National Hurling League 2015 General Discussion

TouchingVirus

As a Dub I have to feel for Jonjo; it happened in front of me super fast but I saw nothing worthy of a red. A wild swing maaaaybe, but no intent? Baffling.

The goal for Kilkenny was a comedy of errors by Dublin

Goat the dote

Sure it should have been a free for him at one stage

Realt Dearg Sec

Goat the dote wrote: »

We're actually stunned here none of us can find what the red was for!!
Where's wally is easier to find

Centre forward

LuckyGent88

Did the ref just give liam rushe a yellow for taking too many steps????

LeinsterDub

Would like to see Dublin scoring a goal. Goals have been their achilles

letowski

Anybody catch Flynns line ball there for Galway just before half time? Awesome strike!

citykat

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Would like to see Dublin scoring a goal. Goals have been their achilles

Are the hurlers not from Dublin?

wonder88

Good start from Dublin. Bad call by ref for the first red card to Kilkenny. As expected it is a very open league so far, top division anyway. Bit of pressure on Clare I suppose.

Mountainlad

Fireball07 wrote: »

With only 5 games in each division, every single point is important.

One of Kilkenny or Dublin could basically stave off relegation after only two games, which would give them room for a bit of experimentation then. Both had great starts considering... KK are home, but Dublin looked very sharp against Tipp. I think Dublin might get a win here, although write KK off at your peril, as they say.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if one of Cork and Clare lose, they could be in big trouble. The Cork team looks stronger with Walsh back at midfield, McLoughlin at half-back; with Cronin & O'Sullivan both dropped up front. Cork at home again, and desperately need to make amends for an awful display against a weakened KK side. Clare haven't named their team yet, but will be disappointed not to have beaten Galway; Tony Kelly & David McInerney both missed UL's game through injury but you'd feel that if the likes of Conor McGrath start, Cork can be got at. Cork beat Clare in the Championship last year though and at home, pretty much have to win, or they'll be in a relegation play-off.

Tipp host Galway too, Tipp haven't named their team yet but were way off the pace against Dublin despite a strong team. Galway are missing a lot of players but have a big, strong, physical team; well suited to this time of year. I would have question marks over some of them and I expect Tipp to bounce back at home tbh.




In 1B, Limerick's team looks stronger with the return of Ryan and Dowling; along with both Morrisseys starting. Away to Antrim is a tough ask but I think we can get the win and hopefully target goals.

Waterford-Laois will be hugely interesting... I reckon Laois will be gutted not to have got something against Offaly, Waterford will be disappointed not have beaten Limerick. I was impressed with Waterford against Limerick, but this is the kind of game where they have to lay down a marker. Laois are a good side, but at home, Waterford have to win if they want to go up... and they probably need to get a decent-ish margin too... Offaly got 4 points, Waterford would nearly want 7 or 8 at least. Anything more would give them a huge, huge advantage.

Offaly did brilliantly to beat Laois, Wexford scraped past Antrim. Are Offaly finally back on the right track? If they got anything against Wexford, it would be a bit of a shock, and a huge blow to Wexford's chances. But a strong league campaign would be great for Offaly and great for hurling in general to have another strong team; Wexford showed what they could do last year, dumping out Clare & Waterford, and have had good U-21 teams; I expect them to win tbh. Dooley scored 1-14 against Laois, he's a class act, but I suppose you can't rely too much on one player either.



I predict wins for Dublin, Cork, Tipp, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford.

I hope you had the accumulator up!!!

Fireball07

Mountainlad wrote: »

I hope you had the accumulator up!!!

Sadly not

PlayByTheRules

Great win for Dublin hurling.
The sophistication and style of play was very high, even for this time of year.
I think all of the main changes in the spine of the team are starting to work. Rushe might take a bit longer but he requires constant attention which allows Treacy and others to work off.

Dublin showed other counties how best to beat Kilkenny.

1: Use an effective man marker on Richie Hogan: He is almost unmarkable but Cian O'Callaghan was the right man - low centre of gravity, sticky and awkward.
2: Play wide: Kilkenny love to funnel play and create mauls as they are masters at winning them and use their physical side to somehow always out with the ball, the Dublin forwards and Mark Schutte in particular used the wing very effectively and sniped his scores from out there.
3: Pure intensity: Match them at their own game, smother them every time they get the ball.

Fireball07

I think you have to get goals to beat Kilkenny (I know Dublin beat them yesterday, but I mean in the Championship); all of those above points are true, but if Hogan moves back to midfield, how do you man mark him there? He's class but once they have a full compliment of forwards back, he will have more support- Ruth, Walter Walsh, Kelly, etc. are decent players but not top class forwards by any means.


