Munster Team Talk Thread - New season title pending....

bennyl10 · 27-04-2019 10:47am

sioda wrote: »

Yeah it's not going to be packed tonight. They may even close the North or south terrace if its quiet

East and west are both sold out in TM, looks like a decent crowd coming in
North/south is 100% being opened

yerrahbah · 27-04-2019 11:20am

After yet another semi final defeat, I got thinking how many more attempts do he likes of POM, Stander, Murray and Earls have at winning silverware at Munster.

Guys who have been around a while and who I would consider to be excellent players

Then I got to thinking about the age profile of the squad and how many players would be retiring in the next few seasons and would need to be replaced.
Or players whos performance levels would drop naturally because of age

So Thomond I stole your contract template and replaced the contract expiry date with the player’s age, I also removed the Academy players

I’m also assuming the players in red won’t be here next season

Kevin O'Byrne (28)
Rhys Marshall (26)
Niall Scannell (27)
No issues with the hookers, Surprised to see that KOB is the oldest

James Cronin (28)
Dave Kilcoyne (30)
Liam O'Connor (23)
Jeremy Loughman (23)

If Loughman can continue his improvement and O’Connor/ Cronin get back to where they were performing pre-injury then we look in good shape at LH

Stephen Archer (31)
John Ryan (30)
Brian Scott (26)
Ciaran Parker (23)

Not convinced by the THs beyond Ryan and Archer, hopefully Knox kicks on from the Academy

Tadhg Beirne (27)
Billy Holland (33)
Jean Kleyn (25)
Sean O'Connor (22)
Darren O'Shea (26)
Fineen Wycherley (21)

Good age profile in the SR, Didn’t know Kleyn was only 25

Arno Botha (27)
Gavin Coombes (21)
Chris Cloete (28)
Dave O'Callaghan (29)
Tommy O'Donnell (31)
Jack O'Donoghue (25)
Peter O'Mahony (29)
Conor Oliver (23)
CJ Stander (29)

Back row looks ok for the immediate future. Would like to see more of Conor Oliver next season. Hopefully Coombes kicks on.

Neil Cronin (26)
Nick McCarthy (24)
James Hart (27)
Alby Mathewson (33)
Conor Murray (30)
Duncan Williams (33)

SHs look ok, I suppose here there is a difference between age and experience.
McCarthy and Cronin have a combined age of 50 and only 47 appearances between them

Tyler Bleyendaal (28)
Joey Carbery (23)
JJ Hanrahan (26)
Bill Johnston (22)

No issue with the OHs.

Sam Arnold (23)
Shane Daly (22)
Chris Farrell (26)
Dan Goggin (24)
Rory Scannell (25)

Age profile of the centres looks great

Andrew Conway (27)
Keith Earls (31)
Mike Haley (24)
Calvin Nash (21)
Darren Sweetnam (25)
Alex Wootton (24)

Back three looks good too.

No. of players aged 25 and younger: 18
No. of players aged 26-30: 19
No. of players aged over 30: 6

The age profile is actually better than I thought with only Holland and Mathewson over 31.

If we can hang on to the likes of Murray and Stander, and a few of the younger guys Wycherley, Coombes, Knox and Nash kick on.
Then I don’t see any reason why we can’t maintain our current level (and please god improve) over the next 2 to 3 years

Caranica · 27-04-2019 5:39pm

I did not click on that article. I did not read the article. I never take the indo with a programme and the stadium in Cork is Musgrave Park. People sharing and clicking on the Brazilian trolls links are helping to pay his wages. You need to stop. He's not a rugby journalist, he's not a rugby fan. He gets too much credence where none is deserved. Please stop giving it to him.