Kilkenny GAA Thread

Topcat32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506005#Comment_123506005

About as comfortably as Kilkenny beat then yeah, which is the point you are making I suppose

kentu

On yesterday very dissapointing home support as has been said here, I genuinely thought we would bring more support with all the promotion from underage club teams as seen on social media, can't say i was overly surprised in saying that, it was mostly Tipp around me in middle of field.

Just from watching back interviews afterwards yesterday it was clear Tipp were just coming to work their socks off and play simple hurling by giving the ball to man in the best best position. Cummins clearly said they were targeting Neary when on the ball and force turnovers which we all seen they did to great effect. Then on the Kilkenny side we had a system that we were sticking to even if there was a hurrricane in place in our favour in 1st half, genuinely couldn't believe what I was watching when we had 2 big men inside and not making best use of them with the wind. Added to that and letting them walk out with the ball from short puckouts was very frustrating

I thought our full backline and goalie done aswell as they could even under so much pressure. Very little else to be positive about apart from Brennan who was excellent on frees and Murphy took his scores well and set up another few and also winning a few frees. Rory Glynn worked his socks off but just lacked a bit of scoring power.

neverbet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123505211#Comment_123505211

"People in the know" now who might they be? We got to the final despite our management and lost it because of them, that's your way of thinking? All around us the Tipp crowd were furious with Cummins and how they were set up and only relaxed when the goals started to come for them. The pressure of playing at home probably didn't help our lads and nobody will know better than themselves that they didn't play to their potential , that and facing a superior opposition.

Topcat32

Just on the attendance thing, it is worth considering that there are around 60,000 more Tipp people in the world than Kilkenny people, we are always going to be outnumbered by Cork, Tipp, Galway, Limerick and Wexford crowds when they are on a bit of a roll.

Rega

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506640#Comment_123506640

Sorry, but that's not an excuse when you get a home all ireland. Kilkenny should have filled that ground on their own.

Topcat32

I didn't say it was an excuse if you actually have a bit of a think about what I posted, I just said it was worth considering given our constant outnumbering over the years in all Irelands, even when we were heavy favourites to win, we should get a bigger turnout but any drop off due to disappointment over previous losses or lack of confidence that the team will win will be amplified by our smaller population relative to the other strong hurling counties, especially when we have been spoiled by our past success

Lap of Laois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506610#Comment_123506610

Did you think the KK management got their tactics right on the day? Because from a neutrals point of view I thought they got it completely wrong in both halves of the game.

Marrooned

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506610#Comment_123506610

anytime a team loses the management has to hold its hand up you cannot blame the players,that’s the way it always was. The Leinster final was definitely progress, but I have to say the end result was bad and we didn’t do ourselves justice,without naming anyone only about five players hurled well.

JJs Left Hand

The way the team has set up all year has been disappointing and I've said that from the first game I seen them play against Dublin in the Park so it's not reactionary. People were posting in here saying it was nice to see a team playing modern hurling but really they were playing a game that's probably 5 years out of date. It was about 18 mins into the game before they pushed Neary into midfield and Lauhoff into 11. If that was an underage club game you'd say "grand, they recognised the mistake halfway through the 1st half and rectified it" but at county level the mistake should never have been made however their hands were tied because they'd spent the year training and playing like that. You could see it in the warm up where they were passing the ball in pods of 3 about 5 yards apart for the quick handpasses. Having coached a singular game plan with a sweeper all year how do they throw that out when they get the wind in the 1st half? In terms of talent a Leinster win for that group is probably a good year to be honest.

Charlie69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506825#Comment_123506825

I hear what you're saying but surely any coaching team at any level would have a plan for playing with a gale behind them ?(and a plan for playing into the wind). As you said it should definitely never happen at this level.

hogans heroes

But dublin.played a sweeper with the wind in portlaois ,so kilkenny had a first hand look at a team not pushing up with the wind.we mirrored dublin yesterday. Totally baffling

Topcat32

The lads who got bottled up yesterday leading to turnovers and Tipp scores had nobody making themselves available for a pass, if you look at Limerick and Clare teams they break past the first tackle and then power on into space which gives them the option either to go short to the midfielders and half forward line or long into players in the full forward in a fair bit of space, we are still the worst of the main hurling counties at that off the shoulder support run which comes naturally to players who have played Gaelic football, we see so many passes even at senior level given to a player who is stationery facing their own goal.

Lap of Laois

…..

Topcat32

Assume 5 full stops are an indication of dissaproval from a Laois man, I prefer the 2006 to 2015 era of hurling too but things have moved on and if you are going to try something you may as well give your self some chance of doing it right

neverbet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506730#Comment_123506730

Not particularly , and it felt like we set out to contain Tipp even when we had the wind , my view is either way KK didn't play to their potential on the day, but even if they had they wouldn't beat an exceptional Tipp team. You must have been extremely disappointed with the Laois showing in the Leinster semi ?

Village87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506825#Comment_123506825

Straight after the win against Dublin you said we are nothing and we have no chance v Tipp. You were 100% correct. Yes we were not good enough, but that display yesterday was hard to take. It was so bad I'm stilll here contemplating it and don't know where to begin

Topcat32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507293#Comment_123507293

You see people complain about our support of our teams on here and then some of same people say that a Kilkenny team who gave their best and won a Leinster Championship against the odds are nothing, pretty odd thing to say about any inter County team let alone this one, assume its a typo, but take some care about your language while you complete your complicating, these lads are 18 and 19

JJs Left Hand

I presume he meant to say "at nothing". I can't remember my exact words but I said I thought Tipp would be strong favourites and didnt have any confidence going into the game.

