Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 2 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

PatShortt

Shirleysrumbler wrote: »

Agree there. A junior club could be based around the Freshford road with James' park given by board for them.Also an extra team inJohns with Dunmore used by them.
These clhbs would have their own premises within a decade such is the appetite in KK for the game.

There was a club started in the 1980s by the late Eamon Hennessy they were based around the butts they played junior for a couple of years but disbanded then I think they were called ye fair city.

brookville

Nedflanders02 wrote: »

Surprised that Gaffney and Martin Keoghan aren't on the panel aswell, they've been in good form in the club championship this year!! Also we've only named a panel of 24 is it not usually 26?

Would martin keoghan be doing the leaving cert?it's usually 26 we had 26 the last day

Nedflanders02

brookville wrote: »

Would martin keoghan be doing the leaving cert?it's usually 26 we had 26 the last day

Yeah that's true but so is James Bergin, maybe Bergin finished earlier and that's why he's included!! Not having the full 26 is a strange one, maybe there'll be a couple added that aren't listed

brookville

I see the intermediates are playing galway next week who are always strong.We probably won't be that strong considering we won it last year so we lose all them players.It's a pity it's not taken more seriously because it could be a great opportunity for lads out of u21 a few years to try press for the senior panel.Last year was great to see a host of this year's 21 team play hopefully this year we see something similar

tbiggertycome

Was talking to someone who knows in the U21 set up and they said they picked the team that they reckon can do the job. No idea why they only picked 24 players

John Walsh injured don't know the extent.
Richie Leahy on the subs bench still not 100%
Andy Gaffney just not picked as far as I know not injured
Martin Keoghan his father wouldn't allow him be involved with the set up while he had his Leaving Cert which is fair enough and it would be unfair to pick him ahead of the others when he hasn't been involved all year.

dastardly00

PP have KK at 1/20 to win and Westmeath at 10/1 to win. Seems a bit nuts considering the result last year and that at the end of the day it's still a two horse race...

Village87

brookville wrote: »

I see the intermediates are playing galway next week who are always strong.We probably won't be that strong considering we won it last year so we lose all them players.It's a pity it's not taken more seriously because it could be a great opportunity for lads out of u21 a few years to try press for the senior panel.Last year was great to see a host of this year's 21 team play hopefully this year we see something similar

Who is over the Intermediates this year?

Probably a good few Under 21s involved, John Donnelly will be on that im sure.

Nedflanders02

Village87 wrote: »

Who is over the Intermediates this year?

Probably a good few Under 21s involved, John Donnelly will be on that im sure.

Are the intermediates not playing Wexford in the leinster final? I heard that Galway have pulled out because they can only play players from Junior and intermediate teams this year.

Think Anthony McCormack of Dunnamaggin is the manager this year.

tbiggertycome

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Not much appetite in the existing clubs for it though. Plenty for them to lose and nothing to gain from it, especially if they were to lose recruiting territory. Not sure how a club would get on trying to recruit kids without its own territory either. I'm pretty sure the Boro wouldn't give up on the Sycamores, and all of the other areas around James's Park without a major fight, let alone the fact that it's right beside St Canice's! But given the size of the city and the number of kids playing, the current city clubs are oversized and it's a huge part of the reason for the drop off in playing numbers in successive age groups. From my own memory of being pretty sh1t, you just weren't valued.

Just a few facts as of 2011 census haven't had time to update it but the population stats for the city clubs are as follows (they'r the top 3 clubs in the county population wise)
1 O'Loughlin Gaels 10,753
2 James Stephens 10,062
3 Dicksboro 7,584

So if you were to locate a territory anywhere it should be in either O'Loughlins or the Village if you were to take population into account.

There is plenty of scope to expand the cities population on the Western side increasing the Boro's population but that hasn't happened yet.

You also have to consider that the city clubs will always have a higher fall off in participation due to other sport options and distractions on the young players doorstep whereas the rural or village players the GAA is by and large the only option without undertaking a journey.

