Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 2 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

BORO BILL

FCIM wrote: »

I couldn't get to it today but the radio was saying the full back line was poor, was it?

Thought the full back line did ok under a lot of pressure. Our half back line was shocking and midfield non existant except for leahy in the last ten minutes.

dubcat51

Couldnt make it down today but team named friday night didnt inspire confidence.how many from today would make championship starters.

blackcard

A twelve point margin would not have flattered Clare today. Kilkenny were very dependent on scores from frees while Clare were wasteful with a number of wides. Not only were Clare able to find teammates in space but Kilkenny were also able to find Claremen in space. Relegation and an early end to the Championship are in store. Holes to plug all over the field. Clare played rings around Kilkenny

Nedflanders02

FCIM wrote: »

I couldn't get to it today but the radio was saying the full back line was poor, was it?

The full back line did ok considering the pressure they were under, I thought Joey was one of our better hurlers. The half back line was very poor and the midfield was non existent for all the complaining people do about Conor Fogarty we missed him very badly today completely over run and didn’t win one breaking ball. It’s not too often we see kk making 3 subs I the first 20 minutes or so and even at that there was a few who were lucky not to be taken off too. The one question I’d ask of the management today is how, after been so badly overrun in mode field, we left Lester Ryan on the bench for the whole game!! The sooner the better we get TJ, Richie, Awlyard and Kevin Kelly back fit the better.

brookville

The full back line got to grips with clare i thought but the real problems were out the field subs in the hb,mf and hf line tells us that.
I liked sheehan and I thought murphy tried hard.Leahy finished well.
It looks like we'll do well to get a win.
Joe lyng and lennon,oillie walsh very poor while maher tired badly

FCIM

Hard luck Ballyragget, neither team deserved to lose that in fairness.

Rebelside

Kanturk 1-18 St Patrick's Ballyragget 1-17

Well done to the lads from the Turk. Ballyraggets level of performance crucialy drooped near the end

mullinr2

I'm going to make a prediction. Kk WILL NOT win another All Ireland for another 5 years. Richie Hogan and TJ will not win another All Ireland medal. Unless we have some serious talent coming through that 5 years could go to 10 years. Our current young players were not good enough to win an U21 All Ireland, they are certainly not good enough to win Senior.
We are f**ked

FCIM

Rebelside wrote: »

Kanturk 1-18 St Patrick's Ballyragget 1-17

Well done to the lads from the Turk. Ballyraggets level of performance crucialy drooped near the end

I thought Ballyragget were the better team towards the end but Kanturk got the bit of luck which saw them home. That's not to take anything away from them, as I said above neither deserved to lose in my opinion, and they deserve to enjoy their win but I think it was a match where either team could have come out on top.

FCIM

mullinr2 wrote: »

I'm going to make a prediction. Kk WILL NOT win another All Ireland for another 5 years. Richie Hogan and TJ will not win another All Ireland medal. Unless we have some serious talent coming through that 5 years could go to 10 years. Our current young players were not good enough to win an U21 All Ireland, they are certainly not good enough to win Senior.
We are f**ked

Ah stop, a bit of patience is all that's needed. We had a long enough run and there's bound to be a couple of poor years but you never know when a decent team will crop up. Everyone wrote Cork off last year but apart from the semi final they were serious title contenders.

Rebelside

I thought they should have won it after the goal & going ahead. It happened at the right time but the Cork boys hoored it out

mullinr2

FCIM wrote: »

Ah stop, a bit of patience is all that's needed. We had a long enough run and there's bound to be a couple of poor years but you never know when a decent team will crop up. Everyone wrote Cork off last year but apart from the semi final they were serious title contenders.

Patience my ass. The type of players at Kilkenny disposal are just not good enough

Dionysis

mullinr2 wrote: »

I'm going to make a prediction. Kk WILL NOT win another All Ireland for another 5 years. Richie Hogan and TJ will not win another All Ireland medal. Unless we have some serious talent coming through that 5 years could go to 10 years. Our current young players were not good enough to win an U21 All Ireland, they are certainly not good enough to win Senior.
We are f**ked

Ahhh now.
Coming through from minor we have:
We made the minor semi final in 13 and we’re beaten by Waterford; won the final in ‘14; lost in the semi to a square ball to a team who strolled the final in ‘15; were poor in ‘16; lost the semi in ‘17.

