Kilkenny GAA Thread

BoroMan32

Bad and all as Clare were, I think that was a performance that a few (myself very much included) didn't think Kilkenny were capable of producing.

Every reason for optimism heading into the final no matter what the opposition.

Charlie69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281901#Comment_119281901

I didn't see that one coming at all today but I've always said on here that we have the players capable of good things when we leave the brainless one dimensional stuff out of it(never believed the" we don't have the players"theory) .... I've also been critical of management on here for our style of play so I have to give them huge credit for finally seeing the light and giving these players a chance to play to their potential. Clare were poor today but it was an excellent performance today from our team and management. Well l done to all concerned.

Pigeon Chaser

Wonderful feeling to be back in an AIF.

I've been very critical of Cody's tactics for the past few years. I stand over my opinion and to be honest he would be a mere onlooker today had the decision been mine.

However, credit where it is due. Kilkenny were sublime today. And the tactics were flawless.

Important not to get ahead of ourselves. Clare were absolutely hopeless. In part due to the relentless pressure our lads were applying, but in part down to their own failings and poor decision making.

We were good, no doubt, excellent in fact. But we must also keep in mind Clare didn't show up.

TJ was simply awesome. Huw Lawlor, Mikey Butler, Cian Kenny and Adrian Mullen not far behind. Indeed everybody involved can be proud of themselves tonight. Thank you.

Realt Dearg Sec

Over the moon with that result, and with what was our best performance as a team in a good number of years. The backs were so good, every one of them, but especially butler who rendered Kelly completely anonymous, and huw Lawlor who was just a beast all day. Richie Reid had his best day for kk yet. What I liked best of an though was that they played smart ball, Deegan had a few bad clearances (but was immense winning ball) but in fevered we worked the ball up so well.

The forwards were great as well, tj is still the man for the big occasion, but Cian Kenny had his best match for us yet when he was probably regarded as a weak point coming in. Great work from Cody and Mullen as well.

I certainly underestimated a lot of those lads during the week, hands up I was wrong about that. Cody can also take his credit today after many including me were calling for his head. But I would say he has finally shown a willingness to adapt and to play the game that's in front of us. But fair is fair, if we lost he would have been blamed, and tactically the management played a blinder today.

Great to be able to relax watching tomorrow now. And looking forward to being home in Ireland in a couple of weeks, going to be in town for the days in the build up and with any luck will have a ticket for the Sunday. Have been going on to my kid about how exciting it was as a kid in the lead up to a final when the town was all decorated, and now I'll be able to show her what the sport is about back at home. For that opportunity the win today meant a lot to me personally, but for the team it's been a huge step forward.

Not making any predictions for the final as I've been wrong all year! Whoever it is it's great to be back!

usualstripes

The best performance we've put in for a number of years. What makes it sweet and also hard to defend against is that when we lost our way for 10 mins in the 2nd half when Murphy went long we changed and started carrying out of defence where we started to control things again. Fair play to management to allow snd train us to vary our play. There could have been another 2 or 3 goals there for us today.

I was roaring at Billy Ryan to get the ball in hand but to be fair to him he was being dragged at every opportunity and got no fair play from hogan. Everyone fought like troopers.

Wally excellent in fielding and setting up kenny for the 2nd goal.

Mouthwatering to be looking forward to a final.

If it was a close game horgan would be in the firing line for some ridiculous calls but today was about a super performance and once again fair play to the management and players.

2forjoy

Tj proved today , that he's more than a left hand sided hurler😁

blackcard

I have enormous time for Tony Kelly (and Shane O'Donnell) and others but it was such a pity that Mikey Butler's shot was wide. Imagine outscoring TK from play?

windy shepard henderson

well done today lads fully deserved , they have a saying up north in football" backs win matches , forwards decide by how much"

hue lawlors performance alone today was worth the match fee , that was an exceptional performance in man to man defending , nothing stuck for our inside men at any point ,

in regards kelly he is carrying an injury since the munster final , but he is only one man he cant carry a team on its own mor is it an excuse , more so a bad indictment on a manager that starts an injured player and leaves him on the field for 70 minutes

butler is fantastic , so is young tommy walsh, deegan , mullan and codys performance espically in the first half was top class, tj iwas a class above everone else though , 3 fantastic points from play and flawless from placed balls

in years past fergal horgans lack of whistle use has worked against kilkenny , cody made sure it wouldnt be a factor today , like dublin in the football ye are hitting the peak ath the right time , best of luck in two weeks time 👍️

murtyd17

Huge credit to kk today - unreal performance. Wonder will people get caught missing going to the final with foreign hols booked

tibruit

It was a surreal day. The noise from the Clare support was incredible early on. I thought Lawlor, Deegan and Reid were immense at the back, Kenny was a bit of an unsung hero and TJ and Mullen excellent. It`s great to see TJ coming into form at the right time and we now have a final to look forward to. There is still a huge challenge to come. C`mon the Cats.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282785#Comment_119282785

I'll be several thousand miles away anyway.

brookville

Had great banter will the clare supporters before the match and really nice people. The talk was that kk were going well so I wasn't shocked by this performance. If I was to be a little critical he should of brought on Richie in the last 10 minutes but hopefully he's being held in reserve for one last push.

