Kilkenny GAA Thread

We could potentially (quite likely) lose four games in the championship this year with victories over Dublin, Laois and Westmeath only. That's a frightening thought.

Could even Cody hope to carry on after that scenario?

One would hope not.

I was reading his post match interview and it seems clear to me that he is going to go with pretty much same team and probably same tactics v Galway.

His simple view is that the game was there for the taking (level and with the wind) with 10 mins to go but we didnt work hard enough. Not that we played crude and idiotic hurling all 2nd half, but that we didnt work hard enough, but hopefully we will versus Galway.

And maybe we will beat Galway (I feel Galway aren't going well) but we wont get within an asses roar of AI win playing that sort of muck and just hoping you can dog teams out of it with hunger and workrate.

Real "the beatings will continue until morale improves" stuff.

I agree on Reid and Deegan.

Both are tremendous club hurlers but are found wanting at the hightest IC levels.

But Deegan in particular is a prototype Cody hurler, honest, brave and works like a dog, he will be one of the first names on Cody's teamsheet for Sat week.

On Deegan, that reminds me that Horgan penalised two brilliant shoulder to shoulder tackles on Sat. Deegan and Delaney both got done for perfectly timed shoulders. Sad to see. You are just meant to let lads run around or through you as if its basketball. Sad to see.

He's only 18, maybe just turned 19. I'd be very very surprised if this happens. Physically he's miles off what's required in particular with our "style". He might form part of an extended training panel but that's it.

We showed progress mixing up our game plan in most games this year. Cian Kenny in midfield and Blanchfield half back helped with this, Kenny was an outlet and Blanchfield used the ball well.

Then in Galway we made a few mistakes but we also cut them apart early on, we creating loads of space inside. Mistakes will happen with the short game but if you mix it up it keeps teams guessing. Teams will rob a few scores from turnovers but we will create way more and play to the likes of Mossy and Eoin Codys strengths.

Without question Cody has instructed the players to abandon what they have been working on and put snow on every delivery to static forwards that win very little high ball. If you play with a sweeper you can sit back and wait for the ball, 6 backs stay zonal break the high ball and sweeper gets there in time for the breaks. So it played into Wexfords hands, crazy from management.

The fact that we gave them the short puckout was also criminal as it gave Wexford a platform to play and allowed them to leave Rory O Connor, Lee Chin and Conor McDonald inside, they worked the ball to sweeper and then deliver to their three main targets. If we pushed up and allowed nothing short we could have given them nothing handy and Wexford would have to bring out one or two of their main men out to field to get on ball. Criminal from Cody how is he not learning.

Teams are too clever to just let you win your own ball and we need our players to play what they see and ignore instructions. No problem with still playing it long as long as we mix it up. Our starting half forward line was not up to it the other night either and the selection and then the late subs was baffling.

Hard to see where we are going and take many positives, thank god for the u20 performance and win and congratulations to them all. Gutsy win and played the game in the right way.

I think we need to give serious consideration to Hugh Lawlor going centre back. A significant part of our problem is that we have players hitting the ball under pressure on the back foot and we are not breaking any lines. Lawlor and Carey would be a good foundation there for going forward. Walsh at midfield for his defensive ability and another who can drive forward. It's a tactic, not a solution - but we clearly have suffered against physical teams with no ability to break out of our defence and hence lump it. I would also consider putting Deegan centre forward, Cody clearly loves him, I do have a soft spot for him to be honest he makes mistakes but we need some 'personality and presence' up there (our half forward line is now our weakest and least mobile in my opinion) and he was excellent for the club at full forward. Bit of messing doing this stuff at this stage but we're so stale we need to look for solutions from the hand we've been dealt. If we're going to lose we might as well lose learning.

Confirmation of the madness

Just goes to show what we have been saying for some years now. Any enlightened study of these passages of play will only lead to one outcome. Move with the ball or make a decent pass outside to someone who can place a telling delivery. It cant be done all of the time but we certainly cant do this all of the time. Its just digging a bigger hole for ourselves. Dont know what the mental bloc is. It was mentioned in an earlier post that Richie Reid is not an inter county level player. I disagree. He hasn't been a regular with the county but with some instruction he could carry out this type of play without issue.

Difficult one!!!!

I acknowledgeD this very point earlier in relation to both Reid and Deegan, but Reid invariably had buckets of time on Sat, yet simply chose to belt the ball into the clouds every time. I don’t believe he did that on anything other than specific side-line instruction.

Watch Shamrocks play and he does the exact same thing, the difference is that with Ballyhale is that he has TJ or Colin Fennelly marking a usually weaker club player and a much higher chance they will win the ball, obviously at intercounty level you dont get those mismatches physically

Was talking to one of the forwards today. And I put it to him about the ball being delivered that had us all pulling our hair out.

His response was fairly simple are the boys hitting in the ball stupid they are intercounty hurlers and can't see that a low fast delivery is preferred by forwards something they have been told since they were 12.He said cody will take all the flak for the way they played but players have to adjust their game if something clearly isn't working.

I was fairly disillusioned coming out of the park Saturday evening because we made wexford look much hungrier than us and that never happened before. Galway will be hot favourites. but they always give you a chance and I'm not sure they are going that well either.

U20 worked very hard and well deserved win

Even if I feel that championship has been damaged by the stupid rule regarding senior championship.

Liam cahill will step down in coming weeks.wheels really came of that wagon

Looking forward to Tipperary v Kerry in a possible relegation playoff🤞😉

And he was let continue. Is that because he was following instructions? If not, then he should have been moved or taken off. That's the Manager's responsibility.

Cathal beirne and bill hughes were both injured this year aswell. Clifford and drennan look like two very forwards but I've being very impressed with Denis Walsh and think this lad could make it in a few years. There's no doubt we got the bit of luck this year but every team needs that along the way. 3 matches won by a point but we'll definitely take it. Management deserves huge credit first of all physically had them very right and had a plan and kept to it.You scroll through the team sheet and nearly all junior and intermediate clubs.It's hard to belive we went out yesterday in an all Ireland with Pete McDonald as a sweeper and 5 forwards. Its a far cry from the muck we played Saturday night. This is the way the game is being played now weather we like it or not and at least Lyng and Co are adapting. I hope management stay in place now. I know one or two lads didn't commit at the start but they fought tooth and nail yesterday for their county so a huge well done. It was a huge win. I know the rule to not play senior players is a joke but it doesn't diminish the lads win. I just thought some kind of homecoming type thing wouldn't of went astray.

Its like MD of a company watching the same mistakes been made everyday he goes into his work it would not last long. One thing I have noticed with U20 goalie he slows down the game until everybody is organised Murphy those to me just get the ball out of my patch asap. Speaking with a club man Sunday he said the top men the Co board have not a clue.

And there is the raw truth staring us in the face. Whether it's the manager or the players who are ignoring what we are all seeing it's a sure sign that communication and instructions are not being done to the standard required at this level. That's what's soul destroying watching Kilkenny now, you just know we are going to revert to the hit and hope ball with the inevitable defeat to follow. And it's not just when we come under pressure as Ritchie Reid and paddy deegan had plenty of time in some of the plays to hit shorter ball against Wexford yet chose to send them in long and high and Wexford gobbling them up. Tis a tough watch being a Kilkenny supporter in the current era.