Coming through from U-21:
From a county board that says it’s good enough if we are competitive.
Hammered by wexford in a semi in 16 in Leinster; hammered by limerick in the final in ‘17; and you have to back to 08 for a win and ‘10
? to have even been in the final in which Clare beat us well. Minor winning team of ‘08, ‘10 and losing final team of ‘09 did nothing at U-21.


Tipp, Waterford, Galway, Cork, Wexford and Clare are all better than us and if Limerick have improved any from last year they are too. So we are between 7th and 8th best in Ireland.
As bad as the above record at U-21 is, the minor record is not great but not very poor. Abject, half hearted performances are all we are getting now from players. And it is not Cody’s fault. That man has proven what he can do if you give him at least half a hurler. As bad as it is, if he leaves it will be a multiple times worse.
Players, county board and clubs..... that’s where to look for answers. But you can’t say anything on here, people go crazy. Same last summer. You could see this coming back then. Our youngsters were not doing what other youngsters in different counties with far less talent or 7bderage success, were delivering.

FCIM

mullinr2 wrote: »

Patience my ass. The type of players at Kilkenny disposal are just not good enough

Sure we all know that but we've been long enough at it, we're due a few bad years. We're also not that far off the pace either. Look we won't be winning any All Irelands any time soon and we'll be doing well with this squad if we won a Leinster or two but we've played two competitve counties and lost out by a goal in both. We're not getting hockeyed and patience is needed whilst we build again.

Garyp88

Let's be honest we have given youth a chance, been experimental and leaders not available or injured. We came up against 2 very strong teams and lost be 3. We gave Cork a good game until Buckley went off, today we gave clare an 11 point start. Given that we are in transition and been written off I'm not devastated by 2 results still early days yet and when the lads are back let's be judged then

Dionysis

The score in the game today flattered us, Clare were 10 points plus a better side. Cork had youth out as well. And their youth stood up, ie Sean O Donoghue at corner back and Tim O’Mahony at Centre back both yo7ngsters.

FCIM

Just looking at the match now, midfield was non-existant. Full back line stood off with the first goal.

FCIM

Dionysis wrote: »

Ahhh now.
Coming through from minor we have:
We made the minor semi final in 13 and we’re beaten by Waterford; won the final in ‘14; lost in the semi to a square ball to a team who strolled the final in ‘15; were poor in ‘16; lost the semi in ‘17.

Coming through from U-21:
From a county board that says it’s good enough if we are competitive.
Hammered by wexford in a semi in 16 in Leinster; hammered by limerick in the final in ‘17; and you have to back to 08 for a win and ‘10
? to have even been in the final in which Clare beat us well. Minor winning team of ‘08, ‘10 and losing final team of ‘09 did nothing at U-21.


Tipp, Waterford, Galway, Cork, Wexford and Clare are all better than us and if Limerick have improved any from last year they are too. So we are between 7th and 8th best in Ireland.
As bad as the above record at U-21 is, the minor record is not great but not very poor. Abject, half hearted performances are all we are getting now from players. And it is not Cody’s fault. That man has proven what he can do if you give him at least half a hurler. As bad as it is, if he leaves it will be a multiple times worse.
Players, county board and clubs..... that’s where to look for answers. But you can’t say anything on here, people go crazy. Same last summer. You could see this coming back then. Our youngsters were not doing what other youngsters in different counties with far less talent or 7bderage success, were delivering.

One thing that has to change is this nonsense of only Kieran's and CBS being on the developmental teams. It's an arrogance from those on the county board from those backgrounds and an inferiority complex from those not from there. Yes, Kieran's and more recently the CBS have fantastic hurling pedigrees but to even think there aren't decent hurlers who don't attend those schools is madness.

usualstripes

What a disastrous 20 mins in the 1st half. The free space given to Clare at times was criminal. We did however show serious determination for parts of the 2nd half.
Clare could have had a far bigger score but for some poor finishing.
Positives would have to be Leahy in the 2nd half and Enda Morrissey who did well enough when he came in.
Maher hurled well in patches.
Mossy keoghan i thought had a very good game.
Walter was our best forward. Took a few good scores but his hassling when not in possession was excellent.
Bill Sheehan for his 1st start also looked sharp.
We got opened up badly in the 1st half but tightened up in the second.
The one area we had serious trouble was Robert Lennon. His challenging for high balls was very poor and low balls worse. He is a good hurler but we are seriously exposed with him in defence. He did take a knock in the 1st half but he is not good enough here.
Once Conor o shea came in wing back and buckley went to centre this steadied the ship.
O shea is also caught for pace but has more hurling.
Ollie Walsh poor in midfield. Doesn't seem to have the appetite for the hard graft.
Paddy Deegan caught badly at times and we are in serious trouble if we continue with Joey and Deegan in the corners albeit Joey was better today.
At some stage we gave to start looking at what our championship team this year will be as I'm sure the whole reason for the big panel training is to find new players who can settle into a championship panel.
Just a couple of legitimate questions here.