While colon was a loss and fitzpatrick was the wrong replacement I don't think it would of made a huge difference to the outcome. Our workrate and accuracy was off the charts. We Don't mind but any time we win this year the narrative is the opposition is poor, dublin,galway and clare everyone said they were poor. Wexford are a decent side and could of bet clare but again clare were poor. Its probably the leinster/munster thing. It was the same with the u20 all year the munster championship was way ahead and when we won it was controversial and Limerick were poor etc etc. We're big boys now we don't mind and hopefully that win gives us a huge fill up going into the final.

Backs again continued playing well and Richie Reid had his best game in a kk shirt. Lawlor was Fantastic. Carey was under pressure against sod.kenny is something different and is a good link up man. He won 3 or 4 frees and got 1-2 I think. Looking down at mullen yesterday he covered some amount of ground yesterday and after a slow start to the year he is back to his best.Tj is still the orchestrator but if we can get a full 70 mins out of our fowards who knows what could happen.

Hopefully fogarty will be back and he'll be a big help around that middle third.

PeggyShippen

I couldn't fault Kilkenny yesterday. They were excellent and for the kilkenny diehards that went it must have been a joy. My Father went up from South East Clare. This man has followed Clare through the dark times. I think he's been at 10 losing Munster under 21 finals before they won one. He's suffered. Yesterday was one of the worst he said. They didn't give Kilkenny a game. That's the hard part to swallow. No one appreciates Kilkennys inate ability more than Clare people but for Clare to Lose Conlon and Kelly being half injured was a big deal. That doesn't paper over the missed and dropped balls and selfishness on the ball and kamikaze shooting.

Butler was very good. Eoin Cody showed his class and the whole team did a shift. Kilkenny will give Limerick plenty of it, or Galway. Lohan has a few questions to answer in Clare and they ll be asked. Paidi Fitz doesn't start for his Club Sixmilebridge times...no joke. Not playing a sweeper after 10 mins was a mistake aswell and the unwillingness to go for goals. Best of luck in the next 2 weeks

Grats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119281924#Comment_119281924

I said following the Leinster Final performance that somebody got through to B Cody. Suddenly we were finally playing smarter hurling, which was badly needed. And that if we could further progress in the intervening four weeks we have a good chance of going further. Credit to B Cody for further adapting and allowing the players to find their potential. I always said we had the players, a plan was lacking. Great to be in the Final.

On a side note, none of the winning under 20 players are on the senior panel. Some of them will make it in the coming year which should push us on further, hopefully.

sportsmaddad

Fantastic KK performance yesterday, best this year for sure. TJ, apart from his own scores, how many did he set up? But he wasn't the only one, stars all over the field.

But my God, didn't Clare have a stinker? Work rate was way down and shot selection criminal, admittedly a lot of that was down to KK pressure. I guess all that Junior Hurling throughout the Munster Championship wasn't much preparation 😉

blackcard

Eoin Murphy. Did his job well. Puckouts bar 2 were good.

Mikey Butler. Kept a tight rein on Tony Kelly, did well.

Huw Lawlor. Exceptional

Tommy Walsh. Sound in general. One almost suicidal pass across the square.

Michael Carey. Quietest of the backs, Shane O'Donnell scored 4 points.

Richie Reid. Got on a lot of ball and used it well.

Paddy Deegan. Did very well generally. When on a solo run should hoof the ball instead of handpassing in hope.

Conor Browne. Quiet enough game

Cian Kenny. 1-2 and won a few frees. Good

TJ. Legs are slowing down, hand and brain aren't. Excellent.

Padraig Walsh. Got 2 scores but didn't get on the ball much.

Eoin Cody. Very good. Should have got a few frees.

Adrian Mullen. Excellent, covered a mountain of ground.

Mossy Keoghan. Struggled in general.

Billy Ryan. Tried manfully, should have scored a goal. Constantly being dragged but not spotted by referee.

Walter Walsh. Set up a goal, good point, should have had another.

