Kilkenny GAA Thread

Are we seriously letting someone suggest “enhancers” are being taken, without a single shrewd of evidence to back it up , just go unchecked?

it’s not just talk, it’s nonsense. And it’s fairly close to defamatory

is there anything concrete behind this other than the same stuff that was said about the dubs/liverpool/city/numerpous nfl teams?

are there members of every single sports team in the country who have asthma? almost certainly.

number speculation is, once again, needless nonsense. As it making it out to be anymore than that

Puckouts in the second half were an issue again, with Murphy going long when shorter options were available. From what I've seen of Darren Brennan his puckouts seem to be better

Well this is all entirely normal.

Re the puckouts on Sunday this is good piece on how Limerick squeezed us against the wind.

If I can just concentrate on the throwing aspect of your post and ignore the stuff that is irrelevant to it such as how good Limerick are, what Martin Fogarty's views on how the game should be played are, the possession game etc., since they have been discussed to death here over the last few years; almost everyone acknowledges Limerick are a great team, that it is not their fault that their systematic rule breaking when it comes to handpass is not being penalized, everyone understands the reason for the possession based approach in the modern game and that it is not going away any time soon

Yes, as I have written here before, most of Limerick handpasses are throws and with respect your opinion that Limerick tend to only throw the ball because they are being fouled, it does not stand up to any sort of scrutiny, they frequently throw it when not being fouled, they throw it because it brings advantage. Stating that "they move the ball cleverly" is a kinder way of stating that Limerick systematically use the throw in tight situations because it is the easiest, least risky way of keeping possession. It requires little skill, it often catches an opponent expecting a legal handpass unaware, it increases accuracy, reduces variables for the recipient and helps achieve this state where "Virtually no ball is wasted"

Limerick's throwing in last years all ireland was something to behold, yet there wasn't much talk about it afterwards but during and after this year's final there seems to be more discussion happening because the throwin is the most blatant we've seen. For example, Mike Casey set up a point by taking three Kilkenny players who stood him up out of the game by throwing the ball, overhand, over their heads to a team mate like a lad returning a stray tennis ball over the fence into his neighbours garden, it was farcical to see, and it is not the first time we've seen it this year. Unbelievably they have gone unpenalized for throwing in two all-irelands in a row and if I am not mistaken were not penalized even once in the 2023 champshipship for throwing; something is rotten in the state of Denmark

In short, I have no problem with Limerick being good at moving the ball quickly as you allude to above, I have a problem with the fact that they primarily use the unpenalized throw to do so when in tight spaces. It is a scourge on the game now as more and more teams have given up the legal handpass trying to emulate Limerick's way of playing. 

Throwing the ball should be unnatural to a hurler yet it is rampant and it is mostly ignored, masked by terms such as "pop-passes", "working a triangle", "working it out into space", "quick hands" etc. 

Your original post claimed that there is little advantage to the throw, the fact that it is everywhere now shows you that this is incorrect. Anyway, I won't reply again since this discussion probably belongs in another thread to this one

Good alright, Limerick cleverly played to the elements but nothing revolutionary either; anyone at the Clare game could see we had unprecedented space at times to work the ball out and it was unlikely Limerick would give us the same, so presumably Kilkenny knew this but still couldn't deal with it on the day.

So, in hindsight, what should we have done in the second half when Limerick stepped up further?

Maybe brought an additional body to the full back line for our puck outsto try to free up space to pass into further up the field if player is followed, or to get possession in some sort of space if not followed and then try to work it out a bit shorter? Not something you can immediately perform without practice on a high pressure stage in miserable conditions unfortunately 

"new hand pass" ??? - its a throw .....

Limerick also had cameras in the upper deck of the Hogan for their analysts during the final.

Yes,

thats a good point... 😏

Aren't we lucky we don't have to spend any real money on a senior,under 20 or minor football teams or development squads for footballers as well.

Look at the fools in some of our rival counties, tipp, Wexford, Waterford, Limerick, Clare and even cork wasting money on promotion of football and fielding intercounty football teams when they could just concentrate on the one code like us. And plough all their resources into that one code.

Some might say we have an unfair advantage.

Others might say it is unfair and against the spirit of why the gaa was created, what we are doing.

We spend more on football than a host of counties spend on hurling (also, when was the last time Cavan appeared in back to back junior hurling finals?) so let's not go down that rabbit hole. If you prefer, we can just confine it to hurling, I all but guarantee you Limerick's budget in 2023 on hurling will be at least three times that of Kilkenny (and probably 8-10 times that of Westmeath and Antrim).

Sooner or later the GAA will have to look at some sort of structure that caps funding or maybe some form of fairer distribution that doesnt allow this sort of vast financial disparity between teams, in a supposedly amateur sport.

The football championship is now between max 5 contenders (and realistically two). All 5 (Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo and Galway) are big counties with big financial muscle.

One might argue there is currently just one contender in hurling, but at best there are six, and that could dwindle to 4 or 5 (I feel when this Clare team breaks up, it may struggle, and KK are no certs to remain perennial contenders, sadly).

No, they were 100% not on a 5 day training camp last week. It'll shock a few posters here (not referencing you specifically, just quoting you since you mentioned it) but the reason Limerick beat Kilkenny last Sunday is that we have a much better team and squad than Kilkenny at the moment. The majority of Kilkenny folks (on here and at the match) have been gracious and accepted the loss but a few of ye have indulged in gutter talk with asthma, finances, etc being brought up. Kilkenny, Tipp and Cork are just amazing, hurlers growing on trees but once another county gets to the top the shite talk of cheating and doping and all this comes out... Take yer beating lads. You'll only win when you're good enough to do so, you've no right to anything.

This thread man.... Chaos

And probably the most exciting young hurler in the country should look forward to spending the next 15 years doing that? Seriously? Maybe a kit bag and a few pair of socks thrown in too.

They were pretty well matched in Munster. But won the AI with their best player in Munster (Morrissey) way below par & Flanagan useless.

. Jesus Christ I find myself deleting things just to avoid having any follow up conversation with idiots very often on this thread.