What has Lester done to the management team? Any time he was brought on last year he changed the game. Needs to be utilised.
Why is Conor Delaney not being tried? His 2nd year on the panel and no real game time. Hurled full back for the u21s.
We have a good few out that still have to feature and over the next month they will need to start making progress.

Backs:

Paul Murphy. Return in May
Conor Delaney. ?????
Ryan Bergin. Worth a shot corner back.
Cleere. Injured. Don't know when his return is.

I would think a combination of the following for the rest of the league would be better than what we had today

Bergin
P Walsh
Delaney
Buckley
Cleere
Morrissey
O shea

Lester
Fogarty
Maher


Keoghan
Tj
Leahy
Richie Hogan
Walter
Sheehan
Kevin Kelly
Blanchfield
Alan Murphy
Bolger
Martin

Obviously Colin and Paul Murphy to come into the fold.
We just have to try to settle on players

We could land Conor to carry back wing back and leave Leahy in with Lester midfield.

dzer2

Just watching the game there

First Kilkenny missed as much as Clare
on the ref Clare got some fairly easy frees and all 50/50 calls
Looks like there will be a bit of pace in the forwards on a dryer sod.

dubcat51

Paul murphy colin tj richie ger awlyard 5 startres for me.then bolger kevin kelly must be in or around the team.full back and left corner need to be filled and then for me we will be very competitive.early days galway couldnt get out of 1b last year.

FCIM

dubcat51 wrote: »

Paul murphy colin tj richie ger awlyard 5 startres for me.then bolger kevin kelly must be in or around the team.full back and left corner need to be filled and then for me we will be very competitive.early days galway couldnt get out of 1b last year.

And it's after starting a lot earlier this year. Wouldn't surprise me if Cody thinks the league starting early is going to throw a lot of teams in terms of their training and he will have them peaking in July and August whilst other teams are tired. Personally, I can't see any silverware this year but I certainly wouldn't put it past Cody to surprise everyone. In terms of 1B, I don't think it's a bad place to be for a team in transition. 1A is a killer with no soft matches, 1B has two to three in which you can throw out youngsters with no fear of them getting burnt. Whilst I wouldn't welcome relegation, I wouldn't be devastated either.

bamayang

Dionysis wrote: »

Tipp, Waterford, Galway, Cork, Wexford and Clare are all better than us and if Limerick have improved any from last year they are too. So we are between 7th and 8th best in Ireland.
As bad as the above record at U-21 is, the minor record is not great but not very poor. Abject, half hearted performances are all we are getting now from players. And it is not Cody’s fault. That man has proven what he can do if you give him at least half a hurler. As bad as it is, if he leaves it will be a multiple times worse.

If the bolded bit above is referring to the senior team, I couldnt disagree more. We are a good bit off the top 4 or 5 but one thing I have seen against Wex, Cork and Clare is a phenomenal never say die attitude. The drive and determination shown in the last 20 minutes of each of the last 3 games has been fantastic. Joey Holden diving in to block a lad down today with his hurl in one hand the helmet in the other typified this.
We will almost certainly not be hurling into August, but we wont go down without fighting.

brookville

any team in the top division minus lads like Murphy,colin,fogarty,hogan,tj are going to find the going very tough,throw in lads like kevin kelly and ger aylward who have experience.
Leahy looks like his going to be a very good hurler but mossy has really impressed me that score he got today was excellent.
I don't know why lester isn't getting a run but maybe he knows what his going to get with lester and wants to try others.
We can't fault the lads for effort but we struggled in the air to win ball wally the exception.
I would of liked to have seen delaney today but I thought joey had a decent game overall I wouldn't be too disappointed

kk.man

With all the hurling due to be played this year I think Cody is in a better place to peak the team when it matters.
I am worried after two losses though it puts us on the back foot with serious teams left to play.

caddy16

dzer2 wrote: »

Just watching the game there

First Kilkenny missed as much as Clare
on the ref Clare got some fairly easy frees and all 50/50 calls
Looks like there will be a bit of pace in the forwards on a dryer sod.

