Kilkenny GAA Thread

On a side note, I watched back some of the game last night and I wondered did anyone else think it was unfortunate that Paddy Deegans goal went through the net?

Watching from the Hogan stand it initially looked like the ball had gone wide and I for one had my head in my hands thinking we’d missed another goal chance and there was a collective groan from the KK fans around us instead of what should have been a roar of celebration.

We were actually shocked to look up and see the umpire waving the green flag.

I just think the team didn’t get the usual lift a huge roar from the crowd would have given them after a goal like that. It’s a small thing but I thought it was significant none the less.

Yeah I actually agree with all of that but it’s his first year and he will learn a lot from the few things he got wrong but I just wanted to acknowledge the things he has got right so far .

As you say he seems to have a better relationship with the players while still commanding respect and still get the same buy in and work rate from them.

Agreed, Derek has a tough confidence aI like in a manager without all the dramatics in the media or on the sideline.

The only thing I will say is that Derek has a few tough calls to make this winter, he would have played with Ritchie Hogan so maybe Ritchie will just retire himself without waiting for Derek to let him go.

The hardest part of management it releasing lads from the panel, but Derek won an All Ireland with the under 20s so these lads are the future of Kilkenny hurling so it’s time to get them involved.

Thats the only criticism I had but it was a big decision. TBF to him i dont think it made a differnce in the end to the result but i hope he reflects it.

He has a lot of decisions ahead and I think the older players should make decisions in the next couple of months.

I think if he wants to play the modern game he will need a goalkeeper who can ping the ball into forwards better than Murphy. Whether we have that type of goalkeeper who is upto inter county level i dont know.

I think the defence is solid enough as is with hopefully Carey and Blanchfield back in but CB is the position that can be improved.

Midfield is a disaster. Mullen is good on his day but i think he needs to be in the half forward line falling back into midfield to help out.

We need to find at least 2 more forwards who can regularly score 3 points from play in every game. Im sorry but Keoghan Ryan Donnelly blow too cold than hot.

I watched the match in full last night and tried to remove my KK goggles as much as possible.

The narrative of the 2023 finals will be we were blown away in the 2nd half. We weren't, we were blown away in the last 10 mins only.

Mins 35-40, very even but Lim got 2 softish frees to close to 1

Mins 40-45, we outscored them 1-1 to 0-2

Mins 45-50 Lim on top and outscored us 3-1, but the 47th min slip by Mossy when put through on goal with a sublime TJ pass was ultimately fatal for our chances. This is where you can trace our problems. In my mind’s eye I see that ball being sent into Colin Fennelly (like dozens of times with club and county), he catches it easily on the run, speeds on 5-6 meters and bats it past Quaid. And that sadly is the difference between a top-class IC forward and a game trier.

Mins 50-55 Lim well on top 5-0

Mins 55-60 We stop the rot this period and win it 3-1. Crucially however, this should have been 4-0. The idiot umpire missing the 65 and then Keenan allowing Quaid the quick puck out to Hegarty for a point with maybe 10 players inside the 21. This was the end for us, instead of scoring the previous 4 points and being 1 behind entering the last 10 mins, we were now 3 behind. Game over, Limerick chests expanded and from then on, they could have waved their flutes at the ball and it would have flown over.

Even with Lim scoring 9 pts to 1 from 60th min, we created two late golden chances with Cody scuffing a pull he should have stitched and Murphy blowing his chance one on one with Quaid (again after a sublime TJ pass)

We created an astonishing 6 goal chances in a 2nd half (not all of them gilt edged I accept) despite being out hurled for much of it but took just one. Limerick were so accurate we needed at least 3 of them to go in.

We were beaten by a better team, but the match was still in the balance until umpire and Keenan ballsed up and made a three point lead out of it when it should have been one.

Not sour grapes, because I have been banging this drum for years, every team is at it, but Limerick's throwing is just outrageous and, in many instances, so obvious that Keenan must take a black mark for not pulling them up.

Byrnes took two mighty catches in 2nd half and then offloaded both with blatant throws.Tom Morrissey is for me the biggest offender in the country, he rarely doesn’t throw it.

Anyone who values fair play will hope a solution can be found. At this stage I think the handpass will have to go or the game will get ruined

All in all, to be still toe to toe with that Limerick team after an hour and creating a hat full of goal chances, despite carrying at least 4 passengers 8 to 15, is incredible.

Replacing 3/4 players who just aren't top class IC forwards/mids could turn us in to a serious team.

For me, all 3 would make Lim 26. Limerick have some very average subs, dont have the depth of bench quality we had 15 years ago or the Dubs football team 4-5 years ago.

Usually when those subs come on, Lim are on front foot and flying, and their subs can look better than they are. Mulcahy and Boylan and O' Reilly? I'd take Hogan, Walsh and Buckley (even now) over that 3.

We took our eyes off the ball about 10 years ago. And we haven’t started to rebuild even at this stage. About half of the subs were too old on Sunday .Iwouldn’t call that progress. I was happy with the Leinster final win, but for the fact of the older panel members contributions, really these should have been younge players coming on and get them the experience for next year. Billy Drennan was denied the chance to play U20 this year and still he only got 10 mins championship hurling.

I don’t think kk are the second best team in the country. They are at a level with Galway. Clare are better, as are Cork.

Ah no, cork didn’t make it out of Munster and Kilkenny beat the other two.

The facts disagree. When you're arguing against facts you're losing.

The fact is that clare went toe to toe with limerick twice. Kk were battered by limerick on both occasions. I’m not sniping, it’s just that the same as kk were the yardstick a decade ago, limerick are now. It’s against them that performances and teams must be measured.

And Clare were battered by Kilkenny last year and beaten by them this year. Limerick are the team to beat now and everyone else have to get to their level. I dont see any team doing that at the moment. I think there is not much between the rest of the teams in the country. If there was a ranking system in the GAA like other sports Limerick would be No1 Kilkenny No 2 Clare and Galway equal No 3. The rest then fighting it for the other places.

That tells its own story. From a spread of 15 scorers down to 8. One minor correction - KK scored 2.26 in 2022, all the scores are there, just the tally is one off

Well, personally I prefer us to be measured by still being in the thing on the last day of the competition.

It's totally misleading to say that teams have to measure themselves in performances against Limerick, just like that. It gives no account of the difference between Limerick in April, and Limerick in July.

It's against them in July that things are measured.

Otherwise we'd have to say that Waterford are above Kilkenny, which they certainly are not.

We weren't 'blessed' against Galway or Clare, half as much as Limerick were blessed to even be in the Munster Final.

Ye’re certainly not in the wilderness anymore my friend…. I have huge admiration for this Limerick team.