John Donnelly. For the second game in a row seemed nervous, snatched at ball.

Richie Leahy. Did his bit when he came on

Richie Hogan should have been brought on for the last few minutes

Rosita

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119223493#Comment_119223493

Even the bookies wouldn't touch this. Genuinely priceless.

It was one thing to be so angry over Cork's defeat and the fallout on the Cork thread to have to follow the bitch elsewhere,

but the five heroes giving thanks makes it all the funnier.

Goes to show that watching actual games rather than jumping between bookies' apps can be quite illuminating.

It was obvious after the Wexford game that Clare were running on empty but Cody must have been laughing his head off

when Clare decided it was a good idea to just hit high balls in all day to the Kilkenny full back line. Priceless as well.

citykat

Anyone trying to ascribe the win yesterday to any kind of tactical innovation doesn’t really understand hurling or particularly Kilkenny at all. We could have won that game yesterday any which way we chose. The essence as always was work rate. You’ll always get that from Cody’s teams. Where we’ve gone wrong in the last few seasons is not turning up for a second half.

Congrats to Cody and team on another ‘unforeseen’ victory. Here’s hoping we get written off again for the next day.

ShamoBuc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119283415#Comment_119283415

Sad over a Cork defeat? Follow the bitch elsewhere? The 5 Heroes? What are you on about????

I made money on Kilkenny yesterday, so I'm happy out.

To be honest, your post above is fairly sad and pathetic.

usualstripes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119283627#Comment_119283627

Just one point to pick here is that there are no guarantees we could have won it any way we chose.

Take 15 mins at the start of the 2nd half. Murphy drove several long puck outs to our half forward line with very little success. Its only when we went short through our full back line to our half backs and then delivered bal to our inside forward line we got far more success.

citykat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119283733#Comment_119283733

We absolutely would have won any way we chose because we outfought Clare pure and simple. Case in point if we weren’t winning primary possession off puck outs into the Clare full back line, we were winning secondary possession. Clare had a purple patch in that second half yesterday which for them put on a gloss on what otherwise was a brutal day.

blackcard

While I wouldn't be concerned about short puckouts to the Clare full back line, they got possession from 14 out of 15 puckouts between the 45 metre line and midfield. With the distance that the ball can travel, this was giving them possession within shooting distance. Luckily for us, they were inaccurate with their shooting. A lot of this possession came from quick puckouts in the second half when we had dropped back. Our forwards had to do a lot of chasing and looked tired in the second half. Our forward subs like Donnelly, Wally and Richie Hogan are not blessed with speed either along with starters TJ and Padraig Walsh. Overall Clare had 53 shots to our 42. Our shot selection was much better with hardly any hit and hope. We did only win 5 out of 18 puckouts which we struck beyond their 45 metre line

Pigeon Chaser

Nowlan Park looks absolutely fabulous on telly for the minor game.

SpudsandGuinness

In fairness to kk there after getting into some amount of all Irelands in the past few decades lost a few but won plenty. It has to be respected. The mentality been I would imagine if you ain't in it you can't win ...........

usernamethatsnotinuse

A lot of good aspects to the play yesterday but plenty to work on. Were asleep for a lot of the clare puckouts, need to get a lot more from the subs, some of them still not going well. Wally did ok for a few minutes and drifted out of it. None of them looked good enough that they should have started. Disappointed not to see Richie but game was over, wasn't much to be gained bringing him on

blackcard

Not sure if there will be any particular match ups against Limerick. I don't fancy Tommy Walsh on Gillane. Maybe Huw Lawlor? Deegan on Hegarty?

Fred Daly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119284009#Comment_119284009

The county was a blaze with sporting events we certainly punch above our weight.

JJs Left Hand

Great win and more to the point a great performance. Fair play to Cody and the management team. Can never fault the team for effort and work rate and great to see them hurl so well. Huge test but nothing to lose now

conor05

Im not sure there is any defender in Ireland that can handle Gillane in the form he is in, they dont go for many goals they are happy to score points all day.

Limerick are a very good outfit but Galway really got at them today but David Reidy is causing huge problems when he comes on so we have to plan for their subs too.

I think we can match them for workrate but we will need all forwards and midfield chipping in with scores.

Mullen, Cody and TJ gave me great hope yesterday up front.

It is going to be some final.

mullinr2

It's going to take an almighty effort to beat Limerick, probably need to match our intensity of the 2006 final against Cork if not more. Both Clare and Galway have shown Kilkenny that Limerick can be rattled and if Galways shooting was better they would have won. Limerick usually play their best game in the final so there can be no let up in our intensity from the minute it's thrown in to the final whistle.