Kilkenny GAA Thread

As regards to the support for the All Ireland that was a big crowd for us, at max. We would have 15,000 at an all Ireland we would always be outnumbered, even counties with smaller populations would outnumber us,lots of people in this county consider themselves great hurling supporters when they follow the few championship matches on the telly. The crowds at the homecoming proves this. On the players for intercontinental issue it’s only a discussion to see what we could come up with.

He still has to much of camogie swing for inter county hurling imo

Watched him in the Walsh cup this year took way to much out of the ball on a few occasions to try get onto his stronger side

Weekend fixtures

If its adrian mullin you are talking about I couldn't disagree more..he is probably our second best forward..I can just about tolerate him in midfield where he can still.pick off a few scores but putting him at 6 makes no sense to me..for me he needs to be at 10

Blanch was too light last year and is still getting to where he needs to be but he was clearly stronger this year. One thing is for sure, his absence was felt in the final (although that was compounded by the decision to replace him with a forward, which meant his absence caused way more disruption than it needed to)

We have a steady 5k support for league matches and often outnumbered the home support but recently these numbers have dwindled.

Thanks for that Robwen I was half right, that’s all looking good anyway and i would certainly count that as progress and a sign that the powers that be are finally after realising we have a problem.

Plus, we lost the opportunity to spring Wally from the bench as we had been doing.

Corcoran in my opinion.

Forchange not a happy camper.

𝑭𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆

The Michael Lyng Motors Hyundai Intermediate League fixture between Thomastown GAA Club & O'Loughlin Gaels GAA Club, Kilkenny, Ireland will now throw-in at the later time of 𝟑:𝟑𝟎𝐩𝐦 on Sunday 13th August in Gowran.

In Johnstown today U16 KilkennyCLG A v CorkGAA A at 11.00am and Kilkenny B v Cork B at 12.30pm

I find all this talk of 6ft 5 giants with 5-6 years of weights and s&c behind them being the prototype for modern hurling, depressing, Made all the more so by the fat that the assessment is probably accurate.

Sean Mc Donagh is probably the best minor I've seen in a decade, 4 years later, and he hasn't even made the extended Galway squad.

A friend recently raved about a lad he saw playing U15 Club in Kilkenny When I asked someone I knew at his club I got a reply saying "he just wont ever grow big enough to play senior IC"

Bar the odd outlier like Mikey Butler, there is now effectively a minimum height which you must attain (prob 6ft) to have a chance of playing county hurling. As I said, depressing.

The Boro v OLG game last night was an interesting and tight affair. I genuinely feared a small bit for the Boro after how porous the defence had been against Clara for the 3 goals and how strong O'Loughlins forwards had been against Tullaroan. There was a strong wind which favoured O'Loughlins in the first half and the Boro in the second obviously. The Boro settled a little quicker and had went 3 points to 1 up inside 7 mins. The Boro were playing well until about half way through the half when it was 0-5 to 0-3 to the Boro. Then O'Loughlins started to push up on the Boro short puckout and they started to put the Boro under a lot of pressure at the back and took some good scores from turnovers, aided with a few long range points from their own half. O'Loughlins out scored the Boro 7 points to 2 in the remainder of the half to leave it 0-12 to 0-7 at half time and O'Loughlins were full value for their lead. O'Loughlins got the last two points of the half in extra time as well to extinguish a mini Boro revival when they got two quick point on the 30th minute.

The Boro came out in the second half and started taking some long range points and in the first 10minutes had outscored O'Loughlins 0-6 to 0-1 to draw the game 0-13 a piece. The Boro then pushed on with their momentum and got another point and a Liam Moore goal to create a 9 point swing since halftime. O'Loughlins responded well to the goal and cut the lead to 2 but the Boro pushed it back out to 4 before O'Loughlins got a goal 4 mins from the end to set up a barnstorming finish 1-18 1-17. In fairness to the Boro they stayed composed and got the next 2 points to see out the game.

Tom Kenny was huge again for the Boro along with strong performances by Cillian Hackett, Bill Sheehan and Harry Shine. Liam Moore and Aidan Nolan got through a lot of work and Timmy Clifford and Mark Nolan powered into the game in the second half. The Boro back six tightened up after the last day and were impressive for a full back line were their all 21 or under (I think), all in their first or second year senior hurling. The six forwards, two midfielders and two of the half backs scored from play. We still have Evan Cody and Buckley to come back and they should have a job getting into the team now.

David Fogarty was very good again especially going forward and got 3 points from play for O'Loughlins. Lawlor and Butler kept a dangerous Boro inside line quite but the O'Loughlins backs probably weren't as explosive going forward as the previous week with the exception of Fogarty who now has 0-6 from right wing back in two games. The real issue for O'Loughlins was the forwards, they weren't bad by any means but they definitely weren't as explosive or dominant as they had been the previous week but the Boro were a lot tighter to them and harried and chased them all the way with fast players. Aidan Nolan has to be commended for tracking some of the runs from midfield back and dispossessing the O'Loughlins man in possession a few times. Eoin Wall started to cause trouble when he was feed near the end of the second half and caused the Boro trouble with his runs one of which ended with their goal (can't remember who scored it) Paddy Butler did well in the first half and Mark Bergin did great from frees as he always does but thrived when they pushed up on the Boro puckout in the first half.

Overall a good game, second half was a more interesting contest. The weeks training obviously did Tullaroan no harm after their demolition of Vegas 6-20 to 1-9. I read a lot into that O'Loughlins display last week but much like the Boro's win against Clara you had to take the readiness of the opposition into account. As predicted these two along with Tullaroan will be the contenders from this side of the draw, with Ballyhale and the Village the most likely from the otherside. There's a long way to go yet and no trophies are handed out after the second round but it's starting to shape up nicely.

Just to be a pedant, Limerick put their underage structures in place in 2011, just so you know. We've been giving out for years on here about the state of our underage system, it's not a great surprise to us. The reason your seeing the picture is we're glad it finally looks like something might be being done to help our young lads get to an even playing field in terms of preparation. If we still can't start to win with the right structures in place then we might have to give up hurling and take up the tiddly-winks.