Topcat32

Presume that too but even then very harsh

Sir Chaz

Very disheartening display by Kilkenny, never rose a gallop at all. I think that's the most disappointing thing really, that we never really showed any teeth or aggression, while obviously our game plan was just really poor as well. Having said that Tipp are an excellent side, and their 3 inside forwards were a huge threat, even if Bolger did a good marking job on McCarthy.
O'Donoghue and McCormack are very clever hurlers, they use their bodies really well and if they're not winning clean ball, they both have a great knack of knocking it into a good position for themselves. Tipp were at their ease really, they looked a far superior team all through. Our tactics weren't working but we stuck to it which seemed a bit crazy. It was as if we were unable to play any other system than the sweeper. At half time we were only hanging in thanks to the wind. The writing was on the wall so we nearly had to make 2 or 3 subs at that point and throw caution to the wind.

Most of our lads just didn't perform, particularly from midfield up. If Marty Murphy wasn't winning it, it was hard to see where else our threats were, although in fairness to Glynn he fought hard but just made some silly decisions in possession. Anthony Daly said it in the Examiner today, we just don't seem to producing top forwards like we used to, which continues to be a worry.

Tipp will get at least 6/7 good seniors off that side you'd expect. If we get half that we'll be lucky.

Topcat32

What do you, Anthony Daly and the "examiner" think of the forwards on the minor team?

Sir Chaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507446#Comment_123507446

You'll have to ask Anthony Daly about what he thinks, but there is definitely potential on the Minor panel this year, albeit at 16/17 they are very young still, but there looks to be some really good talent there. Fingers crossed they'll keep progressing.

Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen are probably the last 2 really serious forwards we've produced and they're both mid twenties at this stage. It's a big gap back to a 16 year old from there so in fairness he has a point.

Topcat32

True, but have many real star forwards come on the scene over that time from any county, the Clare all Ireland team team last year was spearheaded by players who were playing in 2013, the Limerick team who won four on a row in 2023 have been on the go for a fair while now, there has been some hype over Limerick and Cork underage forwards but is there any exceptional player there who will lead those teams to multiple All Irelands, I'm not so sure

jonniegoogle

Tipp were clear favorites from the start of this championship and rightly so, some outstanding talent. The only question was whether Cummins would throw a spanner in the works. It would have taken a monumental effort from KK to win against a team who are probably anywhere from 5 to 10pts better than them. They caused us problems all over the field and definitely looked to be working harder than us without the ball. I do think KK have done well this year and a lot of these lads will have learned a lot from Saturday. Just a couple of points….

• I thought Murphy was getting the ball too far away from the Square most of the time and the amount of balls that went over his head in 1st half was annoying. I would have liked to see him propped on edge og square with good direct ball played in, maybe with Glynn working off the breaks.
• Tipp had a savage FF line, one of the best in the game so I don't blame KK for going with a sweeper. He cut out a lot of ball especially in 1st half. Neary definitely brought the ball into contact way too much for my liking and was never going to break tackles .
• Go back a couple of years and posters were looking to play a modern style of hurling…..well here you have it and still not happy. I'd agree with going longer in 1st but definitely would have kept someone in front of fb line. Disappointed with the goals as playing with the extra man we seemed to be left short at the back.
• In fairness a few players are better than we saw on Sat and will have better days ahead but also a few of them were caught out when up against great opposition.

Just my thoughts……

conor05

Anytime I see an article from Anthony Daly and Kilkenny in it, I keep scrolling, you can sure there is a chance it in somewhere to have a cut off Kilkenny or talk about his provinces superiority over Leinster.

me89

Any word on injuries ahead of Sunday, are Shane Murphy or Eoin Cody fit?

usualstripes

Tipp were more clinical on the day. Full stop. Having watched all of our u20 matches I had the opinion that this was the first kilkenny team that actually looks comfortable playing out from the back but every game is different. You have to alternate your strategy if its not producing results throughout any match. There was a period of about 15 minutes in the 2nd half where our play was breaking down in our half forward line and we weren't able to win anything there. We should have brought marty Murphy out for 10 minutes as the ball was t getting into him. Granted, he is most effective in the edge of the square bur if you're not feeding him, bring him into the game further out. You must have several switches in your head for any match, depending on how the game is panning out. He was the only forward we had that was capable of taking his man on.

Overall, like the camogie match before it, we were 2nd best when it comes down to speed and strength. This is something we have to work on with intercounty squads. It's so evident.

With the seniors there hasn't been one match this year where you are excited after a performance. Granted, the opposition haven't tested us massively but its been laboursome throughout the campaign. We need some kind of spark. Let's hope eoin Cody, mullen et al will give is something to get excited about. Anyone think of not going to croker this weekend, just get off your arse and go. Regardless of what way we think, we still have to support the lads.

Lap of Laois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507224#Comment_123507224

Very disappointed, they haven’t progressed from the minor grade at all.

My point though was you seemed to be very critical of anyone that questioned the KK management tactics so I was interested in your own opinion on them.
It turns out you thought they got it wrong yourself.

Lap of Laois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507212#Comment_123507212

I deleted a post meant for elsewhere that’s all. Huge admirer of Kk hurling and certainly no offence meant to anyone.

hogans heroes

On the camogie. Big lack of pace in the forwards and playing Katie power as 6/sweeper didn't work.