Kilkenny GAA Thread

https://scoreline.ie/fionan-will-be-a-massive-loss-to-st-brendans-kerry-hurling-star-fionan-mackessy-to-join-oloughlin-gaels/

Kerry hurler transfer gone through to O Loughlin Gaels.

It'll be interesting to see how he fares out and where they'll position him. Could be centre back with a view to pushing Paddy Deegan further up the field perhaps? A fine hurler by all accounts

I have visions in my head of Mackassey (who is 6ft 5in and build like Lee Chin) wing back on Hegarty or wing forward on Diarmuid Byrnes.

Anyway he hasn’t pucked a ball for OLG yet, let’s see how that goes this summer first.

When would Mackasseys first game with O Loughlin Gaels likely to be?

The Kilkenny hurling podcast had a very good interview with Enda McEvoy. Inevitably the conversation turned to the current Kilkenny team and our general prospects. The general thrust of what he said (and I'm in no way as articulate as he is so don't expect me to quote him verbatim) was that we are pretty much at a max level for what we have but as we haven't seen a strong underage group come through and mature together when the Limerick spell is over he doesn't see us in any shape to capitalise - and that he envisioned us realistically going to the end of the decade without winning one. All of which I think is quite logical and I take no issue with - but sport is of course not always logical and he did comment that if Limerick are bet this year in particular it's pretty much a toss of a coin between Kilkenny and any of the other contenders. He also mentioned the Tom Phelan case where a lad comes through in his mid-late 20's as a case that just shouldn't be happening if your supply lines are right (he mentioned it in a positive light in particular for Derek Lyng who found a lad and developed him to the point that he scored 3 points in an AI final).

There was acknowledgement for finally getting someone in place (Mick Fennelly) to try to bring us up to par with player development (with a likely 4-5 year horizon before becoming effective). Though we are of course trying to come up to par rather than set any novel standard that steals a leap on everyone as we did before (not a criticism - just a reality). My own hope is that such structures and the strong culture of hurling in Kilkenny would give us an edge or help us punch above our weight.

This came to my mind with the above conversation about some lad from Kerry and the concerns around the signs with the Fitzgibbon. Also my own concerns about why we can't kill off teams - taking the forwards as an example we just don't have a Richie Power, Eddie Brennan, DJ, Eamonn Morriessy, Ronnie, Richie Hogan, Liam Fennelly etc etc to score that 30-70 chance that puts a match to bed.

I was chatting to him in Doppio the other day and apart from Limerick he thought Clare were building a nice panel and fancies them to go a long way this year.

Anyone want a spare ticket for tomorrow? Ticket cancellation wants to know who died and what from 🙄

Is the game going to be shown on clubber tv?

6 points down at halftime playing against a fairly strong breeze. Two things: 1- On a boggy pitch the ball has to be to hand, too often we've hit the ball for the forward to run onto but it's getting stuck in the grass and is forcing the forward to check his run and is giving the defender time to get the pressure on. Point 2- Our shooting has been abysmal, we drove a ridiculous number of wides in the first 20 minutes. Cian Kenny and John Donnelly the biggest offenders but every forward has hit a wide bar Blanchfield who hasn't had a shot. Peter Mcdonald has already gone off with Wally Walsh on instead. John Donnelly has been awful, bad shooting, poor passing and he hasn't won the ball that often. Liam Blanchfield hasn't gotten a sniff of the ball. Backline has been mixed, some good defending but too many scorable frees given away. Puckouts have been average, have to wait for fulltime before fully judging them because of the wind.

In fairness Offaly have been very good, their accuracy for the first 25 minutes was top class and they've defended like dogs. I still expect us to win but the players really need to judge the conditions better in the future.

And Limerick were level with Westmeath at half time in their league game a couple of weeks back. A half time score that will have no bearing on the Championship.

I was following score updates online but fair to say we stepped up in the second half and a comfortable enough win in the end. How were Darren Brennans puck outs? Any variations or notable difference to what Eoin Murphys offers?

This is it. We really lack quality up front apart from the ballyhale lads. Credit to Offaly, they have being good this year in the league so far.

Comfortable enough win in the end. We dominated Offaly in the first 20 minutes of the second half and that was enough. We were helped by Offaly not playing a sweeper until after the scoring burst but the damage was done and Offaly panicked when their puckouts didnt go as far against the wind. Probably should have had another goal or two as the Offaly keeper made some good saves including an excellent one after a shot by Mullen.

Mullen pick of the forwards, some very good points and unlucky not to get a goal. Eoin Cody needs to be kept closer to the goal, he's our biggest goal threat plus he is so slow that it's not worth him tracking back most of the time as he's never going to catch the other player. The ball also needs to be directly to him for that reason. Liam Blanchfield offered nothing today and while John Donnelly was better in the 2nd half he still didn't have a great game. Drennan needs to do more in open player, he drifted in and out of the match too much. Wally did well when he came on but he went off injured and it looked a nasty one and the physio signalled for him to go straight off. Clifford scored a nice point when he came on, he should have came on before Keoghan tbh as we'd pretty much won the match at that stage and we learn nothing by bringing Keoghan on.

Kenny had an off day with this shooting but you see what he offers the team with his ability to link up play. Carey left too much space in the 2nd half for Offaly to run through. Mikey Butler did well enough on Screeney and Blanchfield was his usual self, he needs to be a bit better with his distribution of the ball. Corcoran had a strange match, I'm not sure why he was following his player so far up the pitch in the 2nd half.

I'd question why there's so much space in front of our full back, we seem to be the only team to leave the full back one-on-one with the full forward, it's dangerous enough because if the defender doesn't win the ball it's a clear goal chance. Solid win but there's definitely things to sharpen up on and the players need to be able to adapt more to the conditions based on the 1st half.

Seats in the De Gras Stand could do with a wash, some were in a bad condition.

Unfortunately Liam Blanchfield is not near intercounty standard , I don't understand what he's done to be brought back in for another go .....as a previous person said it's natural scoring forwards were desperately need

We all hoped that Blanchfield and Carey would strengthen our hand 1-9, and that certainly looks to be the case.

But further up the field, we look to be making no progress on strengthening our forwards. It's the same 2/3 forwards performing all the time, with the rest patchy at best. 3 Shamrocks are a given and Donnelly probably close to certain but it's any two from 15 after that, and that's indicative of no one really making  strong case.

Depressing stuff in Croker last night. Both teams missed a ton of scores and if both had been more clinical the scoreline could have read 5-40 to 2-27. Galway hit 2-35 today. I'm sorry, but these sort of scorelines leave me cold. Too bloody easy, the rules of the game being bypassed to create a spectacle, will have dire long-term consequences for hurling.

Also, notable that in both Croker games last night, both winning teams (football and hurling) had players that you wouldn’t have looked at twice as minors. Now, bulked up athletes fitting seamlessly in to senior set ups that the rest can only dream of.

A reminder that Dublin football and Limerick hurling have won just one AI minor title between them in 40 years. Kerry won 5 Minors in a row 2014-2018, many of them playing last night, but blown away.

Limerick the same, well o0n the way to having 4/5 of 2019 minor team (probably 15-17 points inferior to Galway the same year) while Galway can barely get a certain starter from that team or any of their 4 in a row minor 2017-2020.