Kilkenny GAA Thread

I watch a serious amount of Camogie (in person and live - for my sins at times!)

Cork have gone completely backwards with their current management team. They need awful freshening up. Have been useless all year save for the performance over Clare.

KK really haven’t been bad this year. The Wexford comeback was a complete miracle so I wouldn’t begrudge KK for that. The Tipp match they were essentially through anyway and Tipp are really impressive after getting rid of some deadwood that previous management stuck by.

Agreed on the standard though; it’s poor and is really waiting for a new team to boom (I wouldn’t say Tipp are new/fresh). Waterford and Clare particularly pique my interest, especially Clare if they had the right management in place.

Might sound a bit silly, but top level club Camogie is a better spectacle at times, save for the many bluffers in charge that think they have it solved. I still think too that there isn’t enough females involved properly in management teams. Even the Antrim ‘manager’ has no say whatsoever in what they do.

The half forward line is a huge concern, Limericks half back line will eat them without salt if they line up the same, Lyng will have to mix it up, everywhere else I think KK match up quite well and as Cathal Whelan, Mark Rodgers, Patrick Horgan and Jake Morris have shown Limerick are very vunerable at the back without Finn, all the full back line had a go on Whelan on Saturday and couldn't handle him.

I would probably start Walter Walsh to try and nullify limericks aerial dominance in the half back line, at least with Walsh you know after 10 minis if he is on a going day or not. Phelan was the best of the half forward line yesterday but he lets his man do a lot of hurling, if Byrnes or Hayes get the ball that Diarmuid Ryan got yesterday KK will be in big trouble.

Fascinating battle ahead and will be intriguing to see how it plays out, Kinnerk is a huge Ace card for Limerick the fecker is unreal.

That Intermediate competition is a bit silly though. Galway's team was essentially their Juniors (as anyone part of the winning panel last year wasn't allowed play again), and Dublin had a disaster at all levels, so basically KK were always going to get Top 2 anyway. Still a good chance they'll win it out, but will have a tough game in semi and final.

I think you may be slightly underestimating Tipperary and how good they are currently. But ya it doesn't take away from the fact that KK Seniors could maybe do with a change anyway. Dowling has won 2 Senior All Irelands with them in 4 years of Management. May well finish up with them now and allow a newbie in.

Have to agree, Billy got through an awful lot of off the ball work yesterday, as did Conor Fogarty. Conors track back and ultimate block was die hard stuff.

Have to mention Deegan too, I have been critical of him before. His distribution and calmness on the ball yesterday was notably different and a huge improvement IMO. The substitutes all had a positive impact too.

Lots to be positive about, the team are clicking under Lyng. Lots to work on too for the next 2 weeks, a fantastic place to be.

First of all what a win yesterday! it looked like we were throwing away another lead but the way they fought back control of the game after going behind and then again after the Clare goal was superb. At various points over the last few years we've all been frustrated and critical of how things have gone but I think we have to give credit to players and management for yesterdays performance. The most satisfying part was when Clare put the pressure on and had us on the ropes we didn't revert back to lumping ball forward, we still played through the lines and tried to keep to the game plan, the introduction of Cian Kenny was vital for this and he got a point and set up Deegan for another. I was really impressed with our management yesterday the kept calm and all the subs that came on made a big difference but again didn't alter the game plan or what we tried to do. I thought Huw and Mikey were excellent again yesterday and the much maligned Paddy Deegan had a really good game and his use of the ball was excellent as was his point in the second half. Conor Fogarty is another who get's criticism here but I thought he did his job really well yesterday and that block on Rogers was as good as you'll see. The work rate of our forwards was exceptional and the amount of times we overturned Clare backs and midfielders by just getting bodies around and making them make mistakes. I thought Mullen was excellent his work rate and hooking and blocking were brilliant and he chipped in with 2 vital scores. Eoin Cody has really stood up this year too and the captaincy seems to have brought the best out of him and he was well deserving MOTM.

I've purposely haven't mentioned 2 players above but there contributions yesterday were massive. I've probably ben critical enough of Eoin Murphy and his distribution but when you see the saves he made yesterday you see how vital he is to the team and his distribution yesterday was better and it looked like they had really worked on it over the last few weeks. In fairness to him he had been making these spectacular saves year in year out for us but that save yesterday from Duggan must go down as one of the great all time saves!

