sharpness was non existent. So many miscontrolled balls, poorly executed passes and was quite depressing to watch. They didn't get a point from play until the 30th minute at which stage they got two more before half time. They went man to man after about 20-25 minutes, and it seemed to reap more dividends then but ultimately there forwards were poor.

That said, I don't understand the game plan. They weren't setup to score at the start, and even when they reverted there seemed to be a lot of laborious working the ball out of the backline only to reach the halfback line and then they hit hospital passes into the forwards. They had McCrabbe in at full forward once when they did that. McCrabbe. He has no physique, don't think he's up to it anyway but you couldn't put him in a worse place to be trying something like that.

Sutcliffe wasn't fit and was a big loss, but it was horrible to see Conal Keaney have a nightmare. He was one of the worst players on the pitch, and the only reason O'Dwyer was brought off instead of him was because he was on a yellow (which I thought was pretty soft). Losing Costello, Kilkenny and O'Conghaile to the footballers is killing them. But being honest with you, skill isn't something I really associate with Dublin hurling teams unfortunately. Work rate and physicality would usually be their most striking attributes, and work rate was their today, but in O'Callaghan, McCrabbe, Niall McMorrow, Treacy even Cronin (though he was impressive) they haven't the required physicality. Even something like lifting the ball too high was a technial problem they were having.


Their defense was very good though, Rushe in particular is an excellent player. And of course Nolan showed his worth again in goal.

From a Kilkenny point of view, it was job done without being convincing. If they won an all-ireland all the same you could hardly argue with it. Richie Hogan is living up to the hype he had as a Minor the last few years, immense again today. Really shining in the midfield role, put you'd play him wherever you need him. The backs in particular stood up, think it will be quite alarming to see the amount of Dublin puckouts won by Kilkenny. Not too many of the forwards shone though, I thought Reid was well marshaled. Colin Fennelly hasn't delivered on what he was showing in the league, and in my opinion, even what he offered last year. Walter Walsh another who didn't do enough.


I think they still have plenty of talent but aren't the force of even 3 years ago. Still, only two games away from an all-ireland exactly where they want to be. You would hope that next game a far more serious test is provided.

savannahkat

Mountainlad wrote: »

I think they still have plenty of talent but aren't the force of even 3 years ago. Still, only two games away from an all-ireland exactly where they want to be. You would hope that next game a far more serious test is provided.

No bad though to win by 12 for a team that was not very convincing. Would hate to see the score line if Kilkenny were convincing

Mountainlad

savannahkat wrote: »

No bad though to win by 12 for a team that was not very convincing. Would hate to see the score line if Kilkenny were convincing

I get what you mean, hard to take much away in fairness. Put did you think many of the forwards stood out? Certainly in terms of the clinical, ruthlessness they had they certainly have awful trouble finishing goal chances these days. And Dublin managed to create a few despite not being at the races in the forwards.

I don't want to sound too negative or having ago, in fairness Kilkenny were a much better hurling team today and well deserved the win. I would expect though they will need plenty of improvement to win it out.

adrian522

I don't know why Dublin persist with dropping a man back to the backs. No benefit to it really and played into our hands.

Kilkenny did what was necessary. I don't know what people expect really. What more could we do against poor opposition, a few goals would have been nice but other than that not too may complaints.

Walter I feel is a little off the pace and I'd be surprosed to see him start the next day.

I think its a little crazy to say neither of those teams will win an all ireland. In fairness who has been great so far? Cork maybe but they are beatable.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see either of these play in early September. Clare really improved from the Wexford game last year and Dublin are capable of doing the same.

Mountainlad

adrian522 wrote: »

I don't know why Dublin persist with dropping a man back to the backs. No benefit to it really and played into our hands.

Kilkenny did what was necessary. I don't know what people expect really. What more could we do against poor opposition, a few goals would have been nice but other than that not too may complaints.

Walter I feel is a little off the pace and I'd be surprosed to see him start the next day.

I think its a little crazy to say neither of those teams will win an all ireland. In fairness who has been great so far? Cork maybe but they are beatable.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see either of these play in early September. Clare really improved from the Wexford game last year and Dublin are capable of doing the same.

