Kilkenny GAA Thread

Agree, and we already have a model for what happens when that attitude takes hold, you end up like cork, nearly two decades now without an all Ireland because they assumed hurlers will always just be there. If it can happen there it can certainly happen us.

They could start in Dunmore by painting the backs of the back to back goal posts black. As it stands, or up to a month ago anyway, it was hard to figure out which posts you should be aiming for with four to choose from.

Previous contributions absolutely irrelevant to the conversation. Martin Fogarty has done trojan work around the country for hurling, that's indisputable, and he was a large part of a very successful era for Kilkenny hurling but time waits for noone and his core beliefs have been outdated for a long time. Anyone who's attended a coaching course over the last 7 or 8 years will have heard similar to Villages post. He's a great man but if the county board go back to him it's just more playing it safe and hoping for the best.

Did these coaching courses get rid of ground hurling , doubling on the ball and introducing the possession game which has ruined hurling.

I wonder how you did not come to my conclusion after reading it? Plenty of evidence of the problems in Kk hurling mentioned in the article like we are 10 years behind underage development compared to Limerick, Cork, they even mention Dublin and Wexford. Issue with Sponsorship, are we getting enough from Glanbia or Tirlan as its called now?

I agree with you but it ain't turning back. So, we either join in the change, and give ourselves a chance for more success, or stay in the past and match Cork!

Sorry the article I'm referring too is in the Irish Examiner. Link is on the previous page. Read it and see what you think

I agree there is no going back and we can’t rely on the "we always have hurlers", but the failure to ref the game within the rules is turning the advantage the big counties with the big budgets and the 25 man coaching teams and the squads of lads who don’t have day jobs, into an almighty chasm.

Steps and throwing the ball are the twin curses of the modern game.

A poster here suggested that Paddy Deegan took 12 steps when shooting the winner in the county final. He didn't, but he did take at least 8. And not one person even commented on it at the time. Why?

Because taking 7-8 steps is now part and parcel of modern hurling. It's only when it goes beyond 8, that you see a bit of whistling. No one pays a blind bit of notice to 4 steps. Blowing up a lad after 5-6 steps we will be told will result in a "stop start" as will pulling for throwing. Applying the rules of the game will “ruin the spectacle” we are told. Maybe soccer should simply ignore the offside rule and also allow players control the ball with their hands, it’s easier and will lead to lots more goals.

The new rules in Freshers are already being attacked by the modern coaching gurus (many of whom are simply video analysis specialists in finding increasingly sneaky ways to break the rules of the game to gain split second advantages). Hurling needs 6 months of refs hounding overcarrying and throwing out of the game, even if it means 50-60 frees a game. The game is being made ludicrously easy, which plays into the hands of the counties with the massive coaching budgets.

Beyond this I accept all counties with ambitions of winning All Irelands must accept that S&C is a huge factor, but the gap between a squad that is mostly sitting at home all day resting and eating and doing their home gym and nutrition programmes with delivered meals and the rest, won’t be bridged by just a good S&C programme.

btw

We do still have good hurlers, lots of them, and that at least gives us the raw material to consistently compete. But such are the advantages Lim and Dublin have in the respective codes, it will be ludicrously difficult for the rest of the pack (not just us) to win All Irelands for the foreseeable future.

The only hope other counties have is for the rules to be strictly applied and for HQ to address the ludicrous funding imbalances between counties.

The genie is out of the bottle and smaller counties are finished unless there is real change.

I agree entirely with you.

First thought that came into my head on reading it.

Very much agree on this, but it's also an arms race, isn't it? Like if Tipp and Limerick are training five nights a week and we only do three, we are going to be behind, so everyone pushes to do more. They tried to enforce a rule about no collective training for two months a few years ago and it was a joke. The players themselves pushed for it through the GPA, but they themselves were all straight in to break the rules because they could see it would give their team an edge (or, if they didn't do it, would give the other teams an edge). Funnily enough this stuff would be easier to enforce if they were professional altogether.

Don't Kilkenny have about three main sponsors and about ten other sponsors on a lower level. What's all this about?

The last time I heard the level of commitment from our main sponsor (Avonmore) it was a third to a fifth of what other successful counties are getting from their main sponsor. The only other main sponsor we have is UPMC for the ground naming rights which for the length of the deal is fairly small fry in the grand scheme of things. The level of exposure (semi's most years) Kilkenny hurling can offer is fairly significant and the Co Board should really be going out and pricing themselves in the general market. If our main sponsor still wants to maintain their position then they need to be offering the best deal, I find it very hard to believe that it's the best Kilkenny can get (if it's what they were getting a few years ago).

I also heard that a very wealth person in KK approached the Co Board and was willing to do a JP style deal but wanted to do all the sponsorship which would have meant we would have to get rid of our main sponsor and other smaller sponsors but they weren't willing for some unfathomable reason.

bad things happen when good people do nothing.

Well done to our 5 all stars.

Best of luck to Pádraig in his retirement, not many all Ireland winners left on the panel now.