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

Topcat32

mountgomery burns wrote: »

If Michael Fennelly plays much part this year I'll be surprised

He wont play in the league, I doubt he would play even if he could but I think there is a decent chance he will play in the championship, he certainly seems fully committed to playing this year. Unlike others his rehab process is of interest to his career, if it wasnt I think he would be retired allready.

Topcat32

usualstripes wrote: »

If we could get the following team/panel settled for the championship we won't be far away.

1 Eoin Murphy
2 Paul Murphy
3 Padraig Walsh
4 Evan Cody
5 joey holden
6 Cilian Buckley
7 Kieran Joyce
8 Mick Fennelly
9 Conor Fogarty
10 TJ Reid
11 Walter Walsh
12 Richie leahy
13 Richie Hogan
14 Kevin Kelly
15 Colin Fennelly

16 Richie Reid
17 Conor Delaney
18 Robert Lennon
19 Shane Prendergast
20 Conor o Shea
21 Lester Ryan
22 Ollie Walsh
23 Pat Lyng
24 James Maher
25 John Joe Farrell
26 Ger Aylward
27 Luke Scanlon
28 John Walsh

Thats not far off the panel apart from John Power, Chris Bolger and especially Liam Blanchfield who I think will see far more game time than Richie Leahy. For me a fit Ger Aylward is a much better option than Kevin Kelly

windy shepard henderson

live coverage of the club hurling finals on now

KevIRL

Unlucky mooncoin. Left themselves too much to do after the first half. Fantastic second half effort though.

brookville

KevIRL wrote: »

Unlucky mooncoin. Left themselves too much to do after the first half. Fantastic second half effort though.

Hard luck to mooncoin,awful to lose by a point but a fantastic journey and hopefully they can build on their success.

paulie gaultieri

Jaysus Richie Power and Rice are slotting over some lovely points.....

blackcard

Congratulations to Carrickshock, great performance. Delighted for Richie Power, Michael Rice, Jon Tennyson and the rest of the team

Twiceasnice97

Kitsunegari wrote: »

Has Padraig Walsh much expirence at full back? Our own James Barry has done a good job and is of similar stature so it'll be interesting to see how he gets on.

are you sure?

Barry seems a lot bigger to me

Twiceasnice97

brookville wrote: »

I expected cody to get a chance corner back while delaney will see action in the coming weeks.
I'm surprised kevin kelly only lasted 40 odd minutes mid week could be fit enough for sunday unless cody is hoping he can reproduce the same performance against clare a few years ago in the park.

Cody turned down UL afaik
wouldn't train with them I believe

Rasputin11

Twiceasnice97 wrote: »

are you sure?

Barry seems a lot bigger to me

Barry surely 2 or 3 inches taller and stronger build of a man too.

Morris Moss

Rasputin11 wrote: »

Barry surely 2 or 3 inches taller and stronger build of a man too.

Padraig is about 6 foot, don't know his weight but I agree Barry looks bigger.

dubcat51

Currently at the cork v dublin game.cotk are woefull in the full back line.crummy just sent off for dublin.cork trying to feed the full fwd line all the time.

KevIRL

dubcat51 wrote: »

Currently at the cork v dublin game.cotk are woefull in the full back line.crummy just sent off for dublin.cork trying to feed the full fwd line all the time.

Terrible decision to send him off. Never a yellow the second one. Cork are woeful, doesn't say a lot for Clare. KK should beat them tomorrow

windy shepard henderson

KevIRL wrote: »

Terrible decision to send him off. Never a yellow the second one. Cork are woeful, doesn't say a lot for Clare. KK should beat them tomorrow

cork were on a high going into the league after beating everyone in the munster league , think there was an air of over confidence from them tonight , i hope to see a similar backlash from clare tomorrow as dublin showed tonight kilkenny will be saying the same thing so i expect tomorrow to be close , but yeah kilkenny should win

Topcat32

Congratulations to Carrickshock, a club that has given a lot to Kilkenny in recent years and has suffered a bit for it, delighted for Richie Power, John Tennyson and Michael Rice, represent everything that is good about Kilkenny hurling.

windy shepard henderson

Topcat32 wrote: »

Congratulations to Carrickshock, a club that has given a lot to Kilkenny in recent years and has suffered a bit for it, delighted for Richie Power, John Tennyson and Michael Rice, represent everything that is good about Kilkenny hurling.

mooncoin were very unlucky also , the first game was a cracker , 2nd game all i could do is ask how the hell did carrickshock end up at that level in the first place , the powers and the tennysons were excellent , two scores from richie power and pat tennyson in the latter stages of the game stand out , 4 years ago was it when they lost to clara in the senior final ?

