Kilkenny GAA Thread

Exactly. And the backs were standing off their opponents allowing them too much room. Na Fianna were full of running and great at catching the ball. They put serious pressure on O'Loughlins throughout the match, particularly so in the first half. O'Loughlins got tighter in the second half. Forwards aren't great and didn't work hard enough to make up for their shortcomings.

It's probably easy say it now but I always thought loughlins were going to find a way and win that match. The goal rocked them alright but they responded well and fair play to them they deserve credit. Na fianna will definitely look back with regret but dublin club hurling is improving. I was at the leinster final last year and the shamrocks were very relieved to hear the final whistle. Theres no doubt o loughlins will need more up front but they've being getting the 20 points up to now. Seanie bolger should of buried that chance and if they're to have any chance they will need a few goals you would think.

A special mention for deegan who gets an awful time here by a few lads but he got the winner in the county final and gave an unbelievable display the other day. Always wears his heart on his sleeve. Yes he makes mistakes but he has filled holes for his club and county in the backs,midfield and fowards.He was one of our better players in the all Ireland. Hopefully with blanch and Carey fit he can be pushed up. Lads need to cop on a small bit here aswell.

Back to even ages ?

On the age grades the nature of the result, over 90% in favour shows the overwhelming support that it had, going by the result even the a lot of the county board officials would have voted in favour of the change. The other notable thing from last nights meeting was that Phil Hogan delivered his report and plan on corporate structures to help the county board increase sponsorship and help raise funds for development projects. In fairness it was a very in dept look at things and there seems to be big changes and structures being put in place to maximise the income they can earn. They have a fairly ambitious plan to bring in additional income of nearly €11m over the next 5-6 years. I won't go through everything but some of the standout things from points on it, the new jersey (out this week) will have additional sponsors on the back and the sleeve, Tirlan have agreed to allow the county board get new sponsors for the development squads with no change to their agreed level of sponsorship, a communications company in Dublin (can't remember the name) have agreed to take over the digital marketing free of charge for 5 years and it's hoped this could raise the best part of half a million a year with no cost, plans to digitalise Nowlan Park and put in new shops and merchandise shops to help increase revenue. The capital investment they are hoping to do over the coming years are 6 new pitches with floodlighting and fitness facilities to take the load off Nowlan Park/Dunmore included with some of these, at least one of these to be a full length astro pitch with floodlights, floodlights to be put in Nowlan park, there was more detail given and the report was sent out to clubs so if your interested in the full report talk to your club chairperson/secretary who will be able to forward you the report. I wouldn't be a fan of Phil Hogan's but in fairness he does look like he's put a massive effort into this and we should see the rewards soon enough, they expect to be able to announce 2/3 new sponsors by the end of January start of February also.

Great news overall between the fund raising and back to the even number at underage grades.

Fair play to O Loughlins they kept their cool and deservedly won in the end but i agree with you that Dublin club hurling is getting stronger. Ye're own Charlie Carter was on Our Game yesterday and currently managing Lucan Sarsfields who are a coming team and only lost to Na Fianna in Dublin semi by four points. Lucan won the minor A this year and only lost the 21A final on penalties last weekend. I can see them winning Dublin in next few years.

Charlie was very impressed with the Dublin club scene and a man of his experience can only help things further. You have the big four southside clubs Cuala, Kilmacud, Ballyboden and Lucan and the current northside kingpins Na Fianna all in good shape which makes for a decent championship but the only drawback is there is a bit of a gap between these clubs and the rest but you could say the same for a lot of counties.

In fairness this wasn't the county convention, that's on next Monday night, this was just the monthly county board meeting.

With relation to the new pitches/facilities some of these will be included with schools, with the new CBS development mentioned as a possible location but they also mentioned the possibility of buying land to develop these facilities. The increased revenue will be used to develop these facilities but also a lot of it will be put back into improving development squads with further resources being put into improving the development squads, one stat they gave out last night was that with the plans Michael Fennelly has put in place for the development squads the number of coaches involved for 2024 has increased from 24 to 59 (mightn't be the exact figures but in or around that).

All in all it looks like we are heading in the right direction with things, it won't be an overnight success and it'll take time for improvements to show but it does look like we are on the right road.

Lucan are the buggest sporting organisation in sourh dublin but have under achieved for years.they dont have a senior title at any grade men or women.charlie would be the first if he could do it, kevin Fennelly is the camogie manager and has more chance of winning.

Sorry when I said one pitch would be astro I meant at least one pitch I don't think they had limited it any number, I think they said the first step before deciding on the pitches/location/facilities would be too audit the current facilities across the county then take it from their with relation to deciding on location/facilities etc.. I'd imagine that if they are going to link up with Schools you'd imagine they might pick areas like Callan/Thomastown/Comer and then in the city also which would cover most of the clubs across the county, now they never mentioned any specifics of where that would be just me assuming locations. I'd also imagine that if people are looking to get involved with the county board on committees now would be a good time as they will most likely be looking for people to come on board different committees and you'd imagine they will be looking for people with specific experience or expertise.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier was one of the big areas in Hogan's report was for Kilkenny to take the lead in integrating the Camogie association into the county board and the potential for additional goodwill and marketing involved with this. They also spoke about further linking up with SETU CArlow and Waterford and the potential benefits associated with this also.

Good news on age switch and on Phil Hogan but this terrifies me

And let's not kid ourselves that the likes of Dublin and Limerick's senior team spending wouldn’t dwarf the amounts above for Galway.

Small and medium sized counties cannot hope to compete with this ever-spiralling level of expenditure.

This is what happened with soccer 40 years ago when the small and medium sized clubs got priced out of contention.

If the GAA want to retain the inter county model, it must act to bring some level of equity between counties 

Probably not. National Feile is u15

There are more counties playing hurling than Kilkenny you know! Feile is 100% staying U15

Feile changed to U15 due to Covid (as those eligible in 2020 did not get an opportunity to play that year), not because of the age grades in county club competitions. It's hard to see it changing back now as it would mean a cohort would miss the chance to play in it.

Wexford could also be back to u18, as far as i know they were the county that first proposed u17

Wexford reverted to u18 this year and Offaly are next year, Wexford and Offaly are decoupling u18 from adult so u18 don't play adult, Cork doing the same for higher adult grades but u18s can play some junior grades.