Kilkenny GAA Thread

Agreed we need to find a few players but anyone whos good enough is probably in.

It's hard to get over the sheer size of Limerick but such good stick men.

The movement and the way they throw the ball around us probably similar to football tactics.Fair play to them its hard to see them bet in the near future.

On ourselves we're probably in around the same level as the chasing pack.

It's disappointing that lads like Richie leahy who were outstanding minors just haven't kicked on.Luke scanlon,jason cleere,John Walsh,Liam blanchfield are only a handful of lads who haven't reached their potential.I appreciate injuries have hampered some of their progress.

I do agree with village above thst our underage level is on par with laois and carlow and results back this up.

I hope we see fruits of the underage review in a few years time.

Our U20s played a full strength Limerick U20 (including their senior panellists) a few weeks before Galway game and beat them handy in a full blooded match and beat them at minor level by 16 pts 3 years ago and 14 pts 2 years ago. Whatever poblems exist in Kilkenny hurling there is no a big skill deficit at underage between us and rest of leading counties. I believe we are being beaten at latter stages of minor and u20 by a simple inescapable mathematical equation.

if you start a year with two squads of roughly equal talent and one squad trains 250 hours in that year and the other trains 125 hours, the former will very likely win, but will it matter a curse a few years later to the 5-6 serious players who then go back to clubs and on then to county senior panel. I'd imagine whatever s&c deficit a Kilkenny 17-19 year old has versus a Galway counterpart will be negated by the time he has a year of senior under his belt (Mullen and Cody and Donelly prime recent examples)

Limerick at senior are an outlier right now, a freak show, but there is almost nothing to seperate us, Galway, Tipp, Cork, Waterford (and maybe even Clare) below that.

What Limerick have done since 2014 is nothing short of phenomenal, they have converted almost every decent underage player 2011-2015 into super senior players. That is a freak show that is almost impossible to replicate. Have a look at the 2014 AI Minor final

Kilkenny beat Limerick in 2014 AI Minor, now let your jaw drop at the starting Limerick forwards that day.

Cian Lynch, Barry Nash, Seamus Flanagan, Peter Casey, Tom Morrissey and Ronan Lynch. And we beat them!

Spare a thought for their poor corner back that day Sean Finn, taken to the cleaners by John Walsh for 2-5. What became of poor Sean?

i know Limerick lads who said aftre that final, "we are shite, all hype, not good enough, too soft, wont win anything...."

I may well be wrong but I am becoming more and more convinced that silverware at underage (especially since move back to 17 and 20) is a guarntee of almost nothing at senior. Not a single current senior Limerick player holds a minor or schools AI. Almost to a man they became savage hurlers on good Fitzgibbon squads, and then pushed on further under Kiely and Kinnerk in the most advanced and sophisticated senior set up we have ever seen.

If we have 6-7 players key men driving on the top Fitzgibbon teams come Feburary I will be a lot happier than if we had won a minor or even U20 title in last 2 years.

The return of club action will also give us a much better indication of where we stand with prospects.

I'm not saying all will be well, but panicking over a few underage losses to Galway during a two year period when we had little club and no schools or Fitzgibbon action, might be pressing the panic button prematurely.

I remember that Limerick team being spoken as truly special coming up to that Minor Final, they just performed poorly on the day

Saddest of news this morning with the death of the great Chunky O' Brien

I think this will really resonate with so many Kilkenny people, as apart from being a great hurler he was a real fan's favourite. Keher was the superstar of the 70's team but Chunky was the darling of the fans.

Maybe only Tommy Walsh in my lifetime had a similar bond with Kilkenny supporters.

We loved him. Thanks for it all Chunky.

Definitely in 79 scored a goal from a free about 60 yards out. Remember listening to the game on the radio, as we had no TV.

That minor team in 2014 transitioned into an U21 winning 2015 team and then a 2017 u20 winning team. Most of the names dropped by @Alonzo Moseley were the backbone of that 2017 and went on to win the Senior All Ireland in 2018.

Freak Show might not be the complimentary of terms, but I think it definitely captures what an amazing achievement it was in terms of rapid development of underage players into formidable senior players. We often talk about how such and such a superstar has been playing Senior from a young age, but this Limerick team is phenomenal in that regard... I think around 8 of the starting 15 won U20 in 2017 with another 2-3 winning U20 in 2015. Their average age is very very low for 3 time all Ireland probabyl only ever seen before in the great cats team of the naughties.

Of his time, he was magical. I knew the man and was never good enough to play hurling with him. I DID play football with him, and he was as effortless with the big ball as the small. I seem to remember he played LOI soccer for Waterford, and (correct me if I'm wrong) won an All-Ireland or two in the handball court too.

In my opinion (taking into consideration the generational improvements in standard) Chunky would have enhanced ANY hurling team ever selected to represent Kilkenny.

that was my first AI final too Charley. I remember those Chunky trade mark solos well. May he rest in peace. A great Kilkenny hurler.

That's him, he certainly seemed to save his best performances for Galway alright but I know he had a lot of friends ( ex hurlers)in Galway and he spent a good bit of time up there meeting up with his old friends.

That was Pat Delaney (RIP) who started the bouncing the ball of the ground. Frank used to just burst through players.

you know that the trainer of that great 70’s Kilkenny team Fr Tommy Maher focussed on coaching the basics of hurling skills to his team. Rising the ball , striking, catching, striking overhead, striking the ball on the ground.

it may sound simplistic but maybe the basics should still be coached. Hardly any Kilkenny defender apart from Paddy Deegan can strike a clean sideline. Paddy also clipped the ball from the ground into his hand in the Cork match. The pundits were wetting themselves when Cian Lynch did the same in the final.

what a great team that 70’s team was. Keher, Purcell, Delaney, Skehan, Larkin, Orr, Henderson, Cody ( yes Cody) , Chunky, Crotty, Cummins.

your childhood heroes are always the greatest. Waxing lyrical now.

Watched that game last night. Chunky was by far the best striker of a ball on the pitch. It struck me how low a spread of clubs we had. 5 Village, 4 Johnstown and 2 Bridge lads on the starting team. Outside of 11 players we only had 3 players from Kilkenny clubs: Comer, Windgap and The Rower. If that happened now we'd be bemoaning the state of KK club hurling.

That was the last hurrah for that team some of who had won the AI in 67, 69 72, 74 and 75. They got absolutely trounced by Wexford in the Leinster final in 76. Delaney, Purcell, Keher, Larkin, Henderson, Cummins, Orr, maybe Crotty , Pat Lalor, also sub Jim Treacy were gone after that I think.

Lads I've posted a bit about the handpass (or throw) on this forum. It seems to be a general bugbear amongst fans of our great game. There's a thread on the Tipp forum 'thrown not blown" started by a guy called Fourcandles where he does some serious analysis. It seems that our KK lads are not cheating nearly as much as everyone else. This lad must have serious amounts of discretionary time on his hands to produce this but it's a cracker. I can't post it because I'm too new on here to be allowed to post a link. The Galway lads have it on their forum as well so maybe someone can re-produce it on here.

Thats correct Frank played in midfield in the 82 and 83 finals. Franks son Alan was the KK mascot for the 83 final against Cork and later went on to play for the rebels.