Realt Dearg Sec

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

Topcat32 wrote: »

Congratulations to Carrickshock, a club that has given a lot to Kilkenny in recent years and has suffered a bit for it, delighted for Richie Power, John Tennyson and Michael Rice, represent everything that is good about Kilkenny hurling.

mooncoin were very unlucky also , the first game was a cracker , 2nd game all i could do is ask how the hell did carrickshock end up at that level in the first place , the powers and the tennysons were excellent , two scores from richie power and pat tennyson in the latter stages of the game stand out , 4 years ago was it when they lost to clara in the senior final ?

Kilkenny senior championship was massively competitive when they were relegated, even when they were in the county final it was widely agreed that beyond their star players carrickshock had a serious tail on the team and that they could be at risk of relegation. In any given year a lot of teams (dicksboro were another) were as likely to be in a relegation final as a county final.

unrealtime

With only. 12 senior clubs and an outstanding selection of players for such a small county, we have real quality at intermediate level. Many of our intermediate teams would be senior elsewhere.

As regards the county, I hope I'm completely wrong but I am worried about today and the rest of the league. With many of the old certainties and reliables gone, I don't believe that Cody has much of a clue as to his best selectionright now. Hope he listens more to his fellow team managers.

Cornerback1

unrealtime wrote: »

With only. 12 senior clubs and an outstanding selection of players for such a small county, we have real quality at intermediate level. Many of our intermediate teams would be senior elsewhere.

As regards the county, I hope I'm completely wrong but I am worried about today and the rest of the league. With many of the old certainties and reliables gone, I don't believe that Cody has much of a clue as to his best selectionright now. Hope he listens more to his fellow team managers.

Definately - if you look at teams who have won Intermediate and came up, Clare for example, their is such small margins between senior and intermediate. B'brige would be the same.


In other counties, there is a huge difference between senior and intermediate and intermediate to junior to an extent also.

Cornerback1

Clare up by 4pts at half-time. Like last week, the opposition get an early goal and we don't start from the start.

Over reliant on frees. Hopefully we can pick it up in 2nd half and push on. Big 35mins ahead.

randd1

8 points in one half of hurling, most from frees from what I gather, against Clare, one of the worst defences out there?

I know there's no AI titles won in February, but they can certainly be lost in February by not getting things right and continuing in that vein.

My two biggest worries are who do we have to do a covering job in midfield to allow a slow defence to sit back and be compact, and where is the pace and invention up front apart from Reid and Hogan? Our forwards and midfield are seriously limited in the striking, pace and creativity.

Not just that, but the ball forward always seems to be a sky ball, and totally unsuited to favouring forwards. Fair enough forwards have to be able to win their own ball, but the odds can be tipped in their favour.

I worry for this year, and the next few unless something resembling a more inventive game starts coming from Kilkenny, we look stale and predictable in our approach

davidx40

I think we are really going to struggle this year and next few years , when brian said last september about players on panel that were going to be big stars i dont know who he was talking about , we just dont have quality anymore its not there , when you see players playing inter county hurling that cant hit ball on weak side you know your in trouble

JJs Left Hand

We sound like an absolute shambles. Getting hammered

brookville

JJs Left Hand wrote: »

We sound like an absolute shambles. Getting hammered

Very disappointing I know it's only mid february but worrying times ahead

niallo27

davidx40 wrote: »

I think we are really going to struggle this year and next few years , when brian said last september about players on panel that were going to be big stars i dont know who he was talking about , we just dont have quality anymore its not there , when you see players playing inter county hurling that cant hit ball on weak side you know your in trouble

These things come in cycles. I'm not writing Kilkenny off yet but the constant success has to end sometime. You just can't keep producing top players the whole time.

Cornerback1

Listened to it on radio. Very disappointing. If we scored penalty, it could have changed dynamic of game but itwould have been unfair on Clare.

We were very poor - probably worse that last week. Only scored 12pts and i think only 4 or 5 from play.

To put that into context: Every other team in all the hurling leagues today scored more than 12pts. Tyrone, who got beat, by about 20pts, also scored 12pts. To me that's a frightening stat!!!

