Kilkenny GAA Thread

Grats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121309279#Comment_121309279

Marty Murphy is only gone 18, K Corcoran declined to come in and B Hughes had a long term injury and is only back hurling in recent months. That's what I understand.

Village87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121307102#Comment_121307102

Get our best talent in with the best coaches and S&C from the start, in 2 years time he could be ready for senior intercounty rather than starting 2 years behind other players not good enough or players in other counties

Nedflanders02

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121309384#Comment_121309384

That's fair enough if Corcoran declined and I'd imagine these lads probably doing the leaving maybe didn't want to commit, Hughes looked really good with Bennettsbridge and looks a big strong lad too, shows the talent we should for next year though and we should be at least looking to win leinster and compete for All Ireland

DiscoStew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121303348#Comment_121303348

I don’t know the situation in Kilkenny, but in Waterford there’s such a shortage of referees that it’s hard to hold them to any sort of standard. Start eliminating refs because they’re not fit enough & you’ve such a shortage that games can’t be completed. It regularly happens with ladies football. The refs are run into the ground to keep fixtures going. Admittedly a lot of them are poor refs, but without them we’d have nothing.

I’d love to see the standard improve, but it’s a very delicate balancing act at club level to keep the current refs, recruit new refs, encourage refs to keep on top of the rules & their fitness for a small fee per game. Those looking to climb the ladder will do the above naturally, but those with no interest in doing so need more collaboration with boards.

Grats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121309692#Comment_121309692

Yep, I agree.

blackcard

5 weeks in a row in the Leinster Championship next year. Home to Antrim, then away to Galway, Carlow and Dublin finishing at home to Wexford. Away to Dublin will be the critical fixture as expect a loss to Galway

Billy Ocean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121312554#Comment_121312554

Ye have a week between the Galway and Carlow games.

tbiggertycome

Congrats to OLG on finally being the ones to take down Ballyhale. I do think it was a very poor referring performance he was equally bad for both teams and struggled to keep up with the play he was often walking around the middle of the field. There are fitter refs out there and some struggle to get games for some reason. He missed calls and cards on both sides but for me he allowed OLG away with a huge amount of cynical tackling taking down the man through on goal and usually only gave a free. Now Ballyhale can have little complaints as they did the exact same against the Boro with the last play of the quarter final. However I think a different ref and that could easily have been a different result. It's not all the refs fault however and pulling lads down to avoid goals has become a huge scourge on the game. The GAA have tried to address it at intercounty but in typical half arsed GAA logic they don't apply the same rule (black card and penalty awarded) at club level. Best of luck to OLG against Mount Leinster Rangers Sunday week hopefully they can win a Leinster and see how they go after that.

robwen

Shamrocks made no subs last Sunday, massive factor in a tight game, the players lost to travelling injuries etc. caught up with them

Toblerone1978

Lads, missed the county final after attending the four quarter finals and two semi finals, very annoyed by that. Do you know where it can be viewed at this stage, if it can be viewed at this stage? Thanks.

Neewollah

Pretty sure you can still purchase on Clubber

Comerman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316319#Comment_121316319

https://clubber.ie/sports/gaa/KilkennyGaa

lob it in

Your talking out both sides of your mouth with that post, you wish OLG well and in the the same breath say the result would have been different if there was a different ref on the game totally undermining OLGs win.

It's also clear from your post you weren't at the game or if you were you weren't paying much attention,you talk of cynical fouls, from my memory there were two cynical incidents Paddy Deegan on Tj and Jordan Molloy on Eoin Cody both Paddy and Jordan got yellow cards! don't remember any cynical fouls from Ballyhale.Olg hurled that bit better over the hour and just about deserved the win in my opinion.

Most neutrals at the game thought the ref had a good game but you didn't think so and that's fair enough everybody has different views on games but you say there's fitter and better refs who aren't getting games who are these refs ,please enlighten us.

