Kilkenny GAA Thread

This is why I wouldn’t have minded Limericks drive for five to keep going. This will only be Cork’s 3rd AI final since ‘06. Pipe down.

Lazy response. Tell me which decisions went Corks way?

There's a whole lot of doom and gloom after yesterday. Immediately after the match I felt the same and was tempted to go off on a rant here, but I thought I'd hold my tongue and try to come back with more sense today after rewatching.

I'm not going to get into talk about support or county board stuff now, it's been talked about by plenty here and I'd have nothing to add. I'm just going to give my two cents on what went wrong and what I think of certain players for the future.

On the actual team, Eoin Murphy made the save of the year, and he's again cemented himself as the best shot stopper we've ever seen. His puckouts in the first half showed a huge improvement from where he was at the start of the year and they were a great launchpad. However, we all know what happened in the second half, the accuracy dipped and the introduction of Wally saw long balls being rained down on him. At this stage, McInerney was the best player on the pitch and the other Clare players converged on him, it was obvious to everyone what was going to happen and we played right into the trap.

One poster here defended Wally's catching ability and there's no doubt that he can catch a ball, but he kind of depends on his height, he doesn't have the same tricks as a TJ or a JJ and as a result his catch rate is lower than we would want from a lad his size. He has been a great servant to Kilkenny over the years, but Kilkenny become too predictable when he's on the pitch.

Of the backs, it's been well documented that Tommy Walsh has had his struggles this year. The ball going into Galvin in the second half kept sticking and Tommy's confidence dropped every time he lost a duel. Finding a new corner back should be a priority.

For the other backs, I don't envy any of them trying to mark Shane O Donnell, one of the best forwards in the country and his awkward style just works so well. Huw Lawlor was getting dragged all over the place and at that stage we need to be dropping Paddy Deegan or Richie Reid in front of SOD to reduce the space.

David blanchfield was brilliant in the first half and a great fielder of the ball. As with most of the backs he went out of it in the second half and started launching ball in the air, no good for the forwards. The two Mikey's have had mixed years, Carey will have nightmares about the goal chance but he's an exciting player to have with his pace and strength as he runs onto a ball.

Richie Reid has a lovely strike of the ball and given space can pick out a man. Is that what Kilkenny need in an all Ireland semi final that's in the melting pot? I don't think so. I think David blanchfield is the future at centre back and then we need to find a new half back. I'd like to think Shane Murphy is an option, but Lyng just seemed to go off him completely.

Cian Kenny and Paddy Deegan had strong first halves, although Fitzgerald got a few scores to keep Clare in the game as paddy drifted off. I like this combination in midfield and wouldn't really have an issue with it. Molloy coming off the bench for a bit of energy in the second half then when either tires.

Now we get to the forwards. It's hard to have much positivity about the forwards. The forwards weren't helped by the quality of ball coming during the second half but they have to do better.

Adrian Mullen, I'd always argue he's a top 5 hurler in the country, which makes you wonder what the hell happened him yesterday. He was getting hooked and blocked and after Kenny's shot he should have just taken the point but went for glory. We've seen that selfish streak numerous times this year and it needs to be gotten rid of. Does anyone know if he was injured, I heard lads mention it on the train yesterday but thought it was just excuses?

John Donnelly hasn't been himself since he got injured, which obviously makes sense. He came into it more in the second half and stood up with a few points but we could have done with him for 70 minutes. He's a fantastic, wristy hurler and hopefully he comes back stronger next year.

Mossy has had a great year, sticking over points from all angles in some games. But the last two games, he's also had a dip. He was left in for too long yesterday when a change, a spark, was needed. I'd persevere with him, because of his eye for goal but it has been a trend where he's tailed off in the second half of the championship (happy to be corrected on that, I don't have the stats).

Hogan had Eoin Cody (other than the goal) and the referee in his pocket all game and it's the second time this year that he's got the best of Cody. At some stage, earlier than the 60th minute, lyng surely has to think about bringing him out to the middle of the park to pick up ball and give him space and let someone else in on Hogan to have a go.

TJ battled like the warrior he is yesterday. Yes, he showed signs of age. Yes, he missed frees that we needed. But by god, he worked his socks off. Without a doubt, the goat of the game. A Messi of hurling. We may never see a player like that again. If he retires, we'll need a free taker. I don't know if Billy Drennan is the answer. He needs to find some form to show us that he's not just a dead ball specialist.

The last person I want to talk about is Billy Ryan. I feel like I owe him an apology to his face because I had said so many times that I felt his Kilkenny days were behind him. Since his introduction in the Dublin game, where I fully believe that he helped to swing that game with his workrate, to yesterday, he has been one of our most consistent players. It's not always reflected on the scoreboard with Billy, but you can bet the players on the other team are well aware of his presence. 1-2 yesterday as well as winning frees and working his socks off. If we had won I'd have given him man of the match. To see our top scoring forward from play being replaced by a defensive midfielder when the game was in the melting pot just seemed like a crazy decision.

Lyng and his team made mistakes yesterday. We're still only in his second year, but that means next year is the big one. If we get to an all Ireland final and lose, it'll be terrible, but what would be worse is if we lose the final and it's obvious that no lessons were learned from yesterday.

Best of luck to any of the lads who retire, any player that gives the commitment to the county deserves to be applauded. It's a full time job on top of full time jobs these days.

Looking forward to turning to the real hurling of the club League and championship and seeing if any players can be unearthed.

Do we just call a spade a spade and say that the Kilkenny support which experienced the best generation of hurlers ever which won 11 all irelands in 15 years don't particularly connect with this team which is good enough to get to Finals and semi finals, has some very talented players and will fight to the end, but will ultimately be beaten by one of the top 3 teams in the country if they play to their normal level. Its really unfair on the players, I suspect that their comments on not being respected are really aimed at the internal mood in Kilkenny rather than the national media, but its just how people feel. Seems to be a really negative vibe around Kilkenny hurling at the moment for various reasons

Our placed ball accuracy against Clare was down to 55% from 86% and 100% in 2023 and 2022. The person who said TJ's missed frees gave Clare momentum may well be be right

Did it result in a score to Cork by that decision?

That answers that.

Yes and no. You're right that this thread has sometimes gone down strange paths but I could foresee that it was going to end up with you and Seadin getting into one of those tit for tat arguments that never go anyone on the Limerick and Cork match on a specific topic in the match which isn't really relevant to this thread. And that's pretty much what happened isn't it?

Also technically the title is the Kilkenny GAA thread so it's not necessarily reserved for hurling although 99.1% of posting will be. The other .9% is on the occasional football related post (which usually feeds back into hurling) and the occasional camogie talk and school debates which thankfully have eased from a few years ago when they were a horrible pain.

I didn't want any tit for tat to be honest, just took me a few posts to realise that poster was reading too much into what I was saying. Strange that you'd take issue with Kilkenny Camogie and secondary school topics being discussed here, that would surely be a natural thing. Infact the last sentence of your post suggests the issue is at your side.