Topcat32

Firstly a very definite chance of relegation now and Wexford will fancy their chances against us in the Summer. I guess this has been coming, we have lost some incredible players over the last few years who havent been replaced. A half fit Kevin Kelly starting is a sign of that. Unless Colin Fennelly and Ger Alyward have the year of their lives this year we are in trouble, only players on the panel that have real speed.

unrealtime

Cody should take a sabbatical for the rest of the league and let the rest of the management team take over.

Topcat32

unrealtime wrote: »

Cody should take a sabbatical for the rest of the league and let the rest of the management team take over.

What would be the benifit of that? It clearly wont happen, just interested in what you think the rest of the management could do?

Cornerback1

unrealtime wrote: »

Cody should take a sabbatical for the rest of the league and let the rest of the management team take over.

Not time for knee-jerk reactions. We are where we are. Granted 2 bad games. Both games we started very slowly and conceded goals putting us on the back foot straight away.

We knew this was coming. The players we had over the past 10+ years were players for the ages. We must take the rough with the smooth.

The Cork game will be a huge game in NP. Real chance of relegation this year. I just want to see an improvement in workrate and the simple skills of the game.

**Padraig Walsh was excellent in the first 60mins by all accounts.

davidx40

Its not a knee jerk reaction , we just dont have the quality players its as simple as that ,and we wont have them for a few years , we havent being competive even at under 21 for last 3 years so it was bound kick in to senior team , we had unreal time over last 15 years but theres a very tough few years coming

ThaiTanic

worring times for Kilkenny ahead

windy shepard henderson

ThaiTanic wrote: »

worring times for Kilkenny ahead

the same was said of clare and dublin last week after there defeats , its the nature of the league , kilkenny will have there backlash against cork the next day , cody wont allow them to go 20 minutes with out a score again ,besides its only the 19th of February

brookville

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

the same was said of clare and dublin last week after there defeats , its the nature of the league , kilkenny will have there backlash against cork the next day , cody wont allow them to go 20 minutes with out a score again ,besides its only the 19th of February

The backlash was suppose to be today tho its not as straight forward as that.We seem to be a good bit behind the rest while not missing a huge amount of players.considering most of the senior players played walsh cup it expected more especially today

randd1

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

the same was said of clare and dublin last week after there defeats , its the nature of the league , kilkenny will have there backlash against cork the next day , cody wont allow them to go 20 minutes with out a score again ,besides its only the 19th of February

While it is only the 19th of February, it's the 19th of February for everyone else too. The difference is that every other side has shown at least some sort of form and creativity up front. We have played Galway, Waterford and now Clare (who wouldn't be the greatest defensively) over the last three weeks, and the closest we've come to a goal is a missed penalty today. That's not counting the reliance on frees for points.

Every other team look like they're trying to vary their ball forward, from high ball, low fast ball, a runner through the middle or diagonal ball. All we've done is launch sky ball as high and as far as we can aimlessly, usually with the end result of our defence ending up under pressure.

We look predictable and stale. What's more that looks like thats all we have. That's the worry.

Michael Kavanagh

new team tactics need to be looked at, we must be very short of players when you see two players that were playing with there colleges during the week lasted around forty minutes were involved to day. I hope there is a big lash back against Cork you wonder Padraig Walsh full back is he better on the half back line going forward I think he scored average of two points a game last year.

mullinr2

Was at the match. Where do I begin. All I can say lads is that we were a complete shambles. No structure to our backs, first touch off, losing all the 50/50 exchanges. Cannot catch a ball out of the sky anymore. For a big man Walter Walsh is pure useless in the air. He can never get his positioning right. R. Hogan looks like he couldn't give a damn. Attitude is completely off. They looked like a team seriously lacking in confidence, drive and intensity.
No more excuses lads, the decline has come fast. Apparently Ger Alyward has been kicked off the panel. Was told at match. Won't get into it, but it's for serious indiscipline.
Cody has them playing in a way that doesn't suit our current group of forwards. We just don't have those ball winners anymore.
Lads there was a u14 team a few years ago that won the Forristal tournament. They were meant to have been very good. It could have been 3 or 4 years ago. Hopefully we can come good again, but for now, we will just have to watch TIPPERARY dominate for the next 3-5 years.

brookville

randd1 wrote: »

While it is only the 19th of February, it's the 19th of February for everyone else too. The difference is that every other side has shown at least some sort of form and creativity up front. We have played Galway, Waterford and now Clare (who wouldn't be the greatest defensively) over the last three weeks, and the closest we've come to a goal is a missed penalty today. That's not counting the reliance on frees for points.

