Kilkenny GAA Thread

I heard conor browne might be going travelling anyone else hear this?James maher linked up with the kk panel in Thailand. I wouldn't be suprised to see himself and carey back next spring.

The capitation grant that the county board gets should be determined by ability of clubs it field football (or hurling) teams. Rough shotting football in kk and clubs not playing ball by entering teams should see the half the gaa grant disappear. That will focus co board minds fairly quickly. Let that halfing of the grant trickle to club level (club coaching grant) to clubs that don't enter teams. Simples

I certainly don't know the ins and outs of what happened but it was fairly well known James was going travelling. I think he played the relegation semi final and I heard he was asked to come back for the final but declined. James played most/all the matches when he was here I think. From what I heard it was another player that caused alot of trouble. Pity cause he's a good player and played u21 for kk.from the outside looking in I don't think it's James mahers fault Freshford are junior.

Isn't James meagher someway involved with the mooncoin?they're doing a lot right underage and are probably favourites for this year's u21. Callan is another who are definitely on the right track if they can keep young lads hurling. Lisdowney and young irelands also doing good work.

Dicksboro seemed to have the underage cracked and are gobbling up alot underage. I know they've good numbers but credit must go to the coaches. What must be very dissapointing is they have failed to translate this to senior. I know the shamrocks have just won 5 in a row and have being very dominant but it's dissapointing with all the underage success ciallian buckley Is the only one to make an impact for kk. Hopefully Clifford,moylan,shine and these will make the breakthrough over the next few years.

I did hear he was moving to Limerick it would be a nice commute to Freshford.i was hoping he would of broken into the kk team by now. I know injury set him back but a good hurler on his day.

3 club teams out the weekend. Skeough make the trip to mulligar not really know whats facing them.i was Impressed with him in the junior final. When windgap got it back level they drove on again. If they can get the same performance tomor they should have enough.

Danesfort will be down two players from the county final when they face the meath senior champions. Darren booth suffered a serious leg injury cruciate and bone break and jack Bruton who scored 6 points from play in a man of the match performance is gone abroad to teach. Trim have around 7 players on the meath panel and this is a senior club so danesfort won't want to take anything for granted. Nass beat Glenmore last year and I remember carrickshock were steeped a few years ago against the meath champions away.

Shamrocks look to be on a mission this year after the heartbreaking defeat last year.joey and Colin look to be staying around. Alot of the players were away with the county on holidays last week. They won't take anything for granted and would have knuckled down this week.it would be a big suprise if Castletown geoughan get a result here.

Congratulations to trim the better team on the day. Danesfort failed to reach anything like the performance of the county final.they had two wides at the end to level it but drove them wide.

No I think your right. Shamrocks apart any other senior co champs from kk would struggle to win a senior provincial title.

I think the standard of club hurling has come on huge in the last 10 or 15 years. The effort and preparation that goes into it now.

While it's probably fair enough to say bar the shamrocks a kk club would struggle to make headway at senior the same can be said in other counties.There's a few elite clubs in the country. Ballygunnner,shamrocks,St Thomas and slaughtneill. You can probably throw na piarsiagh in with the 2 caseys now back. But these clubs are a good bit ahead of their challengers in their county

Ballyhale are a joy to watch the way they always use the man In the better position and if there's a half chance of a goal they'll go for it. Still no brian cody who was in a boot a few weeks ago and tj and paddy mullen didnt play today.They're blooding lads like killian corcoran and niall shortall. Colin is still a great target man and always wins frees. He still has something to offer in a kk Jersey I think.

They'll come up against Tom mullallys naas side next . Tom is a shrewd operator and a good coach. He'll have a plan In place and naas won the intermediate last year in croke park but shamrocks are a great team.

Thomastown needed extra time to beat a gallant Dunnamaggin side minus Denis walsh.Dunnamaggin came from behind to level it in normal time.Ttown outscored Dunnamaggin 7-1 i think in extra time.It got very dark early this evening it must of being difficult in thomastown they probably should of started the match earlier in the event of a draw. Mooncoin beat o loughlins in the other semi. Ballycallan beat lisdowney by a point in the b final and conahy will face graignamanagh in the d after they beat ballyragget.

Expecting big improvement from O'Loughlin Gaels next year with a management team lead by Brian Hogan and backed up by Alan O'Brien, Alan Geoghegan, Nigel Skehan (Trainer) and Micky Comerford (S&C). Would think it would be a very popular choice with OLG players

Limerick were the better team on the day there is no doubt and deserved their win. I'd agree that 2 points was about fair and if you consider a few things that could improve us next year there is plenty of reason to be hopeful in Kilkenny. Limerick will still be raging hot favourites but as we know in Kilkenny the longer the winning streak goes on the harder it becomes and the more likely you are to pick up injuries to key players like Cian Lynch this year and Casey already for Na Pairsaigh. Henry and Brian Hogan in 2010 were irreplaceable and led to our downfall. The strength in depth of dominant teams is usually greatly exaggerated and as it was in Kilkenny's case, it certainly is in Limericks now too. They have 20 very good players but there is a sharp drop off after that, a sharper drop of than Kilkenny had back in the day.

If you watch the Kilkenny county final last 20 minutes you'll see our AI starting midfield getting torn to shreds when they played together while the game was still there for the winning. I think getting the likes of Ronan Corcoran into the setup would be a big boost, we lack natural midfielders he is one of very few in the county. If we can find a stronger midfield combination than Kenny and Browne I think it improves us no end.

Our lack of a puck out strategy and our inability to deal with Limericks was easily a 5 or 6 point swing. You'll never get it perfect but I just feel that, that Kilkenny team while playing with more clarity than it had in a few years was still lost a lot of the time especially on puckouts. Derek Lyngs U20's were much better on their own puckouts than the seniors. and I think the addition of the two players I mention below could really aid in stopping the Limerick darts that went straight to hand and over the bar but you won't stop them all, three less would have done though.

I think Darragh Corcoran and David Blanchfield should be given plenty of time as I think they would be better able for Limericks big men than Deegan and Carey. I think Blanchfield showed very well when he came on against Hegarty after not playing since the first round of the Championship round robin. There might be concern about Corcorans speed at that level but only game time will tell.

Lastly a new management team doesn't always need time to bed in. I think it was wise of Derek to keep on Phelan and Comerford and add them to his own team. Look at the bump and boost Tyrone players had when they got to try something different than what Mickey Harte had been offering. They failed this year but their in an ultra competitive province, were we have a game or two to find our feet.

None of these are a given but for me these are all things to be positive and hopeful for. There are likely plenty who can point out plenty of reasons to be pessimistic but I think we have a great chance of getting back to an AI and if we do I'd really fancy us no matter who we're playing. It's all fine margins at intercounty level, Limerick are probably the best coached team to ever play hurling and have it off to a tee. For us to come within 2 points without our lads and manager being as comfortable with our game plan tells me there's room for improvement. We will see if we can find any improvement, only time will tell.

No sign of any retirements yet from any of the older players, I'd say if any are Richie Hogan, Fogarty and Buckley most likely in my view.

Will be interesting to see if Lyng wants them in his plans, if Hogan wants to continue I think Lyng would be delighted as his club form was excellent but we know it's a different ball game between Intercounty and Intermediate club, still class is permanent as we've seen with him before.