Think it's a fair enough assessment of Dublin, but agree it's unfair on Kilkenny. The only need to win two games anyway.

gobo99

Mountainlad wrote: »

I get what you mean, hard to take much away in fairness. Put did you think many of the forwards stood out? Certainly in terms of the clinical, ruthlessness they had they certainly have awful trouble finishing goal chances these days. And Dublin managed to create a few despite not being at the races in the forwards.

I don't want to sound too negative or having ago, in fairness Kilkenny were a much better hurling team today and well deserved the win. I would expect though they will need plenty of improvement to win it out.

30 goals in the league and championship this year tells a different story. Missed a few goal chances today but id be more worried if we weren't creating goal chances. People seem to be quick to write us off but like you said though, plenty of room for improvement.

savannahkat

Dublin are not as bad as they were made to look at times today. Everyone knew including Brian Cody Dublin were going to play and extra defender. The way to counter that is to go for points from medium to long distance which is what Kilkenny did and made Dublin play catch up for most of the game and catch up is not a game Dublin are great at. At the other end Kilkenny held there six backs in place leaving Dublin little chance of out pointing them and therefore having to rely on goals. Even if Dublin had got another goal or two and they did have the chances they were never going to score enough points to win the game. Once Kilkenny went in front Dublin had to work twice as hard to keep in touch. Tactically Cody destroyed Daly today.

icdg

Even the Dublin keeper couldn't believe it when RTE gave him MOTM.

Diabhal Beag

Aul Nolan was bucking

Mountainlad

icdg wrote: »

Even the Dublin keeper couldn't believe it when RTE gave him MOTM.

They'd give them anything. McCrabbe has an all star. Let's think about that for a minute.

kieran--f

Kilkenny are looking very good this year

coolisin

Mountainlad wrote: »

They'd give them anything. McCrabbe has an all star. Let's think about that for a minute.

I know I'm biased but mc Crabbe in 09 was a standout player on the Dublin side.

Thought Nolan was great today and did play well, for a goalie to stand out says how interested the rest of the Dublin team where. I thought his interview was very honest.

Personally Richie hogan should've gotten it I thought

Rightwing

djPSB wrote: »

KK won't win the All Ireland playing like they did today. Would expect them to step it up a few gears though.

I felt KK left about 15 points behind them today. They didn't want to show their hand until they meet teams from Munster.

GrandSoftDay

coolisin wrote: »

I know I'm biased but mc Crabbe in 09 was a standout player on the Dublin side.

The Nolan was great today and did play well, for a goalie to stand out says how interested the rest of the Dublin team where. I thought his interview was very honest.

Personally Richie hogan should've gotten it I thought

Arra..Richie will have to put up another shelf if they give him any more!

fireflys

As a neutral I expected so much more from Dublin today and actually tipped them to win. I would imagine Dublin have been training extremely hard since last January with an amount of effort gone into this team and then they go Croke park and play defensively and not even attack Kilkenny. Why did they bother even turning up if they felt they cud'nt beat the cats man on man. I believe Dublin would of beat Cork if not for sending off last year so to see them today was really disappointing. they haven't progressed at all.
Richie Hogan to me is on a different level to any player in the championship so far the man is phenomenal.

68deville

Back to the old sweeper system with Daly and is so predictable now at dis stage
And dub are well capable to go man to man,it's a pity really could have made a great game of it

corny

68deville wrote: »

Back to the old sweeper system with Daly and is so predictable now at dis stage
And dub are well capable to go man to man,it's a pity really could have made a great game of it

A lot of talk about the extra man and how it was a bad move but it made no difference really. Dublin went man to man after 17 mins and nothing changed. KK still dominated.

Moneymaker

corny wrote: »

A lot of talk about the extra man and how it was a bad move but it made no difference really. Dublin went man to man after 17 mins and nothing changed. KK still dominated.

You're right, but it did set the tone of the game, and set it in KKs favour.

Playing a sweeper is almost an admission you fear the opposition imo. That's never a good signal to send to a team as ruthless as KK.

