Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 3 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

Grats

Billy Ocean wrote: »

He really underwhelmed in his 2 years with ballyhale;)

Yeah, he just had to go!

brookville

Grats wrote: »

Tommy Walsh lined out for WIT today so perhaps other club players in Finals last weekend might turn out for us on Sunday. As was said above, why wouldn't they take their chance if given it

Was suprised to see tommy line out today.i think shane walsh didnt train much before the final with an ankle injury.He is probably a bit light at the moment but he has good pace and knows how to score.mossy has also shown good form.Hopefully James bergin is brought in and given a chance because we need to try find a few dangerous inside fowards and himself or shane both very good free takers it would be a great experience to give one of them the responsibility and it wouldn't be the biggest shock to see a couple of lads from last weekend in the panel sunday
I think teams will use more and more players in this league and we seen last year we had a dreadful league and reached the all ireland while tipp were woeful last spring and won the all ireland.waterford got to the final and galway got to the semi and both teams failed to get going in the championship.
With no disrespect to laois or carlow they will struggle in the group.
Dublin should be fired up sunday and had a decent pre season narrowly losing to galway.They have being together a few months and matty has the cuala lads from the start.Both teams will be affected with fitzgibbon and with important matches next week maybe these lads will be used sparingly.We have a good record at home but we haven't much hurling done yet but I'm sure the lads will be anxious to try forget last years final defeat and try get started with a win.
It would be near impossible guess a team but on paper this group should give us a good chance to get game time into lads to either play themselves on or off the team.id like to see darren brennan get a few matches he done well last year when scruff got injured..Buckley was at the launch the other day and sounded like a lad who was going to play hopefully he can put his injuries behind him.Id like to see something like
Scruff
Wallace,lawlor,deegan
Browne,delaney,buckley
Alan murphy,maher
Leahy,Wally,donnelly
Billy,blanchfield,Sheehan
Hopefully we might see darren mullen,shefflin and eoin cody get game time over the next few weeks and the match against wexford is one that catches the eye in a few weeks a chance to set down an early marker for later in the year.Henry and ballyhale I thought coped with the sweeper system well in their last two outings.

tbiggertycome

Unsurprisingly Colin Fennelly has been named as Kilkenny Captain by Ballyhale

Grats

Martin Keoghan came on as a sub for UL yesterday.

minty81

I think it would be madness if TJ, Colin and Joey are only given a week off. Tell them to come back at the start of March and they'll be mad hungry for it after a well earned break. Thats still a few weeks ahead of when they were back last year with the earlier club finals.
League results might suffer but what about it? It also allows some other forwards the opportunity to step up and become leaders

Realt Dearg Sec

minty81 wrote: »

I think it would be madness if TJ, Colin and Joey are only given a week off. Tell them to come back at the start of March and they'll be mad hungry for it after a well earned break. Thats still a few weeks ahead of when they were back last year with the earlier club finals.
League results might suffer but what about it? It also allows some other forwards the opportunity to step up and become leaders

Agree, especially tj, we need him fresh as a daisy in summer. I couldn't care less about the early league results, only interested in seeing who stands up and makes a game for himself in those games, and resting those lads gives more opportunities for that anyway

Grats

I don't expect to see C Fennelly, TJ, J Holden or P Walsh involved in the early stages of the league, if at all in the league. The word on the street is that they've been given a break. . That's not to say they shouldn't be training away with the rest of the panel in due course. I imagine those players themselves would prefer to get back involved in a week or so. They will know best.

Cornerback1

JJs Left Hand wrote: »

Both just won All Irelands and were probably on the beer for days. Neither would've been in with Kilkenny since they started back training due to club commitments. There is 0.00001% chance either Walsh or Bergin play on Sunday.

Murphy
Morrissey
Lawlor
Deegan
Fogarty
Delaney
David Blanchfield
Maher
Browne
Leahy
Wally
Donnelly
Ryan
Murphy
Aylward

Complete guess job and no idea if any are involved in Fitzgibbon or if any of them are injured

So you're saying there's chance!!!!

brookville

Richie hogan misses this weekend from last years final.Its the opposite to the club where it carries over to championship.

tbiggertycome

Kil v Dub

E Murphy
C Wallace H Lawlor C Delaney
M Cody P Deegan M Carey
C Fogarty A Murphy
J Donnelly W Walsh R Leahy
B Ryan G Aylward N Brassil
Subs
D Brennan
T Walsh
A Nolan
T Kenny
J Maher
L Scanlon
B Sheehan
M Keoghan
L Blanchfield
T O'Dwyer
D Blanchfield

Cornerback1

tbiggertycome wrote: »

