Kilkenny GAA Thread

Lohan can thank his two young corner backs Conor Leen and Adam Hogan this year.

Them two lads played a huge part in Clare winning the All Ireland.

Leen didn’t even start the first Munster match, only used barely as a sub in the league.

Everyone knew the Kilkenny team for championship by January, so so predictable and no real competition for places.

Lads use to saw eachother in half at an A v B in house match during the Cody era to try and get a starting jersey, that needs to happen again for Kilkenny to rise up to the very top.

All seems a bit too comfortable for a lot of lads on the Kilkenny team/panel at present.

I agree the 2

Yeah the 2 corner backs were exceptional especially Hogan, he has shored up a leaky backline. He should be a hurler of the year nominee. What a talent, he gave some exhibition in the second half v Kilkenny. Cleaned out Cody every way he could, he has some speed

was Harry not with St. Kieran’s this year?

No. He's in college. I want to say Maynooth

getting too old for this but I will find out.

there is a great article on Kilkenny GAA. Ie under coaching and development it lists the teams and mentors of all the development squads and who they are playing at the weekend, well worth a look and will show you where we are and how quick things can happen in a short space of time.

I used to work down south a few years ago most of the clubs you mentioned have a fairly big population in comparison to other clubs lots of housing estates in Mooncoin,Kilmacow sliverue,Piltown and even Ballyhale . The work has to be done to get into these estates and get the young people playing .Now everyone will say the Boro have a huge pick that maybe so but the work that was put in over the years was Huge.but the above mentioned parishes are more localised and that is an advantage.

In their defence their really good underage teams are probably only coming to age now so the next 3 or 4 years will tell a lot. I wouldn't be holding my breath though. Their advantage in all those teams that won consistently over 4 years, or whatever it was, was the balance of really good players they had across the 15 rather than a collection of superstars. Shine was probably their only stand out player throughout those years. Lots of really really good players but no superstar.

then the Ballyhale boys get all the games they need with no great expectations from them and eventually graduate to being good hurlers whereas with clubs with an abundance of players lose lads that might have improved if given game time.anyway time will tell with the Boro this year,with a few lads gone away it opens things up for the younger lads to come through.Hackett and Evan Murphy might be the ones to look out for.

I would have to agree with you but only time will tell.on the country teams , the fairly big towns are after improving in the last few years and are actively giving the city underage teams a run for their money, Callan,Mooncoin,Castlecomer and Thomastown spring to mind. Then there’s barrow rangers with some very big housing estates and they are showing green shoots (feile)

As regards the small country clubs the local councils rural housing policies are terrible and do not help the local clubs retain there already small populations when somebody can’t even build on their own land.

I hear what you’re saying but it’s hard enough for a player to release the ball at the moment when surrounded by two or three opponents wrapping him up , it would be impossible with the new handpass .
I understand something has to be done about the throw ball that’s going on at the moment but I’m convinced if refs blew for every handpass where they couldn’t see clear separation and didn’t get ridiculed for it , players would soon adapt and get back to performing a legal handpass every time.

We’ve tried that though, it lasts about two rounds of the league and then we return to the “throw all you like” situation because we have lads, usually on the Sunday Game, saying the ref is ruining the flow of the game, ignoring that it’s the players making the fouls.

And if the rule came in, there’s every chance players could get bottled up more. But there’s also every chance they’d have to avoid taking it in to contact and they’d play it quicker.

There’s no point in arguing what could happen, because we don’t know what will happen. We gone only go on what we know, and what we know is that the throw, an illegal act of cheating, has effectively replaced the handpass and has become central to the sport.

There’s far too much cheating and fouling going on in hurling, be it throw, steps, barging/charging, pulling/dragging, tactical fouling, or whatever.

A ref these days if he was to blow for everything in a county match could easily blow for 100+ frees a game. That would be a disaster for the sport, but doesn’t it say a lot about the state of the sport that of the sport that a ref has to turn a blind eye to that much fouling/cheating in the first place?

Hell, if the rules were to be applied rigidly, we couldn’t even play a match because no-one uses regulation sized hurls.

Something has to give. The throw in my view has ramped things up massively, the abuses of steps as part of the run and throw game, the barging/charging knowing you can throw it you’re bottled up, the pulling/dragging required because you know if a players gets the ball in hand he can just throw it to another player.

I think changing the handpass rule won’t solve all ills, but I reckon it’d clean up more than just the handpass as well.

It hasn’t been tried properly though…. the referees would need everyone’s support on it… this is where it all falls down in my opinion. The likes of Donal Og hammering refs for it on tv makes it very difficult. If the current rule was implemented properly it would soon cut out the throw ball because it would be so costly to your team.

some people in management need to be pushed they don’t know when to give up. Look at Joe Biden.

I see that hurling journalist Kevin Cashman has died. A Cork man who clearly loved the game and all things Cork just as much as he hated Kilkenny. He had a great turn of phrase and brought games and players to life in his articles like no one else could. His pieces in the Sunday Tribune back when inter county summers were longer and slower were worth the purchase price on their own. I used to particularly get a kick out of reading what he had to say on the Sunday after a Kilkenny win. They don`t make them like him any more. May he rest in peace.