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

Was very happy to come out of croker with victory as i have to admit I was very worried at half time as we were completely out hurled. Galway worked very hard in the 1st half and just swarmed out any space for the KK forwards. Hogan showed great leadership and he just completely unsettled the Galway full back line. Heres how i saw it.....

Murphy-Decision making was 100% spot on. Made great save second half and pucks were good. Never does anything too flashy but just does the basics so well and and in my opinion the best keeper in the country(League semi was just a bad day at the office).

Murphy-Although Galway full forward line got a good few scores alot of them were from mistakes further out the field.I thought Murphy was brilliant and I really think when this lad finishes up we will be talking about him in the same breathe and JJ and Tommy

Holden- Big improvement and getting closer to last years forms. At times i feel he rises the ball a bit too high which makes it easy for the opposition to dispossess him but thought he was excellent in second half.

Lennon-Struggled with with the fast ball into open spaces early on where you just see why he has played almost all his hurling at full back. But still he did some very good things and showed good willingness to take the short puckouts with out panicking when Murphy over hit one to him in the second half. Well deserved of his place

Walsh-Won his battle and used the ball effectively

Joyce-Was good and has really made the No.6 jersey his own

Buckley-great goal saving clearance and thought he linked up well with Lennon. Has been brilliant the last two games and hopefully this puts a stop to the nonsense of playing him midfield. He the best half back in the country so lets just leave him there

Fennelly- The man is a freak of nature!what a hurler

Fogarty-Delighted to finally see him get the credit and praise he deserves from outside kilkenny.The role he plays in this KK team is invaluable

Wally- Bringing some good consistency to his game and becoming a key player for kk

TJ- Alot better in second half but im hoping he just saving himself for the big days outs in croker cos dont think KK will win AI this year if him and Hogan not on song. He obviously getting greater attention from defences as team realise his importance to the kk team but luckily for us on the last two days others player stood up in his place. Not overly worried cos his class will eventually prevail

Lester- Worked his socks off but will be dissapointed not to have taken goal chance.In my opinion he needs to be fitted into our starting 15 somewhere

Jonjo-Have to say I was one of the ones who doubted him and you really have to give credit to wheres its due. He has been immense and another good performance in semi final and you would imagine All Star in the bag. I think he more suited to corner forward than full forward as the runs he makes are brilliant to drag the corner back out of position to create space. I have admit im delighted to be proven wrong as he was always a work horse that gave 100% but has now added some clinical finishing to his game


Colin F- Had a hamstring injury going into the game so that restricted his effectiveness

Larkin- His Touch just let him down and he just couldnt get into the game. Will need to impress in training the next few weeks but either way you can write him off at your peril......

Power-Done well and took his point well.Did some very good tracking back and tackling too. He a confidence based player and apparently had been gong very well in training of late so hopefully he can keep it going now.

Hogan-Pure joy to watch.I didnt see the Sunday Game but I thought he was my MOM. Although he only played for 35mins he had the biggest influence on the final result and I say that without wanting to take anything away from Fogarty. Showed great urgency and drive. By his own very high standards he had a subdued league campaign and maybe just needed a rest of which the injury allowed him to get but in the end form is temporary and class is permanent!!

Johnjo's on fire your defence is terrified.......

Don't know how good we are but I suspect Galway are quite useless and won't progress any further in qualifiers if they get a Munster team.

Never ever doubted Jonjo - I always thought he was a very hard opponent to mark and impossible to keep quite for a game. I suspect he will find it hard to keep up the very high scoring rate he has now set for himself though.

Conor was definitively MOTM but Joyce was really good too and deserves more credit too for his performances. Where now is the younger brother?

Great to come away with the win yesterday, there were times during the match when I didn't think it would happen.

There are a few areas where we need improvement but no doubt Cody will already be formulating a plan to improve on yesterday's performance.

Richie Hogan coming on after half time made all the difference, what a player!

Larkin had a poor game yesterday but after being away for so long he's probably just a bit rusty.

Just had a guy in work say that Galway were robbed and that some young lad came on for Kilkenny and ran riot. Made my morning to tell him he was referring to Richie Hogan, former hurler of the year

dastardly00 wrote: »

If Galway are 'useless' then that doesn't say much about the KK team. Silly comment to be honest

they are not useless, just gutless. Who are they going to blame now?

JJs Left Hand wrote: »

Don't see how anyone could've been overly concerned at half time. Whelan and Mannion were doing damage but that was purely from outside. They never once broke inside us in the first half and that's the concern with us. No team will beat us with points alone. If they were running riot in the forwards it would've been one thing but they weren't and they were clinical with their chances. We're a 2nd half team and that's where we win games. We hit some wides and missed 2 proper goal chances in the first half. We should've been in front at half time and we had more gears to go through. We're comfortably better than them. That doesn't mean they're useless.