In terms of area the 3 city clubs are ranked in the county
16th O'Loughlin Gaels 59.45 sq/km
35th Dicksboro 33.56 sq/km
= James Stephens 33.56 sq/km

So the most likely option for a 4th club which I agree is necessary, at the moment would be O'Loughlins who has nearly twice the area and the biggest population of the city clubs.

just some further population figures if your interested
4 Slieverue 5951
5 Thomastown 4153
6 Piltown 3839
7 John Lockes 3455
8 Erins Own 2959
9 Danesfort 2579
10 Mooncoin 2573

top 10 Areas of Clubs
1 St Martins 94.47 sq/km
2 Rower Inistioge 91.58 sq/km
3 Thomastown 83.65 sq/km
4 Piltown 80.95 sq/km
5 Tullogher Rosbercon 80.67 sq/km
6 John Lockes 77.34 sq/km
7 Danesfort 72.47 sq/km
8 Graigue Ballycallan 72.15 sq/km
9 Dunnamaggin/Kilmoganny 71.15 sq/km
10 Lisdowney 70.76 sq/km

Realt Dearg Sec

I'm more than happy to see one of the other clubs get a bite taken out of their territory! Really what I'd envision though is an outlet for kids (and adults) from anywhere in the city, because the clubs are simply oversubscribed at all levels.

Incidentally while I agree the is a certain amount of truth that there are more options in town then or the country, saying that's the reason for the drop off let's the clubs off the hook too much for my liking. I didn't stop because the was soccer down the road, I stopped because going to training you were as likely as not going to be sent to the far end of the field away from the actual trainers while they concentrated on the good lads, and spent your match days sitting on a sideline doing nothing.

As an adult a friend of mine went back down to the club, and find that when they moved the training time or venue nobody was bothered to inform him. He left it and got involved playing in a small club in a neighbouring county. He wasn't very good, but he helped set up their underage section and trained the kids for a few years, won their club man of the year award. Meanwhile I went off and was involved in setting up a gaa club myself. My point is that in a small club that energy and enthusiasm for the game might have been harnessed and put in the service of the club itself. But in the boro, the sheer numbers they have meant that we were not involved, and nobody was looking past the fact that we were poor players. I have a feeling the big clubs lose a huge number of potentially very dedicated and active volunteers this way, and they probably gravitate to other sports as a result.

Village87

Room for another 2 clubs in Kilkenny city going on the population of 28,000

JJs Left Hand

St. Martins :cool: all that land and no-one in it :cool:

WhatsGoingOn2

There are a lot of under performing clubs in that top 10 based on population (outside of the City teams)

Village87

JJs Left Hand wrote: »

St. Martins :cool: all that land and no-one in it :cool:

Coon/Muckalee has a ridiculously big area

tbiggertycome

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

I'm more than happy to see one of the other clubs get a bite taken out of their territory! Really what I'd envision though is an outlet for kids (and adults) from anywhere in the city, because the clubs are simply oversubscribed at all levels.

Incidentally while I agree the is a certain amount of truth that there are more options in town then or the country, saying that's the reason for the drop off let's the clubs off the hook too much for my liking. I didn't stop because the was soccer down the road, I stopped because going to training you were as likely as not going to be sent to the far end of the field away from the actual trainers while they concentrated on the good lads, and spent your match days sitting on a sideline doing nothing.

As an adult a friend of mine went back down to the club, and find that when they moved the training time or venue nobody was bothered to inform him. He left it and got involved playing in a small club in a neighbouring county. He wasn't very good, but he helped set up their underage section and trained the kids for a few years, won their club man of the year award. Meanwhile I went off and was involved in setting up a gaa club myself. My point is that in a small club that energy and enthusiasm for the game might have been harnessed and put in the service of the club itself. But in the boro, the sheer numbers they have meant that we were not involved, and nobody was looking past the fact that we were poor players. I have a feeling the big clubs lose a huge number of potentially very dedicated and active volunteers this way, and they probably gravitate to other sports as a result.