I hope OLG go far in the club series and if the do half as well as the Shamrocks did they'll be ok.

lob it in

Matty Murphy is only eighteen,he would need to make it with the U20 first before even being considered for Senior.I think all the U20 players should serve their time at U20 use it as preparation for Senior their now getting very good S&C at that level to prepare them for senior.

usualstripes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317259#Comment_121317259

Less of the talk of Marty being called up by Lyng. Give the chap a chance. He's been an outstanding underage hurler for Tullogher but there are times when he drifts in and out of games. The last 4/5 matches he's played for Tullogher he has been very good. He has an excellent hand and strike, allied to his considerable size but 2 years to come at u20 level has to be the path for him.

lob it in

Agree.The point I was trying to make was that all U20s should be left with their age group to prepare them for Senior,Cody very rarely used U21s until they were out of that age group.

Grats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317314#Comment_121317314

Absolutely.

It was said here that winning underage medals with your club doesn't guarantee you a bright hurling future, well, neither does winning medals at junior level. Billy Drennan is an example. He clearly needs more time as will Marty Murphy and others previously mentioned.

Deskjockey

To be fair to the referee, I was at the co final as a neutral and didn't think anything good or bad about the referee coming out of the match which basically means he did a good job.

larrya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318096#Comment_121318096

I was there as well but not as a neutral, I thought the referee was fine for both teams and O' Loughlin's deserved the win over the hour.

But, did anybody else see one of the linesman run over and pick up the O'Loughlin's manager and give him a big hug directly after the match.

I don't want to seem like a bad loser but surely a lineman doing this is not right. Are they not meant to be neutral?

tbiggertycome

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121316691#Comment_121316691

So you think a team winning by a point in close fought affair might not have turned out differently if there was a different ref?? I'm not saying OLG's didn't deserve their win, they definitely did as they fought fierce hard and got stuck into Ballyhale. I didn't and still don't care who won the game I had no skin in it. I was sitting with a group of neutrals and a good few not from Kilkenny as well and we all felt it was a poor referring performance which in the end slightly favoured OLG. That's not to take from OLG's they went out and hurled and what the ref did or didn't do is nothing to do with them. That doesn't mean however that just because OLG's won I think the ref had a great game. They're two separate points.

OLG's set their stall out in the semi that they weren't going to concede goals and fair dues to them they pulled it off in both games. If you can't see that they set about pulling down lads going through then thats fine but thats how I saw it on both days.

Are OLG the only team to do it? Not by a long shot.

Is it OLG's fault that the ref didn't take more action? Not in the slightest, they played the conditions on the day very smart on their side.

Is it OLG's fault the GAA doesn't punish this foul appropriately at club level? Nope.

Did Ballyhale players foul and get away with it or with light sanction? Yes they did.

Does any of that change my opinion that I felt OLG's carried out more last man tackles than Ballyhale? No it doesn't but it's just my opinion I wasn't collecting stats or anything.

I'm giving my opinion honestly and I congratulate OLG and wish them the best as Kilkenny's representative in the Leinster and All Ireland club campaign. I'll be supporting them from here on out, as I would have Ballyhale or any team representing Kilkenny in previous years. Take from that what you will but I don't see any issue criticising the refs performance and congratulating OLG's on their great win. Maybe you think if the ref was poor then that means the winners are undeserving. I don't, I can separate the two things.

droppingball

I was there as a neutral but torn as I generally would shout for country teams against the city clubs and generally go for a southern club. However I thought it would be better for Kilkenny club hurling for OLG to win as it wasn't a good look for Shamrocks to win missing 7 players.

On the day I thought Burke didn't favour either team really. He is my favourite ref as he just lets it go and it becomes a war and everyone knows the terms of engagement. I just enjoy watching the confrontational and attritional element it brings to the games he referees. He lets an awful lot of definite frees go which drives people mad but he is fairly consistent in how he referees things.

When it is your own club and you are looking for a score to level a game and he lets it go it is the most frustrating thing all the same. In fairness to the man he shows some balls to ref the way he does. There will always be the question is it right I suppose.

lob it in

Fair enough.Its just on reading your post you congratulate OLG on their win and then proceed to cut the back of the ref,it sounded a bit disen genuine is all.