Crazy decision to give Nolan MOTM, he was excellent but Richie Hogan gave one of the finest displays of midfield play you'll see.

Grats

Moneymaker wrote: »

You're right, but it did set the tone of the game, and set it in KKs favour.

Playing a sweeper is almost an admission you fear the opposition imo. That's never a good signal to send to a team as ruthless as KK.

Crazy decision to give Nolan MOTM, he was excellent but Richie Hogan gave one of the finest displays of midfield play you'll see.

Amusing to read and listen to comments on tactics after a match. When Galway drew with Kilkenny the first day they got great praise for the "in your face tactics". When they lost the replay they were criticised for using those tactics. Previous Dublin managers frequently used the seven man defence, in recent years came to be known as SWEEPER, long before Daly arrived there. Daly received great praise on days that it worked. It didn't work yesterday and now he's being criticised. Just maybe Kilkenny had something to do with it!

Similarly when Clare had their great run last year using the "sweeper" system it was the way every county should go if Clare were to be beaten. The part of the Clare game that was been deliberately ignored was the persistent fouling and the over carrying. It was always going to be more difficult for Clare in year two when refs knew what to watch out for. It started with the game against Cork when they conceded so many " soft" frees.

As posted above - R Hogan was the outstanding player in Croke Park yesterday as was J O'Donoghue for Kerry in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. The Dublin goalkeeper brought off some great saves as did Herity for Kilkenny. It helped to keep the winning margin down but hardly worthy of MOTM. Whatever happened between the final whistle and the choosing of the MOTM is a mystery. All the pundits were raving about Hogans display yet somebody saw fit not to award him the honour. Strange!

Most, if not all, of the newspapers picked R Hogan. Makes the Sunday Game decision all the more baffling.

citykat

Lot of told you soing about Dublin here. The difference between yesterday and last year was KKs work rate. Last year we allowed Dublin the run of midfield and they made hay in the forwards. Yesterday they didn't get the same time and space and therefore didn't get the scores. I'd say there's sore bodies on both sides today.

Daly is getting stick for his tactics. Think that's harsh. These tactics worked last year so of course he was going to try them again. I think if Dublin go 15 vs 15 they would win very few matches against KK. If KK had lost, he'd be a tactical genius. Last year Cody was getting stick for playing the traditional way. This year not a word (so far!).

Moneymaker

Grats wrote: »

Amusing to read and listen to comments on tactics after a match. When Galway drew with Kilkenny the first day they got great praise for the "in your face tactics". When they lost the replay they were criticised for using those tactics. Previous Dublin managers frequently used the seven man defence, in recent years came to be known as SWEEPER, long before Daly arrived there. Daly received great praise on days that it worked. It didn't work yesterday and now he's being criticised. Just maybe Kilkenny had something to do with it!

Similarly when Clare had their great run last year using the "sweeper" system it was the way every county should go if Clare were to be beaten. The part of the Clare game that was been deliberately ignored was the persistent fouling and the over carrying. It was always going to be more difficult for Clare in year two when refs knew what to watch out for. It started with the game against Cork when they conceded so many " soft" frees.

As posted above - R Hogan was the outstanding player in Croke Park yesterday as was J O'Donoghue for Kerry in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. The Dublin goalkeeper brought off some great saves as did Herity for Kilkenny. It helped to keep the winning margin down but hardly worthy of MOTM. Whatever happened between the final whistle and the choosing of the MOTM is a mystery. All the pundits were raving about Hogans display yet somebody saw fit not to award him the honour. Strange!

Most, if not all, of the newspapers picked R Hogan. Makes the Sunday Game decision all the more baffling.

citykat wrote: »

Lot of told you soing about Dublin here. The difference between yesterday and last year was KKs work rate. Last year we allowed Dublin the run of midfield and they made hay in the forwards. Yesterday they didn't get the same time and space and therefore didn't get the scores. I'd say there's sore bodies on both sides today.

Daly is getting stick for his tactics. Think that's harsh. These tactics worked last year so of course he was going to try them again. I think if Dublin go 15 vs 15 they would win very few matches against KK. If KK had lost, he'd be a tactical genius. Last year Cody was getting stick for playing the traditional way. This year not a word (so far!).

