Kilkenny GAA Thread

I've had a very quick skim through the 21 and 22 yearbooks on the Kilkenny GAA website and see no mention of any scoring stats from the club championship let alone anything that mentions John Walsh as top scorer.

That must be John Walsh posting that stuff himself, he would be blown out of it yesterday not up to that level unfortunately.

Lot of the usual comments on here from certain posters, to be expected I guess. It's widely agreed that the game was lost in the space between the Limerick 45 and the Kilkenny 45 yesterday in the second half. There are a few obvious reasons for that.

Limerick won almost every single ball that came down in that space in the second half. Their field was hugely impressive although I was disappointed in our lads not being able to at least break some of those balls and compete better on the ground.

In the semi final when it was going against us the sideline made changes and we started putting the ball through the lines more. Cian Kenny for example did a lot of good work there when he came on that day. Yesterday we didn't do this nearly enough (I only remember once in the second half). Instead, after losing multiple long puck outs we ended up going short to Huw who then just went long again.

Too many of our big players didn't perform at all on the day. Adrian, Walter, Billy and John Donnelly were almost anonymous and Conor had a poor first half although as others have said, moving him to wing back was a move that backfired and personally I would have put him in midfield the second half.

Limericks shooting in the second half was off the charts. Almost every shot went over the bar, no matter the angle or distance. It was phenomenal and almost impossible to defend against.

Our bench had no impact today whereas in the semi final they turned the game around for us. Some of that for me was down to tactical mistakes on the sideline which hopefully they will learn from.

This Limerick team is going to be regarded as the greatest side ever and for two years running we have been the second best side in the country so we shouldn't be too despondent. However, whenever TJ does decide to call it a day, that's an absolutely massive hole in the team. He's such a leader for those lads in everything he does.

To end on a positive note, once again yesterday Huw Lawlor showed what a class act he is. He's definitely the future leader of the team for me. It was also good to see Tom Phelan come of age, hopefully he can push on now and become a more permanent fixture in the side. Eoin Cody showed how much he has matured in recent years. Add in Mikey Butler, Deegan, Blanchfield, Mossy, we have lads of character and steel to build on. Hopefully some of the younger chaps can come in to stake a claim next year.

IMO we need a major rebuild and Lyng will need to be ruthless. Fogarty Walter Buckley and Hogans time is up. They are not going to get better and will hinder the inevitable blooding of younger players.They were great servants and no one should criticise them IMO. They gave everything they could. Will TJ continue? I think if he calls time no one would blame him. I hope he stays on as it would be great for younger players to have him there.

You are correct about 5-12 we are very average there. Carey and Blanch back will solve 2 positions but CB will need addressing as IMO KK will not win an AI with Reid there. Midfield is an area where we have no one and Mullen needs to go back into the half forward line. With Mullen back there we would still need to find 3 more forwards. Except Cody and TJ all the other forwards blow more cold than hot.

Lyng will rightly take some criticism as IMO that team was wrong from the start yesterday. I dont like dummy teams and I would think Limk would not have changed how they prepared for the game.It wasnt the reason for our defeat as we were not good enough in the end. The ref didnt do us any favours at times but overall Limk would prob say the same.

Expect that nothing to suprising there.

Well you directed that at me and I didn`t call you a know all or a spoofer. In fact as a long time reader of this thread I already know you "have a fair idea what`s going on." A problem I would have is why are you coming on here with this information in the days leading into an All Ireland final? You basically announced with authority that Blanchfield was out and two days later he was named on a dummy team. Yesterday morning you announced that Wally was starting at wing forward.

I have no doubt you have KK`s best interests at heart but you are doing us no favours being Biddy behind the local shop counter with all the latest gossip. Especially when the gossip is correct.

It made no difference yesterday but it could in future if a result came down to inches. If was I Derek Lyng I would want to know how the thought processes of my selectors got to appear on Boards.ie pretty much in real time.

Wally was in the parade at the very back and was in the presidential line up so you might need to come up with another theory

If he was I missed him. I was some distance away.

It's something that has bugged me in recent times. One time you would never know exactly who was playing where until 30 seconds before throw in. Nowadays, all the changes are known and all over the county and beyond by 10pm Friday night. There's a leak in the roof somewhere and either the slate needs to be fixed or replaced.

Have to agree with most of that.