If that was your view of the ref you were watching a different match to me

dubcat51

Look the league for us is all about finding players.the championship format this year means nearly every team will have to rotate.waterford clearly dont care.all teams bar wexford for me are looking at the summer.lets see when the championship starts what players we have found and how were fixed.now is not the time for making judgements good or bad

Cornerback1

Getting relegated would not be a bad thing. I think the buzz word is 'in transition'. Hopefully Paul Murphy will be back in at corner back if he has the work put in. The break would be good for him.

1-17 wasn't bad scoring considering the very poor start. Like the Cork game, we were chasing the game very early. Teams seem to blitz us then we get going. Really great heart in the 2nd half. If Murphy's chance had gone over with 3mins left, it would have been a 2pt game and who know. Scruff let in a goal but made a super stop before that. I thought the workrate and hassling was good but the decision making will hopefully come with experience.

The good thing is lads are getting good game time and the panel is big enough with Colin, Richie and T.J. to come in up front. Like a lot, disappointed Lester wasn't introduced today. It was a game made for him.

I think we, as supporters, realise where we are at with this panel but some lads are still young and these games will stand to them. We have been spoilt this past 15 years! We need to stick by these young lads and give them support. Criticism is of no benefit to anyone so lets get behind them, encourage and support them. We'll need all of the panel before the year is out.

Pigeon Chaser

Hard luck to Ballyragget. Great performance against s very good team. Would have won had they converted their frees.

Seoirse Kenny was absolutely sublime and Cody should give him the #11 shirt next time out.

brookville

Pigeon Chaser wrote: »

Hard luck to Ballyragget. Great performance against s very good team. Would have won had they converted their frees.

Seoirse Kenny was absolutely sublime and Cody should give him the #11 shirt next time out.

think Kenny is in with the county he might get a run after today.
Hopefully we'll see few changes in defence for the next day a defeat next time out could send us down as it looks like us or Waterford will go down.
Anyone know was the panel cut?I was surprised to see no men from vegas making the match day squad

droppingball

Keoghan hurled well when he came on, two good scores and he levelled David Fitzgerald who is a big man with a cracking shoulder.

Richie Leahy came into the game well and I haven't seen anything like Joey going for that ball with helmet in his hand and diving to attempt the block, it was a Tommy walsh effort.

Workrate and the desire is back just need to keep building and hope to find a bit more quality. Happy we are trying lads, hope he keeps trying a few more and we shouldn't worry about relegation as it is not the the end of the world anymore.

Thought Clare were fairly poor considering the full strength team they named to be honest , awful wides and went 17 minutes without scoring until that score in last minute. Tony kelly for all his ability just floats around on the periphery of games. Like the look of David Reidy who is a handful along with Conlon. Podge has lost a yard of pace i'd say. For a team years ahead of us in terms of development they should have beat us out the gate.

Lester Ryan must be very frustrated that he hasn't been brought on in either game so far, bit harsh that he was overlooked twice. Must be hard to keep going when he never seems to have the managers trust.

What ballyragget lads are on the panel? And also is Billy Ryan on the panel?

brookville

Last I heard sean morrissey and billy ryan were doing exams.I think there was 4 or 5 lads from bragget called in Michael brennan,Steve stanton,kenny and obviously Kelly.
The Lester thing seems to be a mystery a bit like delaney who seems to be way down the pecking line.
Cody seems set on the fb line and in fairness they got on top in the second half.we struggled in the other 4 lines but this is a great exposure lyng and mossy improved things as did blanchfield.mossy looks to the pick of them very strong when you consider he only did his leaving last year.

Cornerback1

Fitzgibbon quarter finals on this week, semi-finals on the following week. Final the following week. Not long to all teams have their college lads back.

The 2 week break will do us no harm at this stage of the season. Gives the Ballyragget lads time to get back to the county setup after their disappointment.

shamco

As an aside its disgraceful having the clampers out in force in the estates near Nowlan Park. FFS its in Feb. Rip off KK

PeterCasey

shamco wrote: »

As an aside its disgraceful having the clampers out in force in the estates near Nowlan Park. FFS its in Feb. Rip off KK

Obviously people didn't read the signs that it is a privately managed estate.

usualstripes

shamco wrote: »

As an aside its disgraceful having the clampers out in force in the estates near Nowlan Park. FFS its in Feb. Rip off KK

You have to be careful alright. Got caught a few years ago.
No right but they are housing estates.

Cornerback1

You'd need Gerry Kelly with you!

shamco

Gerry Kelly indeed but they obviously targetted the match

Village87

Dionysis wrote: »

The score in the game today flattered us, Clare were 10 points plus a better side. Cork had youth out as well. And their youth stood up, ie Sean O Donoghue at corner back and Tim O’Mahony at Centre back both yo7ngsters.

