Kilkenny GAA Thread

If there's a winner between Limerick and Cork, the Tipperary v Waterford result will be irrelevant. It'll be Clare, Tipperary and the winner of Limerick/Cork going through.

I have a feeling that Wexford losing to Westmeath will make next week a far more difficult game for Kilkenny, this Wexford team is most comfortable playing against Kilkenny.

Tallis was sub goalie, is Brennan injured? Richie Reid will do well to be back for the leinster final hopefully I'm wrong.Scruff will probably be rested.

This is a great match for lyng to test a few lads who haven't got much game time because Wexford are fighting for their lives. Drennan will probably play for tj. Adrian mullen didn't look right after that early injury.delaney,Kenny,Alan Murphy could do with this game.

I'd have to disagree about resting players. At the moment we need as much game time to work on the style of play especially against a team that plays a short game/sweeper. There's no doubt Wexford will bring fire to it but we haven't been setting the world on fire so far so I'd be thinking keep working on it.

I agree on this - we'll be resting for 6 months after it all. Some minor tweaks but that team needs some further testing to work out the problems. We were very poor for the first 10 minutes against Dublin. Wexford will bring a different test to Galway and I'd argue that last year we learned more from them than the other matches - particularly in the use of the ball, which stood to us in the final against Galway. There's the opportunity to bring lads on but the jersey should be earned lads should be tearing to hold onto it - this resting thing is a soccer concept in my opinion. If you drop the standard and stop picking on form/training then you know what you'll end up with. Kilkenny should be going into this match relishing the challenge and meeting it head on.

Whats the extent of Reids injury?

Darren Brennan tore his calf in training after the Antrim match. I heard yesterday that Richie Reid fractured his ankle, but don't know if that's 100% confirmed. The last thing we need is to pick up more injuries against a wounded Wexford team who will undoubtedly come out al guns blazing after the weekends **** show against Westmeath. I wouldn't be making wholesale changes but for the like of Adrian Mullen and Billy Ryan who picked up knocks during the game there's no need to risk them. Also, we're going to need big contributions from the like of Wally, Billy Drennan, Cian Kenny, Alan Murphy off the bench before the end of the year, it would be ideal to get game time into them in a good competitive match and have real competition for places! Be great to get some game time into Mikey Carey also, if Richie Reid is going to be out for a while it's vital we get him up to speed. I think we're building nicely as the year is going on and hopefully we're building up to peak at the right time, the Munster championship has been very entertaining but I wouldn't be fearful of facing any of them, not saying we'll beat them all but I think we're as good as any of them on our day and this championship is wide open for anyone to go and win it.

Yeah I was always a bit sceptical of Tom Phelan but he has really impressed me the last couple of games, I think his movement and direct running really caused the Dublin defence problems and in that he offers something our other forwards don't! I thought Billy Ryan was beginning to get into the game on Saturday before he got the bang on the side of the head when the Dublin defender swung back on him, it happened right in front of us and you could hear the smack that he got and he didn't do much after that. If there is no lasting affects I'd play him too, he seems to be on the verge of finding a bit of form and a decent run out against Wexford might do him no harm.

Yeah that's a fair point, we left an awful lot of room in front of Darragh Corcoran and as you say especially in the second half Dublin definitely targeted that wing. Sutcliffe is arguably there best forward from play so we knew there would be a good bit of ball coming down that wing all it would have took is one of the midfielders or wing forwards to drop in front of the space in front of him. Thought our puck outs have been getting better also, we still go long most of the time but at least now we do seem to be hitting it into space and having the forwards moving into the space rather than just lumping it down on top of them.

Will Kilkenny throw the game to keep Wexford from going under? Better for Kilkenny to have Wexford still in Leinster?

Hell no. Further down Wexford go the better.

As a Wexford person myself I'll just say I'd be very hesitant to criticise amateur players but the 2nd half of our game last Sunday was the most complacent I've ever seen from an intercounty team in any code it was shameful stuff, if we drop down certainly don't have any sympathy its up to those players to sort the weather its a win or draw next Sunday or winning Joe Mcdonagh next year.

Last month - "it's shocking the abuse officials take, something has to be done"

This month - "sure he is a dickhead"

It seems excessive to ban him from training (how do you even police that) but if proper punishment isn't handed down at the top level then wheres the deterrent at any level to stop abusing officials.

Edit: the ban only applies on match days is my reading of it. It just means he can't do the warm up or interact with the team from the time they hit the stadium.

Progress.

Wexford beat Kilkenny twice this year u20 and generally have been at a similar level to us underage. Westmeath are always capable of causing an upset as they did against us at u21 level a number of years ago. We could face a similar threat as Wexford are facing in the next 5 years particularly as Offaly are on the rise again. Wexford supporters have been amongst the best in the country but if they are relegated they can't expect any special treatment