And then you have TJ! I don't think there's much to be said that hasn't already been said about him but what a performance again yesterday from him! From the start he set the tempo and led by example with his work rate and ball winning. He was so unselfish in his play also and dragged Cleary on a tour of Croke Park which left space inside which Cody was able to exploit. His pass for the goal aswell was inch perfect and a lesser player would have panicked and played the pass to early or too late! Even at the end he was back winning balls in the ruck and his free taking once again was perfect. I think we can safely say that he will go down as our greatest ever player and the way he's carried this team the last few years has been exceptional!

Limerick in 2 weeks time will be a massive test but we've shown this year that we've got better with every performance and we won't be found wanting in effort or commitment but we probably will need a little luck to go our way too but it's definitely not beyond us and I think if Limerick are to win 4 in a row they'll have to do it the hard way against us.

Re Kilkenny qualifying for the SF if they had beaten Wexford. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Tipp won the group and had to play a QF.

The group winner that didn’t get the bye was drawn at random and that ended up being Tipp

Richie looked slow running towards the ball alright . TJ has another year or maybe two in him, but maybe he will decide to call it a day this year with a new child

Surely it would be better to bring on Billy Drennan who has the young legs and is deadly accurate from play as well as frees than Hogan? Drennan work rate was questionably at times during the league but he most have grasped what is now required to be a top class inter County player.

In fairness to our forwards, Donnelly, Phelan, TJ and Billy Ryan do a lot of tracking back and tackling

She really is something else. A joy to watch!

Agree completely. Actually, a couple of my favorite matches were intermediate finals. Camogie has improved so much. some of the small rule changes really had an enormous positive impact on the game, IMHO. Definitely underrated & sad to see empty stadiums at big games.

Watched last year's final back there last night and my observation is this. We let Limerick off to a five point lead and were chasing the game from the start. They started brilliantly in fairness and Hegarty scored a brilliant goal early in the game but we settled and chased them down. We got level in the second half but couldn't get in front of them.

They were able to just keep their noses in front and that's how the game panned out. They didn't blow us away in the third quarter like they do to most teams. I'm hoping this year that Blanchfield can pick up hegarty from the start and limit his influence.

We have a chance to turn the tables if we can get ahead of them and make them panic a bit. If we do one of them will go down to reset and get instructions in to their men.

Eddie Brennan made a great point on the independent podcast that there is nothing stopping the opposing manager to do the same thing to them if that happens. Stop the game right after they reset with one of our own especially if we are leading and see how they react.

Mickey Carey hurled a good game in the final last year also and is a loss to the panel but I'm hopeful we can be ahead by a couple of points coming down the final straight and not chasing the game and if so we won't panic or die that I am certain of with these lads.

Lying has stepped up to the plate and his use of subs was crucial on Sunday, he is cool on the line and has us mixing up our game much better this year even when under pressure. I am quietly confident for us this year.

In fairness Lyng said the older lads like Hogan aren’t there for what they’ve done in the past and it’s all about what they’re producing in training so it’s up to young Drennan to put his hand up . You also can’t beat a bit of experience to manage the game and see it out in the last ten minutes when you’re under pressure.

I thought Richie was very clever, he had no teammate with him so used all his experience by keeping possession until he was either fouled or could get a shot off. He ended up winning a very important free and nearly more importantly killed a good bit of time when we were running down the clock.

Absolutely, I was watching the way the older lads like Pádraig, Cillian and Hogan celebrated with Lyng and Rice after the game and I thought it showed a real togetherness in this panel, all happy to play their part in whatever way they can, be it from the start or to come on for the last ten minutes to see a game out.

There just seems to be a greater warmth between the players and Derek Lyng than there maybe was with Brian Cody and before anyone gets excited that’s in no way a criticism of Cody but it’s well known that he wasn’t the arm around the shoulder type of guy and that’s okay too as that was his management style but it’s not for everyone and definitely the older players appreciate a bit more communication in my opinion. I honestly believe that’s why they gave it another go this year for Derek.