The scoreline did flatter Kilkenny in the end. Clare hit an awful amount of wides in the second half. They had the beating of Kilkennys full back line but kept on shooting from distance rather than playing the full forward line. Im not sure are Clare up to much either. I have to agree with what Ger Loughnane said until im convinced otherwise. A lof of their players go out of the game.

Kilkenny were poor in the first half put up a fight in the second half but always looked like Clare had the 2 points in the bag, Alan Murphy missed a 65 to put a point in it, that was was close as Kilkenny got.

Paddy Deegan got skinned for the goal, once turned he was out of the game. He is having a tough spell of it lately,he also played a few awful balls out of the backs that were lucky Clare didn't get goals from. Joe Lyng very poor, his hurling is way behind. Robert Lennon very poor also, getting a lot of chances to stake his place but is not taking them. Buckley had a poor game yesterday, finds it hard to clear the ball in tight spaces. Richie Reid just doesn't like the hard work or the hard ball. Ollie Walsh very poor also, not taking his chances either,Alan Murphy was very poor.

Enda Morrissey is surely worth his start, played well when brought on.
Walter Walsh played well again
Richie Leahy had a very good game and brought plenty of fight as did John Donnelly.
Bill Sheehan will be very good with a year or 2 training and development behind him, as will Mossy Keoghan who played excellent when brought on.

Few positives in the players brought on definitely improved Kilkenny.

A lot of people saying Kilkenny were missing 5 certain starters, not as easy as that, not all certain starters in my eyes and Brian Cody doesnt work like that.

3 of them have been poor the last 2 years Fogarty and Paul Murphy especially while TJ has been well below his best.

Hopefully Richie can find his form after his back problems and poor form last year.

Colin not back until Mid May and will need at least 3/4 weeks hurling to get himself up to championship level as his hurling sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.

PeterCasey

That goes on in there on a daily bases the postman nearly leaves his bicycle at Nowlan park when he is delivering the post there.

Twiceasnice97

The thing about it being clares first 15 is overplayed.

Cian Dillon , Oisin O Brien , Jamie Shanahan and Conor Mcgrath all started championship matchs last year and didn't figure yesterday
Aaron Cunningham is abroad at the moment as well so that might change. We have some injurys to fringe players that is limiting selection at the moment
as for the lad giving out about the refereeing earlier you would wonder how many frees ye want.
we got 4 points from frees in total and missed two more of those frees only 3 of them were within 60 yards of clares goals

Kilkenny scored 12 points from placed balls ten of them from frees and missed a couple of more plus the goal came from a free as well.

The ref also would have been within his rights to have shown a red for the frontal charge on o connor which came from a long way out so at least one 50 50 went kilkennys way

Village87

Twiceasnice97 wrote: »

The thing about it being clares first 15 is overplayed.

Cian Dillon , Oisin O Brien , Jamie Shanahan and Conor Mcgrath all started championship matchs last year and didn't figure yesterday
Aaron Cunningham is abroad at the moment as well so that might change. We have some injurys to fringe players that is limiting selection at the moment
as for the lad giving out about the refereeing earlier you would wonder how many frees ye want.
we got 4 points from frees in total and missed two more of those frees only 3 of them were within 60 yards of clares goals

Kilkenny scored 12 points from placed balls ten of them from frees and missed a couple of more plus the goal came from a free as well.

The ref also would have been within his rights to have shown a red for the frontal charge on o connor which came from a long way out so at least one 50 50 went kilkennys way

I thought the ref played Kilkenny back into the game at the end of the first half to be honest. What was the free awared for that Eoin Murphy hit the long ball in that we got a goal from ?

kilkennyboy

I thought the fight shown was a positive take Murphy mistake for the goal and their would be very little in it .i would fancy us against waterford. Let the younger lads at it .would love c Delaney and j walsh thrown in and give them a few games. talk of lads to Come back will fix nothing new team new leaders .wally working very hard and showing example.

Twiceasnice97

Village87 wrote: »

I thought the ref played Kilkenny back into the game at the end of the first half to be honest. What was the free awared for that Eoin Murphy hit the long ball in that we got a goal from ?

I wouldn't have an issue with the ref awarding frees if we were getting the same ones at the other end to be honest.