You don't beat Kilkenny with the same tactics twice.

The great managers adapt as the game evolves.

But talk of tactics is mostly irrelevant, Dublin never got going and it didn't really matter how they were setup. It did give the initiative to KK imo, but ultimately it didn't matter. We just didn't turn up.

Extremely disappointing.

citykat

Moneymaker wrote: »

You don't beat Kilkenny with the same tactics twice.

The great managers adapt as the game evolves.

But talk of tactics is mostly irrelevant, Dublin never got going and it didn't really matter how they were setup. It did give the initiative to KK imo, but ultimately it didn't matter. We just didn't turn up.

Extremely disappointing.

I think you're being harsh. IMO Dublin did turn up. I'd say there's a lot of sore bodies in KK this morning. The tackling and hits were as hard as you'll see in any game yesterday.

IrishAlice

Delighted with the win for Kilkenny yesterday but overall felt the game was a bit flat. I don't know what it was but it just never really kicked into overdrive.

It was great to see the team trusting each other to get the ball and make clearances and passes. I felt that was what killed us the first day against Galway.

The break now will do us good and some of the players suffering with injuries will hopefully be back to full fitness come the semi's.

All credit to Dublin yesterday I thought their backs were excellent. We didn't score a single goal and it wasn't for the want of trying. I wouldn't be overly concerned about that though, as one poster pointed out earlier we've had plenty of goals so far this year so it's not a worry like it would have been last year.

earlytobed

You'd have to say the sweeper system worked a treat yesterday.

Jackie CLEANED UP:D:D

mercury16

A lot of rubbish being talked here about both teams performances yesterday.
Dublin scored 1-09 but their performance was way better than that. In the second half they had KK under a lot of pressure and missed key goal chances that would have put the game going a much different way. KKs midfield and half forward line were out of it for large periods of the game. How many times did the ball get pucked up to our midfiedl half forwards and Dublin won it in the air...too many to count !

If Hogan was man of the match then some of the KK players from KKs midfield/half forward line must have scored a three (3 out of 10) for yesterdays performance.

In essence Dublin had a lot of possession around the middle and done nothing with it.

Colin Fennelly and John Power could have scored at least another four goals from easy chances, but missed them. John Power was average and Walter should have been subbed. You could see what Cody was doing bringing on Shefflin and Taggy, but they need to be sprung earlier from the bench.

The Dubs are really lacking a scoring presence up front and when Ryan(the Tip lad) went off that left only Dotsy. They had loads of ball in the middle of the field and could do nothing with it - no excuse for scoring only 09 points though...

Thought KKs performance yesterday would not have been good enough to beat Cork of this year or Clare at their best and a lot of improvement is needed. Our midfield in general was out of it as was Padraig Walsh and to a lesser extent TJ. Granted, the Dubs are the most physical team in the championship so after that it will get easier physically. We badly need Mick Fennelly and Richie Power back, with a fitter Shefflin, Tommy playing with some sort of form, and Lester getting some form also. When you consider that Michael Rice is also out and with Shefflin, Fennelly, Tommy, Lester, R Power and Rice not on the field, we really are playing with one hand behind our back. The only good thing so far is that the younger guys are getting a lot of game time, which will bring them on loads. But again yesterdays performance was average at best and a much better performance will be needed to win a semi final.

I have been watch Colin Fennelly's goal shooting for the past three years and have to sey he has a shooting problem. One that can be fixed and he needs to do something about it.... when he gets the ball he hits it at goal at what his eyes are focused on first. Now he hits that target 9/10 it must be said. But having watched him and seeing TV replays, his eyes are instinctively seeing the keeper first and shooting it at him. He needs to focus more on seeing the keeper and hitting it at a space away from him.
What a bit of coaching from Eddie Brennan would do for that lad immeasurable.

adrian522

Colin's only shooting problem is not taking on enough shots. Yesterday he tried to pass the ball on twice when he could have had a shot himself.

citykat

mercury16 wrote: »

A lot of rubbish being talked here about both teams performances yesterday.
Dublin scored 1-09 but their performance was way better than that. In the second half they had KK under a lot of pressure and missed key goal chances that would have put the game going a much different way. KKs midfield and half forward line were out of it for large periods of the game. How many times did the ball get pucked up to our midfiedl half forwards and Dublin won it in the air...too many to count !