Kil v Dub

E Murphy
C Wallace H Lawlor C Delaney
M Cody P Deegan M Carey
C Fogarty A Murphy
J Donnelly W Walsh R Leahy
B Ryan G Aylward N Brassil
Subs
D Brennan
T Walsh
A Nolan
T Kenny
J Maher
L Scanlon
B Sheehan
M Keoghan
L Blanchfield
T O'Dwyer
D Blanchfield

Alan Murphy on the frees then.

brookville

Not surprising to see wallace hold onto his spot he was very good the last day hopefully he can stay improving.
Good for cody and carey getting a run I think both more suited to the half back line.I would of liked to have seen delaney and deegan swap.Alan murphy is probably the most experienced free taker at the moment so he was going to be included somewhere and done well against dublin last year if I remember correctly.
Donnelly,Wally and leahy should bring more of scoring threat and hopefully billy ryan's direct running can cause trouble.Im suprised ger aylward is picked at full foward he really needs to get a good league.Brassil is a nice hurler and done well against cork last year corner foward.I didnt know tadgh dwyer was on the panel.
Great opportunity for a few younger lads to try keep hold of the jersey.best of luck to all the lads sunday

citykat

minty81 wrote: »

I think it would be madness if TJ, Colin and Joey are only given a week off. Tell them to come back at the start of March and they'll be mad hungry for it after a well earned break. Thats still a few weeks ahead of when they were back last year with the earlier club finals.
League results might suffer but what about it? It also allows some other forwards the opportunity to step up and become leaders

Two weeks max. This hurling fatigue theory is BS tbh. Any lad that needs a break generally puts his hand up and goes travelling/retires. What are these lads going to do until March, strive for world peace?

brookville

We have dublin and carlow in our first two matches followed by a two week break and then wexford,clare and laois.id guess the few senior lads on club duty will probably aim to get back around the time of the wexford match and get a few matches.As we know these lads missed out on few holidays and gave up their Christmas and had long year with kilkenny last year so a few weeks rest will do no harm.We seen how Henry gave them time off and had them fresh.
This is the first time in a long time theres no real pressure going into the league and panel members should see more game time.We need Donnelly,leahy and billy to keep progressing,they gained great experience winning the league two years ago so a good pre season into these lads is good. tj and colin wont be around forever so these lads will have to become leaders.I would like to see us try find a position for blanchfield because on his day he is a handful.Dj has him hurling well for carlow.He done well coming on at times last year but Sheehan and billy over took him in the pecking order.Hopefully he can find form.
We should see more new faces for the trip to carlow and I'd like to see darren mullen used as our spare defender against wexford.
Buckley still mustn't be right.Is enda morrissey still part of the panel.Browne isn't with ucc he must be injured and I know Jason cleere missed carlows match the other night with a finger injury.
Dublin had a good pre season so we could be under pressure but will probably be down a good few regulars.Hopefully cody and carey go well in defence and more importantly our fowards put up a decent score but dublin will have a very solid defence.

Zetor19

Ridiculous if tj p Walsh or any of them lads play even 1 league match, if Cody has any cop on he will tell them see ye in April.

dastardly00

citykat wrote: »

Two weeks max. This hurling fatigue theory is BS tbh. Any lad that needs a break generally puts his hand up and goes travelling/retires. What are these lads going to do until March, strive for world peace?

What a stupid post. What about the litany of injuries we've had over the last few years... Cllian Buckley, Richie Hogan etc.

I'd prefer if TJ doesn't feature in the league at all.

droppingball

Think Conor Browne is in maynooth university this year, think I saw him on one of the panel lists

citykat

dastardly00 wrote: »

What a stupid post. What about the litany of injuries we've had over the last few years... Cllian Buckley, Richie Hogan etc.

I'd prefer if TJ doesn't feature in the league at all.

No. Stupid is when you can't understand a post.

larrya

citykat wrote: »

Two weeks max. This hurling fatigue theory is BS tbh. Any lad that needs a break generally puts his hand up and goes travelling/retires. What are these lads going to do until March, strive for world peace?

Does this explanation come from your vast experience of hurling at the highest level.

Cornerback1

citykat wrote: »

Two weeks max. This hurling fatigue theory is BS tbh. Any lad that needs a break generally puts his hand up and goes travelling/retires. What are these lads going to do until March, strive for world peace?

Don't agree. Ballyhale lads have been flat out this past 2 or three years - by that I mean a 12mth year. Give them a break, will do them no harm. They have the ability and should be rsring to go when the come back in again. In all honestly, the Shamrock lads will be back earlier than last year as final was Paddy's Day.

I'm, to be honest, more interested in the lads who want to push on and get a place on the team. As alluded to earlier, there's a group of players who have been on the panel this past 3/4 years and really need to start to push for a starting place.

This is what this league should be about.

Zetor19

Tj should not not be allowed pick up a hurl til after Patrick’s day.