It`s a big issue for clare. we owned the ball against cork in the munster league yet got two frees in the cork half while cork were awarded about ten scoreable frees in our half

a similar pattern pertained against tipp and again Sunday we were heavily penalized
leaving aside county bias etc its hard to believe that the clare backs would be four times more likely to hold the kilkenny forwards who are in general not overly quick than players marking lads like o donnell reidy podge and tony Kelly with the ability they have to turn and go

Kilkenny showed serious drive and effort in the second half but you would wonder will the backs be able to keep the score down on a dry field with a fast ball.

Topcat32

Village87 wrote: »

The scoreline did flatter Kilkenny in the end. Clare hit an awful amount of wides in the second half. They had the beating of Kilkennys full back line but kept on shooting from distance rather than playing the full forward line. Im not sure are Clare up to much either. I have to agree with what Ger Loughnane said until im convinced otherwise. A lof of their players go out of the game.

Kilkenny were poor in the first half put up a fight in the second half but always looked like Clare had the 2 points in the bag, Alan Murphy missed a 65 to put a point in it, that was was close as Kilkenny got.

Paddy Deegan got skinned for the goal, once turned he was out of the game. He is having a tough spell of it lately,he also played a few awful balls out of the backs that were lucky Clare didn't get goals from. Joe Lyng very poor, his hurling is way behind. Robert Lennon very poor also, getting a lot of chances to stake his place but is not taking them. Buckley had a poor game yesterday, finds it hard to clear the ball in tight spaces. Richie Reid just doesn't like the hard work or the hard ball. Ollie Walsh very poor also, not taking his chances either,Alan Murphy was very poor.

Enda Morrissey is surely worth his start, played well when brought on.
Walter Walsh played well again
Richie Leahy had a very good game and brought plenty of fight as did John Donnelly.
Bill Sheehan will be very good with a year or 2 training and development behind him, as will Mossy Keoghan who played excellent when brought on.

Few positives in the players brought on definitely improved Kilkenny.

A lot of people saying Kilkenny were missing 5 certain starters, not as easy as that, not all certain starters in my eyes and Brian Cody doesnt work like that.

3 of them have been poor the last 2 years Fogarty and Paul Murphy especially while TJ has been well below his best.

Hopefully Richie can find his form after his back problems and poor form last year.

Colin not back until Mid May and will need at least 3/4 weeks hurling to get himself up to championship level as his hurling sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.

If fit the 5 are definite starters, are you seriously suggesting Reid would lose his place on form over the last two years. Can't see all 5 of them being fit though at any one time giving the army commitments for the two with the least injury problems.

brookville

Cody was saying after the match yesterday that tj and fogarty should both be back for 2 weeks time so tj would be a big addition to wally up front who's after having two good matches.ger aylward is also working very hard he said and hogan is making progress with his injury but won't see him anytime soon

minty81

Pigeon Chaser wrote: »

Hard luck to Ballyragget. Great performance against s very good team. Would have won had they converted their frees.

Seoirse Kenny was absolutely sublime and Cody should give him the #11 shirt next time out.

I believe Kenny declined the invite to join the set up late last year

v3ttel

I thought that the second half was really positive. We saw real drive, effort and determination when the game was on the line. It was definitely something to build on.

Keoghan & Leahy really did well in the second half. Sheehan has a lot of talent and worked hard. Massive to see 3 lads put their hands up like that and really play well. I thought Conor O'Shea did very well when he came on - surprised to see people writing him off, he's a very capable hurler.

I think we have a huge group of lads that are talented but are all near the same level and need to step up to grab the opportunity. There were a lot of lads yesterday not even named on the panel who could potentially be starters (beyond the obvious).

The full back line needs serious surgery though. I hope Bergin, Doheny, Alyward are all given a chance. I like Jason Cleere too, he could definitely come into contention when he recovers.

The answer is not Joey Holden & Paddy Deegan as corner backs, and hopefully that's starting to look obvious. Padraig Walsh is a fantastic hurler, but you lose too much having him back there.

brookville

Lennon has being exposed more than once at this level,it's a shame cleere is injured.Delaney is an option on the hb line,is it college commitment that's holding him back?in thought richie reid would of being tried in the half back line but he has being good apart from yesterday up front.
Walsh isn't going to be moved at this stage his growing into the number 3 jersey but I would of chanced tom aylward for a match at 3 with delaney corner back and they'd have a solid hb line in front of them with Walsh,buckley and richie reid. It wouldn't of being any worse than yesterdays half back line.

Pigeon Chaser

minty81 wrote: »

I believe Kenny declined the invite to join the set up late last year

That's a pity. We need another good ball winner.

.. and about 3 new backs 😂