Kilkenny GAA Thread

Two soft goals and way too many wides lost the game for kilkenny, saying that the standard of refereeing was scandalous.

You have to wonder how many years do Kilkenny have to win nothing before refs give us fair play.

Anyone see the senior game?

Well said.

Kilkenny started very slowly with a fortunate goal after a ricochet giving them a lead. They spilled ball, over elaborated and generally made heavy weather of it as a team who knew they were superior often do. Westmeath (Doyke) scored some excellent points and gave Kilkenny loads of it in defence but pucked it up to Deegan who was free more often than not. Cody had seen enough by the 25th minute and hauled Mossey ashore after a few balls going in and nothing coming. Kenny followed soon after for some mishandling in front of Cody. Also notable on the negative side was another puck out f-up which Westmeath luckily butchered. In the second half Kilkenny upped it and wore Westmeath down with the substitutes TJ went to midfield while Mullen remained in the full. Maher, Donnelly made a difference with better touch and directness and Westmeath lost a man to a second yellow. I forget the order of the goals but Wally and Billy finished from angles after lads were queing up, maher had a great finish after being put through and cleverly bounced it, and TJ again knocked it over from about a foot out. Shane Walsh came on and was very eager and showed some very nice touches (perhaps too unselfish) which was great to see. He looked like he has the bit between his teeth. Overall Kilkenny did what they needed, always knew they had about 3gears in them but did at times look a little bit agricultural against a game but very limited team.

Wexford getting the draw could prove important

well a ref from a participating county is a bit ridiculous don’t you think,there is another 9 counties to have picking a ref from.

Good to get a comprehensive win from the game yesterday but hard to know what to take from the match. We seemed nervy for the first 20/25 mins, a lot of unforced errors, matched with Westmeath tenacity and some super shooting, they were deservedly 4 ahead. We seemed to be very focused on getting goals early on when points were there for the taking and would have settled us better. Deegans distribution was very hit and miss, he's some man to win a dirty ball but not for looking up when when hitting it. He improved as the game went on.

Careys goal seemed to settle us, which coincided with Mossy been replaced with Donnelly - for me he has to be a starter. On Carey, he was excellent yesterday, turning up all over the field, strong as a horse, pace to burn, he'll be important for us - I thought it was a harsh yellow against him but he had given away 3 frees at that stage so possibly it was for persistent fouling. Mikey Butler was solid again, David Blanchfield was good without being brilliant. It was great to see Conor Browne getting a run out too, good reader of the game, big unit, and well able to move. Shane Walsh was impressive for the 5 or 6 minutes he was on, he should have buried that ball, but very unselfishly passed it, he seems like a lad that'd be a nightmare to mark, doesn't stop moving.

Realistically, it was never a game we were going to lose. We'll need an improvement next week. A game we should also win but Laois will be no pushover.

If he was poor fair enough but to suggest a Wexford referee would hamper Kilkenny when a Kilkenny win or draw would have suited Wexford doesn't make sense.

Limerick will walk to another All Ireland. No-one near good enough to beat them

Agreed. They knock the stuffing out of the opposition in the first half and then march on.

I actually think the only team that will beat them is KK. I'm not saying KK are the best other team. But I do think its just a one off.

Apparently he drives to the matches now.

It’s hard to believe that a poster on this thread recently said that Cork are the benchmark

I said it after the cork game and I'll say it again we were and are well capable of beating that cork team. In fact if we had our conditioning right and used our full complement of subs we have plenty of capable hurlers with more stomach for the fight than cork. Our management need to get it right not sure they can though. Don't think Brian Cody can change his ways now unfortunately. I'll still be roaring on our lads and in a one off game could win against anyone we just won't make it to the final this year. As for cork they will win nothing until they add real steel to the running tippy tappy game that they play. The cork senior hurling championship is producing nice hurlers with pace but they have very little physicality and it's costing them at county level.