The_Ghost

Good to be back, haven’t posted in a while disappointing year with the club but happy to have the county scene back. I don’t think the league will be taken overally serious by anyone but it is a good chance to try a few new lads and for others to develop. Congrats to the 3 teams who won the All Ireland series, an amazing achievement. Good to see the county lads showing form. Agree that the young lads should be back in eariler than the older lads who should be given more time.

Think ger alyward really needs to impress and find form in the league, was hoping Buckley would be named and get games into him. Think his fitness and the fitness of Richie hogan will be big for us this year. Leahy Donnolly Billy Ryan all progressed last year and hopefully they drive it on again this year along with blanch. The lads seem to be going well in the fitzgibbon too which is in the quarter finals now.

If we can get Darren Mullen and Conor Delaney playing well and into the team it will really strengthen us. Speaking to a few lads who said Adrian hasn’t been going as well because he isn’t as fit as he was last year on the county team but he still poped up with 2 vital points the last day and worked very hard. Eoin Cody seems to have lost abit of form.

Would be nice to get a good league campaign in after last year.

citykat

larrya wrote: »

Does this explanation come from your vast experience of hurling at the highest level.

Explanation?

citykat

Cornerback1 wrote: »

Don't agree. Ballyhale lads have been flat out this past 2 or three years - by that I mean a 12mth year. Give them a break, will do them no harm. They have the ability and should be rsring to go when the come back in again. In all honestly, the Shamrock lads will be back earlier than last year as final was Paddy's Day.

I'm, to be honest, more interested in the lads who want to push on and get a place on the team. As alluded to earlier, there's a group of players who have been on the panel this past 3/4 years and really need to start to push for a starting place.

This is what this league should be about.

If any player wants a break for whatever reason e.g. injury, work etc, he should be given that break. But if a player wants to put himself forward for selection why would Cody force him to take a break? That doesn't make sense. If TJ wanted to play and was fit to do so, why wouldn't you play him? What age is he now, 32? All going well he'll get 2 maybe 3 more years at I/C. I'd say he wants to keep playing as much as possible while he can. He'll be retired long enough.

I agree that the lads on the periphery need to push on. They'll only push on though when they're competing against the best in the county. When one of those lads on the periphery earns his place over an established player, he and the team will be all the better for it.

larrya

citykat wrote: »

Explanation?

Explanation as to why they don’t need a break.

brookville

What are our thoughts tomorrow?Dublin look to have a stronger team out.We have a good record at home but our attack wont get much change from their defence and might need another regular in our attack but bar brassil the others have being there a few years. its great to see carey and cody get a run in their best position.Evan shefflin and darren mullen will hopefully see time over the next few weeks.
Deegan has plugged ever hole from 2-9 but delaney could be worth a run at 6.
Hopefully aylward can hit the ground running but he has struggled to get going a few years now between injury and loss of form.Shane walsh,eoin cody and a few new lads could take his place on the panel .I'd like to see blanchfield get a few games to see can he force his way into the team.

dubcat51

Ger richie leahy blanchfield sheehan to a degree need to step up and pysh on or they will end up out IMO.delaney john donnelly need to build on last year and richie cillian need to be injury free and return to form

Swamp_Cat

dubcat51 wrote: »

Ger richie leahy blanchfield sheehan to a degree need to step up and pysh on or they will end up out IMO.delaney john donnelly need to build on last year and richie cillian need to be injury free and return to form

Agree & it's most true for Blanchfield. Big boy who can hurl but blows hot & cold a bit too much. He shows signs of brilliance but at the same time he really hasn't featured much, even in league. On Evan Shefflin, I really like this lad. He pops up in the right spot 2-4 times a game and always seems to find the black spot when he gets his chances. Bulked up a lot in the past year too. The forward I'm most enthusiastic about is John Donnelly. Teak tough, works like a dog & is a fantastic hurler. Depending on who really finds form there is the making of another great team. I do fear that with all the club success which allowed us to see more of some players than other years we might be looking through club level tinted glasses and could have our enthusiasm knocked down a peg. Only one way to find out! I don't want to lose but the league results don't mean much ...but, it's time we beat Wexford! Not sure how many wins they've got on the trot but it's too many. They looked really good and really fit for early January from what I could see in Buff's video.

Swamp_Cat

Any thoughts on how Tommy did yesterday in what I believe was his first full match with Eir. I wonder if they told him to tone it down just a little or maybe he was a little nervous early on. It could easily have turned into the "Tommy show" just by the force of his personality but I hardly noticed the commentary which is a good sign. Overall I think he did a great job & wish him good luck. Now if we can get him to KCLR so we don't have to listen to Mick Walsh anymore ;-)

dubcat51

Is the game on live does anyone know.