If Hogan was man of the match then some of the KK players from KKs midfield/half forward line must have scored a three (3 out of 10) for yesterdays performance.

In essence Dublin had a lot of possession around the middle and done nothing with it.

Colin Fennelly and John Power could have scored at least another four goals from easy chances, but missed them. John Power was average and Walter should have been subbed. You could see what Cody was doing bringing on Shefflin and Taggy, but they need to be sprung earlier from the bench.

The Dubs are really lacking a scoring presence up front and when Ryan(the Tip lad) went off that left only Dotsy. They had loads of ball in the middle of the field and could do nothing with it - no excuse for scoring only 09 points though...

Thought KKs performance yesterday would not have been good enough to beat Cork of this year or Clare at their best and a lot of improvement is needed. Our midfield in general was out of it as was Padraig Walsh and to a lesser extent TJ. Granted, the Dubs are the most physical team in the championship so after that it will get easier physically. We badly need Mick Fennelly and Richie Power back, with a fitter Shefflin, Tommy playing with some sort of form, and Lester getting some form also. When you consider that Michael Rice is also out and with Shefflin, Fennelly, Tommy, Lester, R Power and Rice not on the field, we really are playing with one hand behind our back. The only good thing so far is that the younger guys are getting a lot of game time, which will bring them on loads. But again yesterdays performance was average at best and a much better performance will be needed to win a semi final.

I have been watch Colin Fennelly's goal shooting for the past three years and have to sey he has a shooting problem. One that can be fixed and he needs to do something about it.... when he gets the ball he hits it at goal at what his eyes are focused on first. Now he hits that target 9/10 it must be said. But having watched him and seeing TV replays, his eyes are instinctively seeing the keeper first and shooting it at him. He needs to focus more on seeing the keeper and hitting it at a space away from him.
What a bit of coaching from Eddie Brennan would do for that lad immeasurable.

Think you're being hard on Colin. He could've placed that one better but I wouldn't condemn him for it. Is he 100% fit? He had that strapping on his hand yesterday. He got three goals against Tipp in the league. He got a cracker against GY.

I'd agree with pretty well most of your post bar that Lester and Tommy can be considered starters. Lester was only brought on to accept the cup at 68:30 yesterday.

Grats

citykat wrote: »

Think you're being hard on Colin. He could've placed that one better but I wouldn't condemn him for it. Is he 100% fit? He had that strapping on his hand yesterday. He got three goals against Tipp in the league. He got a cracker against GY.

I'd agree with pretty well most of your post bar that Lester and Tommy can be considered starters. Lester was only brought on to accept the cup at 68:30 yesterday.

Colin Fen was up there for Player of the Year during the League when, as you said, he scored plenty of goals. He picked up a hairline fracture in his hand against Galway in the drawn match. Perhaps he should have been rested since but the game time is important for his confidence. He never gave up yesterday and won a lot of ball. Clearly his handling was impeded but the gamble in playing him was correct in my opinion. The same with Wally- it can only do his confidence some good by keeping him involved. Cody is a brave manager and sees the bigger picture. He knows Henry is just about ready to start, Taggy is a vital cog and Tommy got game time also. The younger players know it's all to play for in training in the coming weeks and they will all drive each other on.

savannahkat

I keep saying it and I will again, we now have Padraigh Walsh, Conor Fogarty, Mark Kelly, John Power, Brian Kennedy and Joey Holden all blooded in championship hurling. Mark and Brian will have to wait another day for another chance but if and when they are called on again I have no doubts they will do a job for us. If Henry, Ritchie and Mick Fennely can be got 100% fit before the semi final along with those mentioned it is nearly 2/3 of a team. We are in transition and doing very well for a team in transition and that is thanks to Brian Cody. So far so good some improvement needed and that will come with the experience the young lads gained (it was their first senior match in Croke Park) and fitness for the regulars.