We'll see come Championship, the big test for KK is to see how Murphy goes at full-back, and how well his replacement goes in the corner; same with Joyce at centre-back. I suppose Holden & Fennelly are options in those positions too.

dastardly00

20 minutes gone in the Dublin-Cork match. Cork have come out of the traps very quickly and are leading 0-10 to 0-03.

Live on Sentanta Ireland at the moment.

Kristopherus

And Cork getting a lot of soft frees.

John Cherry

This is a annilation of epic proportions by Cork.

KevIRL

21 points is some scoring for a half of hurling

dastardly00

Half-time: Dublin 0-08 Cork 0-21.
I don't think I've ever seen a team scoring 21 points in a first half.

Realt Dearg Sec

dastardly00 wrote: »

Half-time: Dublin 0-08 Cork 0-21.
I don't think I've ever seen a team scoring 21 points in a first half.

Wind must have been strong. I only caught the second half, Dublin fight hard but the damage was done and it always stayed near ten points until the end. Surprise result, the league is wide open again now regardless of results tomorrow.

LuckyGent88

That's ridiculous shooting from cork this evening. Very impressive performances out of them the last 2 rounds.

zetecescort

very little intensity in the game, which suits Cork. always fancy their chances in a shootout.

Dublin must have been flogged in training during the week or something, feared abit of a trimming from them if they played like they did against KK but they were incredibly flat

buggy beag

played both tipp and kk on smaller tighter pitches which suits their game better than the wide open spaces

Professey Chin

buggy beag wrote: »

played both tipp and kk on smaller tighter pitches which suits their game better than the wide open spaces

Nowlan Park has the same pitch size as croke park afaik

KevIRL

Wins for Galway and Tipp in 1A today. Clarke look nailed on for one of the relegation play off spots but all to play for between the rest.

1B almost certain to be between Limerick and Waterford, after limerick beat Wexford today

zombieHanalei

Really wish they left the format alone last year and didn't introduce four quarter finals. The 2012/13 format was perfect. Shouldn't have over half the teams in a group qualifying for knockout stages.

Fireball07

zombieHanalei wrote: »

Really wish they left the format alone last year and didn't introduce four quarter finals. The 2012/13 format was perfect. Shouldn't have over half the teams in a group qualifying for knockout stages.

Nah it's not great, but it works out alright for the 1B teams, they all get a crack off a 1A team. They all lost last year, but Laois & Cork both got high-intensity games.

dastardly00

Fireball07 wrote: »

Nah it's not great, but it works out alright for the 1B teams, they all get a crack off a 1A team. They all lost last year, but Laois & Cork both got high-intensity games.

It'd work out pretty crap for a 1B team if they didn't finish top of the group stage, but ended up winning the league competition overall. That'd mean they would be league champions, but still be playing in 1B in the following season. Unlikely to happen I know but still.

KevIRL

zombieHanalei wrote: »

Really wish they left the format alone last year and didn't introduce four quarter finals. The 2012/13 format was perfect. Shouldn't have over half the teams in a group qualifying for knockout stages.

It wasn't perfect for the teams finishing 4th in 1A and 3rd and 4th in 1B who had no competitive hurling after the end of march until their first championship game

zombieHanalei

KevIRL wrote: »

It wasn't perfect for the teams finishing 4th in 1A and 3rd and 4th in 1B who had no competitive hurling after the end of march until their first championship game

Forgive me for being pedantic but those who lose the quarter finals are still left with no competitive hurling after March given that the quarter finals are played the weekend after round 5! (Sorry! I know what you meant though and I accept that point)

I wouldn't sympathise with those counties; 1st to 3rd in 1A earned the right to extend their league seasons, the top 2 in 1B earned the right to play a final and the winner earned the right to extend their season by joining the top 3 1A sides in the semi finals.

In terms of providing us a competitive league it (was) about a perfect a format as you could get. Now we have a situation whereby 4th place in the top tier holds the same reward as 4th place in the second tier; they both get a place in the quarter finals of the knockout stage, that doesn't seem fair.

Giving teams extra games just for the sake of it kind of devalues the competition a little bit. (Which is a shame because after years of chopping and changing the format they had finally come up with a format that seemed to work- 1A is a cracking division and the best thing that ever happened league hurling!)

PlayByTheRules

I presume TG4 will be showing Tipp vs. KK this Sunday. Can anyone confirm?

GerB40

PlayByTheRules wrote: »

I presume TG4 will be showing Tipp vs. KK this Sunday. Can anyone confirm?

It would be foolish not to show a match between last years AI finalists. Then again there might be a nice oul show about a tractor on at the same time so who knows...