I totally agree that it allows the city clubs off the hook and they should be trying harder to encourage participation at all levels over say 16. However if there aren't meaningful games for those you manage to keep involved, it will lead to participation dying off again.

Would the formation of street/estate leagues for the city be a starting point? Just a little mini league competition with lads who aren't involved in any grade with their club, so your not calling off games because of club or county games.
You could have these age groups.
Minor,
U21,
U30,
U35
Old,

If you had 6 teams based out of the 3 clubs that exist it would be a start and then add more if the demand was there. The Night Owls do it in the soccer and the Tag rugby do it also. With a strong social media campaign you could easily put those teams together and run it off successfully on different nights of the week. You could probably get grants from the GAA and local council as your encouraging community participation and cohesion with such projects. If the other sports can do it why can't you do it with hurling, in a hurling crazy county?

Having 5 age groups x 6 teams x 20 players a side = 600 more people involved in the city on a playing basis.
Add that on top of the 4 teams most clubs have above 16 age group (minor, U21, Senior, Junior) giving you a participation level of about 360 currently in the city (average of 30 players per squad).

That would be a almost a twice as many more participating in hurling in the city. Then as these players and managers formed bonds over the years they would be in a stronger position to start any new clubs in the city with a wide network of like minded individuals. I think trying to start a club from scratch in Kilkenny would be very hard but with that type of a competition in place for a few years it could help ease the club loyalties which would be very hard to break currently.

dastardly00

Something to lighten the mood!

TJ vs Paul Murphy in a pull-up challenge

https://www.facebook.com/sheridaninsurances/videos/10154430195205807/

Video should be public (i.e. no FB account required)

Murphy wins it easily IMO!

Realt Dearg Sec

tbiggertycome wrote: »

You could have these age groups.
Minor,
U21,
U30,
U35
Old,

I like these age groups because, technically, it means I still qualify, just about, as "not old". Which isn't quite as good as young, but I'll take it.

sasta le

dastardly00 wrote: »

Something to lighten the mood!

TJ vs Paul Murphy in a pull-up challenge

https://www.facebook.com/sheridaninsurances/videos/10154430195205807/

Video should be public (i.e. no FB account required)

Murphy wins it easily IMO!

Tj has opened a gym so plugging big time.Think he wasnt much for.social.media but with the gym and he has a gf thats miss kilkenny he has to get the name out there

JJs Left Hand

This is a shambles altogether

brookville

Terrible performance altogether.westmeath seem much sharper but there touch letting them down at times if it was a more clinical team we'd be well behind.some of the puck outs baffling

Nedflanders02

There touch has been absolutely terrible so far, Shane Walsh not in the game at all if Leahy is fit get him on as soon as possible. We need to get Blanch and Ryan into the game more, Blanch looks to have the beating of his man, 2 great points from Pat Lyng keeping us in it, we need a massive second half here

JaffaP

Woeful so far, but that's only a continuation of how they were against an abysmal Dublin team.

Westmeath aren't up to much, and if we get it together we should still win. Brennan seems fairly clueless.

Faugheen

Regardless of what happens, the lack of basic skill on show here is frightening..

dobbs2210

Westmeath after missing a mountain of scores. This is utterly shocking. Jason cleere getting cleaned out pulled and dragged all over the place. It's terrible.

what Liam Blanchfield did with the pass from Richie Leahy was awful.

JJs Left Hand

Why is Darren Mullen still on no. 12 and he getting roasted under every puck out

Faugheen

Richie Leahy a class above here.

JJs Left Hand

Didn't deserve to win that by 10 although we were obviously the better team

Worrying lack of an ability to read a game and when the game was tight we really struggled to win any clean ball with a good first touch

JaffaP

Awful match.

If we'd met a decent side tonight we'd have been beaten out the gate.

Faugheen

11 point win but it flatters us big time.

There's something very wrong with the underage/club system. Our fitness rather than skill level won us that game. Westmeath more than a match skill-wise.

We need to start promoting the skills of hurling again. Far too many athletes rather than hurlers coming through.

sasta le

Brian Kennedy he still on senior panel?