Blanchfield and carey will hopefully strengthen up the half back line. Its 8-12 that Lyng will need to address. Not sure if Mossy is a centre forward but himself, walter and donnelly didnt have their best games yesterday. Walter would have been far better coming in wing forward as it could have been a trump card to try to push Limerick back.

As is said above we need to get Billy Drennan, Timmy Clifford, Gearoid Dunne etc up to speed in preparation for next year. You would imagine Lyng and his team will spend the time going to championship matches around the county over the next few months to see who is hurling close to the level required.

Not sure who else could be in line for a call up and Im not blowing a boro trumpet here but surely Harry Shine, Liam Moore and Cillian Hackett would be worth calling into the squad for next year. 1 midfielder and 2 forwards. Maybe Im wrong but we need to bring in a few more. Any other lads worthy of a call up?

Have to agree about Murphy. He is a great shot stopper but his distribution is not upto it at this level. Would he get the Jersey in any other team with AI aspirations.

We're still talking about personnel - who might go, who should go, who should be brought in.

We might unearth 15 natural hurling geniuses in the next year - I wish - but unless we give at least the same prominence to conditioning (mental and physical) and strategy that Limerick are, we are at nothing.

Are we doing that ? Are the County Board serious about that ?

No chance, the 3 named are way down the list and a lot to prove imo. All did very little for Kilkenny underage so far. The Boro and ourselves are dominating underage due to numbers up to age, not many players standing out in Underage Kilkenny teams with them

Limerick hit top form after the Deegan goal and routed a gutsy Kikenny. Kilkenny will learn and benefit most from this loss to a truly great Limerick organization and team who have significantly improved the standards of organization, coaching, development, player support etc. They needed the JP McManus € millions to get there. Kilkenny will get there on a shoestring budget, but it will take time. Kilkenny have contested 61% or 31 of the 51 finals since the rule changes in 1972 and won 19. Losing 4 in a row like in the 60s will create another great generation. 

Kilkenny were hungrier despite losing last year’s AI and this year’s league final. Lyng and his 4 selectors are very impressive with a strong camp spirit. I expect them to keep knocking on the door in the remainder of this decade but Limerick have 3 to 4 more AIs in them. If Kilkenny can contest 4 of the next 7 they will continue to grow.

Sunday’s wet and windy conditions suited Limerick better. In their own words, they wore Kilkenny down with superior S&C. That comes from early development (from age 16). The new Kilkenny S&C coaches led my Mick Fennelly will be quite active. Kilkenny came out the wrong side of the tackling rules which I didn’t understand; a lot of tackling frees to Limerick and very few to Kilkenny although the Kilkenny players were being pushed backwards. Lyng and the team will learn what the ref was looking for.

The loss of Blanchfield was huge with no suitable replacement and the subsequent loss of the 5 semi final subs and best S&C panel Kilkenny had; plus Wally and Padraig had to play longer than the 15 to 20 mins where their energy levels would have countered Limerick more as they did with Clare. I noticed Mullen clearly was at 80% and had his thumb taped before the start. Phelan was very good and along with Cody will be more dangerous next year; both could have punished Limerick with goals & points by releasing the ball earlier and not running into tackles; Cody had 3 around him a lot of the time, so Kilkenny players were free closeby but not found. Just inexperience from both and so allowed to learn.

The spirit in the Kilkenny set up is great and I think the Ballyhale 4 are among the best if not the best hurlers in the country and a joy to watch. Looking forward to seeing more of the new talent in 2024, including Drennan, Clifford, Dunne and others from last year’s u20s. We also seem to find one more unexpected All Star in the making each year. Losing today to a great team despite a huge effort will whet Kilkenny’s appetite for future success the most. That said I hope the 30s brigade stay longer; they have the S&C habits, a great work ethic and are an inspiration to the young panel members and to us all. Some posters say their time is up; I would remind them that the foundation player of the Cody spirit was, in my opinion, Ritchie Mulally who played savage hurling at every training game from 2005 to 2006 knowing he wouldn’t be picked; he played 10 mins in the 2006 win and the Kilkenny fans rightly gave him an ovation when he came on because they knew his training contribution. The older players are delivering on that spirit today as have many other older players. 

Best wishes to Cillian and his new bride and thank you for delaying the celebrations and honeymoon.

I think the core of next year's team is going to be Murphy, Butler, Lawlor, Walsh, Carey, Reid, Blanchfield, Deegan, Mullen and Cody. 10 players, 5 plus subs to be found. Tom Phelan is one possible. If TJ retires, Billy Drennan is another. After that, it is up for grabs