Every other team look like they're trying to vary their ball forward, from high ball, low fast ball, a runner through the middle or diagonal ball. All we've done is launch sky ball as high and as far as we can aimlessly, usually with the end result of our defence ending up under pressure.

We look predictable and stale. What's more that looks like thats all we have. That's the worry.

Two points from the fowards from play is worrying even for a junior team.

unrealtime

I believe the selection is simply wrong and reduces our chances. Players are selected that will never make it. The rest of the management could take a different view if in charge. They should be given the chance.

JaffaP

Hogan & especially Reid are in steady decline. An atrocious display from start to finish.

Only for Cody's stubbornness he'd have strolled off into the sunset two years ago.

Rightwing

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

the same was said of clare and dublin last week after there defeats , its the nature of the league , kilkenny will have there backlash against cork the next day , cody wont allow them to go 20 minutes with out a score again ,besides its only the 19th of February

You are right there.

The worrying thing from a KK perspective tho is how easily Tipp wiped the floor with them in last years final. It could have been 15-16 point crushing. Have they improved since? Probably not.

Topcat32

mullinr2 wrote: »

Was at the match. Where do I begin. All I can say lads is that we were a complete shambles. No structure to our backs, first touch off, losing all the 50/50 exchanges. Cannot catch a ball out of the sky anymore. For a big man Walter Walsh is pure useless in the air. He can never get his positioning right. R. Hogan looks like he couldn't give a damn. Attitude is completely off. They looked like a team seriously lacking in confidence, drive and intensity.
No more excuses lads, the decline has come fast. Apparently Ger Alyward has been kicked off the panel. Was told at match. Won't get into it, but it's for serious indiscipline.
Cody has them playing in a way that doesn't suit our current group of forwards. We just don't have those ball winners anymore.
Lads there was a u14 team a few years ago that won the Forristal tournament. They were meant to have been very good. It could have been 3 or 4 years ago. Hopefully we can come good again, but for now, we will just have to waistch TIPPERARY dominate for the next 3-5 years.

Pretty strong comment on "R Hogan" and on Ger Aylward based on hearsay. Kilkenny have done pretty well in the Tony Forristel over the last few years so it could be any one of a number of teams, even last years minors did well in it I believe, hard not to be pessimistic about the short to medium term future after today tho.

adrian522

I knew we were in trouble when I read this:

PTH2009 wrote: »

I think Kilkenny will win it but have a funny feeling Wexford might win promotion and go all the way. Davy wants to win everything and has been going very well since he took over down in Wexford

brookville

I'm not going to come on here and slate anyone after the last twenty years we had have being terrific but today was terrible.We had six months to think how we can solve things but things have got dramatically worse and unfortunately there's no quick fix.tipp could beat us by 20 points in thurles while dublin and cork won't fear us.We're vulnerable now whether it's still a hangover from last year or what I don't know

run_Forrest_run

Very frustrating to watch today's game. I lost count of the amount times where a KK player lifted the ball only to bat it away with their hand instead of actually holding the shagging ball :mad:

I know it's only February but jesus H christ it was awful to watch, as sharp as a duvet.

usualstripes

Just on the way back from the game lads and here's my take on the performance:

Eoin Murphy: couldn't really fault him for any of the goals. Solid apart from that.
Evan cody: real baptism of fire and didn't hurl well.
Padrain Walsh: Was very good overall albeit caught for a few points but certainly worth keeping there. Can't be too happy with what was going on around him.
Conor o Shea: Poor from conor and too slow in possession. Got caught out on a number of occasions.
Joey holden: Not going to work in the half back line. Touch wasn't good and not strong enough under the dropping ball.
Paul Murphy:Very poor under the dropping ball. Seemed lost there and needs to go back in the corner. Not getting to the ball fast enough and delivery poor.
Kieran Joyce: Tried hard and gave 100% but his fielding of the ball needs to improve.
Conor Fogarty: Sluggish enough and not physical enough in a ruck type situation.
Cilian Buckley: Got on a lot of ball and did ok but touch and strength in tackles not great.
Liam Blanchfield: Again speed not his strength atm and struggled against the clare half back line.
TJ: Doesn't have the speed to get away and not getting much support around him.
Richie leahy: Weak under the high ball. Had a goal opportunity but needed to get closer to goal to convert.
Richie Hogan: Poor today. 1st touch letting him down.
Walter Walsh: Started ok and had a chance going through on goal but the ball wouldn't come up for him. Another ball won in the corner and headed for goal but no support coming through.
Kevin Kelly: Listening to lads on here about colleges I expected 1st touch to be better and faster. Poor today.

