Kilkenny GAA Thread

I was confident before the match yesterday. I was confident at half time despite the misses and a few lads not clicking. My confidence dropped dramatically after about 2mins of the second half..mossy and cody both missed handy chances and I think clare got hope from that ..after that clare took over and we didn't hurl at all.. I can see how Lyng brought older heads on to steady the ship and its easy say now but he needed to be braver and give the likes of wall and Murphy a chance.

Are we ever going to learn that no matter how good or important to the team a player is, there is no point starting a lad who is not fit..

Taking off Billy Ryan and bringing on Fogarty was the end.

Owen Wall should have been put in there midway through the second half.

After reflection of yesterday's game I think this present team may never see an All Ireland medal. If we played only our subs and extended panel they wouldn't even get out of leinster.The team doesn't have it and there's nothing coming after because of years of mismanagement of under age teams. I apologise if it causes offence but it's the grim reality.

I understand that and I wasn’t having a go at the OP or anything but I’m saying the reasons they do what they actually do makes no sense…. if you know what I mean.

Do lads think that the second half fade outs that we've seen this and last year against Clare and against Limerick are down to fitness or some other reason. I note that we played against the wind in the second half yesterday and against Limerick last year. Both games seemed to follow a pattern. We should have been much further ahead at half time in both games but for some poor finishing and some odd refereeing decisions. Then in the second half in both games the opposition pushed up on us and we seemed to start pucking the ball from deep which the opposition mopped up. We didn't get the ball to the scoring zone which reduced our ability to score points dramatically. Now granted Clare and Limerick were more energised in the second half and there were other factors at play like our poor bench but it seems that the main issue was us not being able to play the ball out to the right areas. Fatigue or tactics or a bit of both? I saw Murphy hollering at lads yesterday to come and show for the ball in the second half but than they all come back and there's no outlet further up the field. So I suppose to play against the wind you need runners or very smart positional play and fitness to carry it out. We need to use our bench earlier and maybe consider playing against the wind first half. But we definitely need to improve our puck out strategy against the wind when the opposition push up. Easier said than done I suppose. Anyway good luck to Clare in the final , they deserve to be there.

On the topic of support I can escape the wrath of Marooned as I was there yesterday. I did notice a lot of lads wearing these grey type Kilkenny jerseys. WTF is that all about? You need to wear the colours so that when those players look into the stands they see as much black and amber as possible. Black and amber may not be the most flattering but it's not an effing fashion shoot lads.

The pattern of fading out of games is going on 2 years, happened against Wexford and Galway in the Leinster championship also, having zero impact off the bench is a main reason for this. The 3 subs yesterday actually made Kilkenny worse, how could we bring on Conor Fogarty, the only chance we had at that stage was catching Clare on a break, Billy Ryan had the potential to do that. I would like to see Lyng stay because the truth be told is there anyone to replace him? He has a very average team to deal with, we did not beat anyone this year.

I have to agree as I said earlier end of an era start of a new era

Depressing stuff. We used to play at the level of both of these teams

Can't agree with that, clare only got vocal when they got to 3pts behind after Billy's goal up to that they were quiet, also all this crapp that were better off being bet because of what limerick would do to us is also out the window.game is there to be won on the day and cork proved that.we had the game yesterday and through it away.were close and have to figure out how to get it over the line

What a game and what a win for Cork. They were outstanding all the way through and the intensity they brought was savage. I don't normally say this but you have to credit Cork. Limerick have been outstanding champions but from our point of view its great their 5 in a row ambitions are over. Surely the kilkenny lads will be looking at this saying we need to bring that type of game to championship hurling. It was an outstanding game to be fair.

Limericks big men poor to day Hayes, Hannon, Hegarty few more.

Yeah have to agee yere team was superior. Way more individual geniuses on that great ,kilkenny team and more off the cuff which is why they are so fondly remembered even in tipp. Played in much better fashion just quick direct hurling, great to watch.

bit of a difference between Leinster and Munster championships in fairness

They didnt battle through Munster because they were in Leinster, who in Munster would have stopped them may be Tipp.

Hayes over JJ. Never in a million years. JJ is the greatest of all time and its not recognised because he wasn't a forward