Kilkenny GAA Thread

9-6 down at half time after playing against a strong breeze. A very dissapointing performance so far so hopefully a big improvement to come

Terrible night for Kilkenny hurling. Wexford much, faster, aggressive and hungrier. All the negativity around management was justified.

Can have no complaints,well done to Wexford but that was a shocking performance. They ran at our defense and destroyed us at times. It's not a great Wexford team by any stretch but were well worth their win. We were hanging in but the throw ball Clifford recieved kinda swung momentum. Some of the clearances were shocking.

That team basically sums up the problems with the development squad model we have. Lads in the system since they were 14 who are not good enough at 18 and 19 but because they have 4 or 5 years of S&C behind them they'll always look the part in comparison to someone coming in from outside. The outsider has to be perfect every day they get a chance or management will take the safe option and stick with the same lads who've always been there. Better the devil you know...

I don't like naming names as they're still chaps but 4 of the middle 8 that started are not the colour of county hurlers and 2 of the 6 starting forwards actively avoided the ball. Happy to work hard and get in around the rucks but didn't want the ball under any circumstance.

Leaving Shine on so long when he couldn't even walk was shambolic at that level and said all that needed to be said about what management thought they had on the bench.

The short puck outs to Purcell in the first half were bizarre because we had 4 in the half forward line running towards him into midfield and then one of the Wexford lads would just sit in front of his full back line and create a 2v1 when Purcell hit it long. Why is nobody in the half forward line making a cross field run around the 45 to stretch the field?!

God awful stuff. One of the worst performances I've seen in a long time.

Wexford certainly the better team. Thought the same last year but somehow we got lucky then as they were very wasteful on the day. Drennan a massive loss tonight. Apart from him and Clifford our forwards at this age lack a quality. Plenty of big strong players but the skill level is not there to make senior intercounty. Another decent forward at this age is Danny Glennon. Could of done with him tonight. A bit of pace was needed in that forward line.

On this page their too many posters constantly talking up young players. Reading these pages you would swear we had the reincarnation of Keher, DJ, Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and JJ coming through. We are desperate for success after such a lean spell but when talking about young players some of the posters such as Alonzo need to reign it in with their overhyping of players.

Very very frustrating watch tonight. Don't want to be critical of the players as they have given it everything but it just highlights where we are at as a county at the moment. Bang average middle of the road and will be for the foreseeable future unless we completely reinvent how we do things. Worse thing that ever happened was us winning the under 20 last year as it gave the county board a false sense of security. We all know a lot of teams had to line up without their best players last year.

Our minors dreadful last year, not much better by all accounts this year. Many people have said it here over the last few years. We will not win an all Ireland for 20 years. I didn't necessarily agree with them but unfortunately I think they're right unless we sneak one in next year of 2.

For too long the County board have been putting their head in the sand regarding the development squads. Compared to other counties our system is in the stone ages. Muldowney had to walk away as any change he was proposing was fobbed off. Coaches still involved that were there from when development squads started. Lack of development of top quality coaches in the county a huge issue. S and C has been clearly and issue for years compared to other counties.

How do we fix this, does it need a group of people willing to put time and effort into standing against current county board officers and bringing real change to the table. Do clubs need to look at their own county board reps and ask them why they are not forcing change as at the end of the day they have a lot of say. Sitting there accepting everything management say seems to be all that happens.

We've been so far off the pace for years and only for KK hurlers always have great heart and spirit things would be even worse. I honestly despair for what the next 10 years hold. Plenty of talent within the county not being nurtured properly at the beginning anymore.

Management have to take a lot of the blame for tonight. Some very strange selection decisions and a lack of any tactical plan. We are very predictable and easy to play against.

Killian Doyle looked very slow out there and we got destroyed misfield. The 2 wing backs are just to slow unfortunately and pace is where it is at now. Few members here discussed this beforehand and were spot on, how could management not pick up on this after 8 months of training. Great post above about lack of braveness to introduce new players, reputation is what teams are picked on now, or your father sponsoring Nowlan Park, or from management clubs.

Have to disagree with the individual hurlers, Wexford's bench was excellent, they had some lovely hurlers and use of the ball was excellent.. Foley looked the best player on the pitch along with Wexford midfielder. Bryne gave Langton a roasting he will never forget. Kilkennys forwards were poor. I cant see how we have the better individual hurlers

The development squads are crap because the coaching for the most part seems to be crap. Our teams at all ages have been badly coached for far too long now.

I'd love to know what you see in Langton?

Joe Fitz looked to be carrying a knock this evening as well. Never looked comfortable and really looked to be struggling with something after giving away a free in the 1st half.

His substitution was a total **** show as well. He's playing in front of the old stand. Bolger comes on to go corner back with Lennon to go half back. Lennon won't leave his man until Bolger gets there which left Lyng to cover the centre forward and left half forward. Lennon couldn't get out quick enough and the puck out was sent straight to the left half forward. Think they won a free out of it eventually but it was just really poor game management and communication.

Where you watching the same game as me?

Wexford by a distance had the more slicker, pacier, skilful and cuter hurlers individually tonight.

Bar the few lads on the senior county panel and 1 or 2 others the KK lads were agricultural type and slow to the ball and never looked up when as to who & where they were hitting the ball too.

Where is the next TJ Reid, Ritchie Power, Ritchie Hogan, JJ or Tommy?

What has broken down that KK are not producing these type of slick hurlers anymore?

Where did you see that? Taught a venue with floodlights would have been picked for the final.

Do you think it makes a blind bit of difference whether I "hype up" these young hurlers or whatever any of us says on this forum? As someone who has played at a decent level I trust my judgement on players and I've followed them all through the years so know what they are capable off. Also I know what it takes and can recognise a poorly coached team when I see one.

Wexford have looked slicker than Kilkenny in a lot of games over the past 10 years, never look as slick against any other county, our use of the ball and struggles with the running/short passing game makes us Wexfords favourite team to play against by far, even when we have the better hurlers.

Billy Drennan, Timmy Clifford, Gearoid Dunne, Denis Walsh have been very good Under 20 hurlers after a few years where we didn't have any good under 20 hurlers, Harry Shine has potential but is light and very unlucky with injury, Joe Fitzpatrick is good hurler but too slow for half back. Lyng is a decent prospect at 17. Unfortunately there was some players this evening in the forwards who really seemed to struggle with the pace of things, which is a big difference from last year, when every player seemed to be at least a decent player at under 20 level and we seemed to have more options off the bench