Shane Pender: In instead of Evan cody and 1st ball came through gor a yellow card for a wild pull. Won't do at this level as speed is not there.
John joe: Not strong enough or fast enough to round his man.
Ollie walsh, sean morrissey and James maher came in but didn't make any impression. Maher tried hard.

Overall I don't really know what to pinpoint as we were outfought i most positions but the fact is in every ruck type situation a clare man came out with the ball every time. I don't know if it's to do with the heavy training at the moment but we seem to be very very slow in getting possession and to move from there.
Aerial strength seems to be gone completely.
We didn't seem to want a victory here today.
What needs to happen and is a must is that we have to blow cork out of the water on two weeks time with hurling, strength and speed. If we show a marked improvement in nowlan park against cork it will give us a platform to move on but we need to up our general play an awful lot.
I understand we have a lot of new guys here but it hast to be a fast learning curve. It could be that cody has them in the gym in nowlan park, doing theheavy work so it will pay off from June onwards and I hope this is the case as the 1st touch was off, aerial strength was poor and the lads seemed very heavy legged.

Obviously colin fennelly will return once he is allowed contact again in a few weeks, hopefully ger aylward will add impetus and the rest of the lads will improve on fleet footedness and speed of delivery in the right areas.
Not too down but it will have to improve immeasurably.

LuckyGent88

randd1 wrote: »

While it is only the 19th of February, it's the 19th of February for everyone else too. The difference is that every other side has shown at least some sort of form and creativity up front. We have played Galway, Waterford and now Clare (who wouldn't be the greatest defensively) over the last three weeks, and the closest we've come to a goal is a missed penalty today. That's not counting the reliance on frees for points.

Every other team look like they're trying to vary their ball forward, from high ball, low fast ball, a runner through the middle or diagonal ball. All we've done is launch sky ball as high and as far as we can aimlessly, usually with the end result of our defence ending up under pressure.

We look predictable and stale. What's more that looks like thats all we have. That's the worry.

Clare supporter at the game today. Think your bang on with your assessment of the Kilkenny forward play. Extremely predictable with long ball after long ball and while I do think that that is a strength of your team with Reid and Walsh, teams are starting to adjust to it and make sure they have some form of extra protection in the full back line to counteract this.

Not sure if Hogan was taken off because of his performance today but Kilkenny seem to lack any pace in the forwards. They all just appear big and physical. And the lack of pace isn't just in the forwards, it appears to be in all areas of the field.

brookville

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Clare supporter at the game today. Think your bang on with your assessment of the Kilkenny forward play. Extremely predictable with long ball after long ball and while I do think that that is a strength of your team with Reid and Walsh, teams are starting to adjust to it and make sure they have some form of extra protection in the full back line to counteract this.

Not sure if Hogan was taken off because of his performance today but Kilkenny seem to lack any pace in the forwards. They all just appear big and physical. And the lack of pace isn't just in the forwards, it appears to be in all areas of the field.

Fowards are static while some of our backs are to slow and not up to this level as I said above its not nice to slate lads especially after a defeat but there's a few players on the panel who aren't good enough whether we have better I dunno.
If brian has any doubt about the challenge ahead I think he knows now it's a big rebuilding job that could take a few years to get us back to the top table.
Tipp went to waterford minus about 7 from last year and beat them comfortably enough while we go to ennis and clare with a half team and fowards score 3 points from play with 5 fowards who started the all ireland

davidx40

High balls up to these forwards will never work ,agree walter walsh is stone useless under high ball ,this thing of hitting balls on top of him is complete waste , we dont seem to know how to play a ball to favour a forward .I just cant see things improving we have problem positions all down the centre

danganabu

brookville wrote: »

Tipp went to waterford minus about 7 from last year and beat them comfortably enough while we go to ennis and clare with a half team and fowards score 3 points from play with 5 fowards who started the all ireland

Tipp started with just 6 of last years AI final team, but I do think Waterford were a bit off the boil after their exertions against ye the week before.