Kilkenny V Offaly - 7pm, Saturday 7th June 2014. Sky Sports 3 & RTÉ Radio 1

Lapin

Kilkenny: E Murphy; P Murphy, JJ Delaney, B Kennedy; P Walsh, J Tyrrell, C Buckley; L Ryan, R Hogan; W Walsh, M Fennelly, TJ Reid; C Fennelly, M Kelly, E Larkin.

Offaly: J Dempsey; N Wynne, R Hanniffy, J Rigney; B Harding, D Morkan, C Parlon; C Mahon, S Ryan; J Bergin (Capt), D Currams, P Geraghty; K Connolly, S Dooley and B Carroll.


The production line of Cats continues to produce up and coming lions rather than kittens and despite a poor championship by their standards last year, Kilkenny have laid down a firm marker of their intentions in the league earlier this year. I'm tipping them to make a Croke Park appearance in September.

Offaly seem to lack the self belief they once had in abundance in recent years and I have seen nothing in them of late to suggest it will return this evening.

My prediction - Kilkenny by at least 10 points.

Lapin

Its a few years since I was in Nowlan Park but I could have sworn there was a covered stand on both sides of the pitch there.

Has the roof been removed from one side ?

statto25

Lapin wrote: »

Its a few years since I was in Nowlan Park but I could have sworn there was a covered stand on both sides of the pitch there.

Has the roof been removed from one side ?

One side was damaged during the storms in February and hasn't been repaired.

Lapin

Beautiful by TJ Reid.

He's gonna have some season if he stays injury free.

Lapin

Cats are cruising now.

Fennelly was on for a goal there but content to knock it over.

theteal

Offaly getting bullied

Lapin

Larkin goal. 1 09 - 0 03

Game over.

Paully D

Game over after 15 minutes.

Lapin

Is it too late to change my prediction in the OP to 20 points?

Lapin

What a save.

Well done Dempsey !

eigrod

Offaly are like a junior side so far.

This is THE worst performance I've seen in Championship in years.
Conceding 18 in 20 mins is pitiful.
A junior team wouldn't be doing any worse.
Kilkenny on for a 60 point game.
Kilkenny footballers would do better against a D1 team

Paully D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAUY1J8KizU

KevIRL

2-22 is some score in 35 minutes. That score after 70 mins would be enough to win about 90% of championship games

Boom__Boom

Offaly just sad-bad.

Kilkenny not even having to do all that much.

I'd love to know the logic for playing against the wind.

Also the sweeper "tactic" was a huge disaster - seemed as if Offaly had no real plan how to use a sweeper to keep things tight. Did they even practice this in training?

obezyana

How come Kilkenny have home advantage for this? Cork/Waterford was in Thurles how come this isn't neutral?

KevIRL

obezyana wrote: »

How come Kilkenny have home advantage for this? Cork/Waterford was in Thurles how come this isn't neutral?

Home/away agreement exists between KK and Offaly. Similar to Tipp and Limerick last week

KevIRL

Wonder if KK can score 40 points (not including goals), cant remember seeing 40 before

Boom__Boom

8 different scorers for Kilkenny at half-time

Boom__Boom

KevIRL wrote: »

Wonder if KK can score 40 points (not including goals), cant remember seeing 40 before

Even 30+ would be rare enough I'd imagine, and you'd imagine that's a dead cert now, even when Kilkenny run the subs.

obezyana

KevIRL wrote: »

Home/away agreement exists between KK and Offaly. Similar to Tipp and Limerick last week

Ah right cheers I didn't know that

Lapin

Dreading that game in two weeks now. Especially after our performance last week.

KevIRL

Attendance 11,841. Very low considering the game is on in KK.

Was a lot of talk about how low the attendance (16k) was for the Cork-Waterford game. Wonder how much of a mention this will get

Lapin

This would be a lot worse without Dempsey.

KevIRL

3-22 of 3-23 from play. Offaly dont care enough even to foul

Limestone1

Just got home - sounds like its not worth tuning in then ?

Boom__Boom

"No need for a black card in hurling"

Steven81

Under Whelahan offaly will do nothing, KK beat us by 32 points a few years ago.

Itssoeasy

James Dempsey has stopped three goals now.

buzsywuzsy

Kicking the ball must have confused Kilkenny

TheGlass

Steven81 wrote: »

Under Whelahan offaly will do nothing, KK beat us by 32 points a few years ago.

Yep, shouldn't have been appointed. He did nothing with Camross and left a bad taste there, plenty were wary when he was appointed. The county board have to take the fall for this though, they're useless and haven't put in the structure and groundwork other counties have. Offaly are being left behind, and at the moment probably behind Laois. There's the makings of a good team at the moment if the right manager is in place, but things aren't looking good at underage level. Worrying looking towards the future