I'm not keeping stas on last man tackles or anything either but in the semis it happened twice(both OLG) and twice it happened in the final and you make it sound like they were pulling lads down all over the place when it only happened TWICE in both matches.

powerplay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318369#Comment_121318369

Also the 4th official on the Senior Final was working as a DJ in the O loughlins Club on Sunday night..

Neewollah

The 4th official is allowed have a job outside the GAA. You hardly thinking sticking up injury time or sub numbers on a board had any influence on the game?

powerplay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121322016#Comment_121322016

The 4th official is still officiating in the County Final, its not a good look. Either is the linesman having a few drinks after the game in the O loughlins clubhouse!!

The Birchfield Boy

Jaysus some whinge fest here 😁

Good for kk hurling etc to have olg win... Many of the shamrocks could do with a break having been going constantly for the last few years. Olg had to take this chance if they were to deliver on their potential. It was now or never for that group.

When you match up the 3 co backs vs 3 co forwards, add in a sticky pitch and a ref who is clearly a back man then the odds tipped ever so slightly in olg favour. And it still took everything for them to beat a war weary and what is arguably one of the poorest shamrocks sides(by their very lofty standards) in the past decade. On the ref.. he is what he is. And those in the stand surprised by the way he refs the game clearly hasn't seen many games. It would have been no surprise to both sides I may add. The best quality in a ref is consistency... Good or bad and in fairness he was definitely consistent and gave it his best.

Olg should give Leinster a good rattle, but a lack of forward power might be their undoing. Ballygunner look the team to beat yet again with the Limerick crowd best placed to do them.

blackwave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121322156#Comment_121322156

Registering just to post this is not a good look or do you not have stones to post under your main account....

jonniegoogle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121324095#Comment_121324095

To be fair, it doesn't look good and only adds fuel to any bad feeling towards officials. With the job comes a certain responsibility in fairness.

Just to add, I thought the officials did a good job on the day.

Fred Daly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318369#Comment_121318369

One of the shamrocks backroom team were having a conversation with one of the umpire before the match, the umpire came up to him presume people live work close to one another .After all they are all only none professionals interesting thing on RTE sports yesterday about Wayne Barnes it was the TMO decided all his big calls.

tbiggertycome

Having chats with people about the state of hurling in Kilkenny both club and county over the last few weeks and 2 very good points were made to me. Now that we have the winter ahead and little hurling left to be done for the next few weeks, here's two points to discuss.

1. The club league has become an absolute joke and almost a waste of time. I know there are not many teams can do like Ballyhale where they don't give a hoot about the league games and then turn it on for the Championship. We struggled to understand why the league was so bad while talking about it until he remembered that there is now zero jeopardy in the league for a strong team. Before if you finished 5th or 6th your Championship was over except trying to stay up. If you won your relegation semi final your reward was to stay up but your year was done. This means that you can loose all your games in the league and still go on a run and win the Co. Final. I would much prefer to see the old system reinstated where you had to finish in the top 4 of each side to progress to the Championship proper. This would mean the League games would take on far more importance than they currently do and you couldn't have teams just drifting along through the league. Is this an overreaction to Ballyhales abilty to do this (fair play to them) or is it a real issue?
2. Clubs (outside Ballyhale) are not producing top class intercounty forwards. It's really more an issue for the city clubs as opposed to the country clubs who are dealing with small numbers and will eventually turn up a top forward every now and again. However no club in the county is consistently turning out top class intercounty forwards other than Ballyhale. Ballyhale are great but it's not like the water is that different or the people so unusual compared to the rest of the clubs. The city clubs however have an abysmal record of producing top forwards recently, including my own club. I can think of reasons for this but I'll throw it to the floor first as to why they haven't and what can be done to rectify this situation. Name me three top intercounty forwards that the city clubs have produced in the last 20 years?