Kilkenny GAA Thread

Cian Byrne gave him a few headaches.

did you you follow the minor team this year , if the answer is yes we can talk later. Why do you not believe me when I tell you I have no links whatsoever with the minor team and that is the truth.will you be truthful answering my questions?

"As I alluded to earlier the management team volunteered for the job, I didn’t"

Sorry marooned but the problem here is that when other people have criticized management at other levels you have repeatedly replied to them that they should manage the team if they're so knowledgeable etc etc. So this line of attack comes across as a bit hypocritical in that context, regardless whether your criticisms are valid or not, because you silenced valid criticism yourself this way earlier.

Incidentally I'm pretty sure people saying marooned was on about families of players being unhappy etc earlier in the year are mixing him up with another poster who was very clearly just whining because their little Johnny wasn't getting a match. Don't see marooned being that kind of gowl

Didn't think he's done anything to warrant being entrusted with that job. Tom Mullally is a much more obvious candidate, if he wanted it. Shefflin had a very, very poor run with Galway and it wasn't all on the players, he made odd managerial decisions, failed to bring in young players, was tactically naive, and left them in a worse situation than he got them, having abandoned ship to do it. He needs to prove himself all over again, imo.

Is that supposed to be Lacey.anyway you are way off , but I know who you are.

well callaway92 any sign of that phantom post of mine or do you want to issue the apology now.

thank you so much for your support it is greatly appreciated and I’m glad someone has a bit of passion for the game that’s falling apart in this county before our eyes. The members of the county board have to stand up to the upper echelons and make sweeping changes.

I just think some people are getting very excited over what was a freak occasion last Saturday evening. Similar happened to Tipp in the semi final against a team Kilkenny wiped off the field twice. Tipp shouldn't have even been in the final had the Galway free taker not missed the last free.
The point is that it's notoriously difficult not to drop your guard when the other team goes down a man. It happened to Tipp in the semi, and happened to us in the final. I believe we'd have won the game had the 2nd red not happened. That seems counter intuitive, but playing against 13 seemed to only further compound the teams sense of complacency. Our intensity dropped and we allowed Tipp to play a possession game they should never have been able to. Yes you can absolutely point at management for their failure to deal tactically with the advantage, but it's my belief the main reason was the inevitable drop in intensity from a group of young fellas that happened due to the circumstances of the game. Remember we still had more than enough chances to win the final, but made too many poor decisions on the field including poor shooting, and a little bit of selfishness here and there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the boys for that, panic clearly set in and we stopped doing what we normally would. The sense of dread in the crowd was palpable and I have no doubt the chaps on the field felt that on an even bigger scale and it clearly affected them, and indeed management. There were some inexplicable decisions taken by players in the 2nd half in particular. As other posters said, they are young boys, I heard 3 15 year olds started, and 7 other U16's played a part. They'll have better days.

It was an absolute gut wrenching defeat and I do understand the passion and disappointment of the likes of Marooned, but it's easy to wipe away the wins against Galway, Dublin, and Clare, because of what I genuinely believe was a freak set of circumstances last Saturday. Selection is always controversial, and I can certainly see the arguments for different changes last week that took place on the day, as well as perhaps some arguable selections over the past few games. But you're always going to have that. Fact is the team was winning so in that context it can be difficult to change. Had they changed the 15 for the final and the same thing happened, we'd be pointing at the fact they changed a combination that had won 4 times on the trot.

I would ability agree that the underage system has been very poor in Kilkenny over the past few years and has clearly been neglected. You only have to look at the main officers of Bord na nÓg. Incompetence at every turn. You would hope the appointment of Michael Fennelly will address some of this, helped by the investment by Terry Clune.

I'd again go back to the fact that we will get plenty players off this team, and that's a good thing and in fairness is the main reason for these underage grades. But yes the defeat was as bad as it gets, and it'll be raw for a while to come yet.

Agree with what a lot of said above. But I have highlighted some of these points before and got slated here especially by Marooned.

As for the minor Tipperary were a much better team than Kilkenny, from a purely hurling perspective. The skill levels of the backs, the composure on the ball by a lot of the players under pressure and with little space was outstanding, the half forward line destroyed Kilkennys half back line. Tipp missed as many chances as Kilkenny during the match. There is talk on here Kilkenny would have won if this or that happened, they didn't , the better team with better hurlers won on the night. An outstanding underage team. Some posts here are highlighting that Galway had a chance to beat them, but Kilkenny lost to Wexford and Dublin and Kildare had them on the ropes, that is underage hurling for you.

Team as expected. Best of luck to the lads.

No sign of Drennan at all.

He's after falling back a fair but since the league last year.

I would have liked him on the bench as the replacement free taker in case of anything happening to TJ. He needs a good league next season if he's on the panel but I do think there's still plenty of time for him, Clifford and Shine to become regulars.

I think Drennan is having bother with the club as well, he just seems lazy and no work rate.

He could be a superstar if he worked in it, hurling with galmoy probably doesn't help.

Is he still hurling with the colleges or is he finished?

in response to the idea that this was just a far better Tipp minor team, I don't believe that for a second, but I certainly believe that due to the circumstances Tipp were able to hurl with a freedom and an abandon that Kilkenny couldn't. The pressure on the KK lads was absolutely enormous after the 2nd red. Home venue, raucous crowd and abusive Tipp sideline. We went into our shells whereas Tipp flourished, it was just one of those things. 

I think the quality of players on both panels will be proven in time.

Regarding the 20s I think there were definetly mistakes made with choosing half back line and the county board with doyle and giving up home advantage we missed a penalty and hit crossbar and lost by 2 pints maybe I think if doyle was there he would have chipped in with at least one point and playing at home would have given us another score able chance or 2 most likely

The best way to describe the minor loss is panic from the players and management

We hit over 20 wides and should have won

I think it’s been talked about similarly to 2010 from a tipp perspective because when you look at it since 2019 they have had **** all to shout about

Woodlock is a lucky general for me last minute goal in 2022 all Ireland and watching the kk game I don’t think as many of there players will go on to play senior as people think it was a very bizarre set of circumstances

6 years is a long time in a young persons life

They have a few nice players but it was the collective effort that won it for them I don’t think if they all hurled together again they would put in half the performance it was a one off for me

Like if you compare tipps 2 all Ireland minor winning teams to say Offalys crops from 2022 and the 20s from this year there a much better group of players I think

Offaly handled tipp quite easily in the u20 final this year we were within 2 pints of them

We seem to have a good record of developing players from the club seen up to an inter county standard molloy wall deegan Lawlor t Phelan even m butler s Murphy weren’t big underage stars they didn’t even win a lot at underage if anything so we should get a few stars of the future of this years minor team

B drennan reminds me of k Kelly years ago loads of Talent and still very young but you getting the feeling unless the penny drops soon about what’s required at inter county level the ship might sail