They're also not gutless. They bring a lot of physicality to the game to try rough us up which just isn't possible. It takes a lot out of a team and our fitness levels are insane. Look at Lester chasing down 2 Galway defenders at the end of the game with no hurl. They just couldn't last the 70 and had nothing in the tank left for the last 10.

I was def worried at half time but not because our full back line had conceded a few scored but worried because our forward line was going so poorly. Cody made two changes at half time in the forwards but the reality is they were going so bad that other than Jonjo and Wally aside, Cody could easily have taken off any of the other 4 forwards. I was shocked at how ineffective Canning was and just shows the difference but if he played like that for kk there would have been no way he would have finished the game!

JJs Left Hand wrote: »

Don't see how anyone could've been overly concerned at half time. Whelan and Mannion were doing damage but that was purely from outside. They never once broke inside us in the first half and that's the concern with us. No team will beat us with points alone. If they were running riot in the forwards it would've been one thing but they weren't and they were clinical with their chances. We're a 2nd half team and that's where we win games. We hit some wides and missed 2 proper goal chances in the first half. We should've been in front at half time and we had more gears to go through. We're comfortably better than them. That doesn't mean they're useless.

They're also not gutless. They bring a lot of physicality to the game to try rough us up which just isn't possible. It takes a lot out of a team and our fitness levels are insane. Look at Lester chasing down 2 Galway defenders at the end of the game with no hurl. They just couldn't last the 70 and had nothing in the tank left for the last 10.

For all their domination in first half, Galway never created a decent goal chance. They had a half chance from a tight angle but Lennon got a flick to it to put it out for a 65.

Kilkenny's movement in 2nd half was excellent, especially Farrell. He can create space for himself and others.

I think Galway made the mistake in 2nd half on going to their men instead on lining out in their places. They should have kept 3 and 6 at 3 and 6 at start of the second half instead of going to their men when Kilkenny switched it.

Cats have Holden at 3 and Joyce at 6 regardless of what happens to where the other defenders go.

MfMan wrote: »

For a team that maybe quite useless, they rattled Cody enough to replace Larkin and Fennelly at ht. The FF that started scored 10 from play, so what's a better team going to do?

Were Canning playing for KK he would also have taken him off. JC has been reduced to cameos against KK at this stage. For his own and Galway's sake, he needs a spell on the bench to rekindle the fire.

citykat wrote: »

Were Canning playing for KK he would also have taken him off. JC has been reduced to cameos against KK at this stage. For his own and Galway's sake, he needs a spell on the bench to rekindle the fire.

Didn't take TJ off at ht tho'.

Charlie69 wrote: »

What about Paul Murphy's performance yesterday??, thought he was absolutely flawless again, his covering, hooking and blocking...he can deal with it any way you throw it at him, attacks the ball with vigour on the ground and brilliant in the air.

His positional sense and reading of the game has improved with experience and he's always available to his goalkeeper or colleagues for a pass to get them out of trouble.

He was hardly mentioned when it came to Motm which shows he has reached a level of consistency now to the point where we expect this level of performance from him in every game... brilliant player for us.

Totally agree. He caught a couple of great fetches in the first half. Going backwards when he knew he was going to get clattered by Canning in the meat in the sandwich with Holden in behind. He kept his eye on ball all the time.

He does attack the back with some authority alright and his distribution is good also. He is great at sweeping also.

Reason he was not mentioned as man of the match is Galway scored 7 or 8pts from play from the full forward line. Everything they hit in the first half went over.

MfMan wrote: »

Didn't take TJ off at ht tho'.

Sadly for him, JC wouldn't lace TJs boots at this stage in his career. Yesterday, was as good an example as you'd get. When KK needed him in the second half, TJ stood up. When Galway needed him, JC was nowhere to be found.

Charlie69 wrote: »

Cornerback1 wrote: »

Totally agree. He caught a couple of great fetches in the first half. Going backwards when he knew he was going to get clattered by Canning in the meat in the sandwich with Holden in behind. He kept his eye on ball all the time.

He does attack the back with some authority alright and his distribution is good also. He is great at sweeping also.

Reason he was not mentioned as man of the match is Galway scored 7 or 8pts from play from the full forward line. Everything they hit in the first half went over.

Not arguing with Fogarty's selection for Motm btw, he was excellent all day. But do you really think Murphy wasn't a candidate???

I thought Murphy was magic. He attacked him and i was watching him (i was in 332 Hogan) when ball wasn't near him and his covering is super. Great reader of a game.

He was the exact same V Dublin in semi-final...aggresively attacks the ball. In regards to man of the match for me, he was a contender but it'll always, more often than not go to a forward. I though that Richie wasn't far away with 5pts in 35 mins. He had a great influence in the second half.

Most important think is that it's a team game and different players will have different influences in different games. That's the KK mantra!

Am i right in saying that in the event of Cork and Tipp being in the quarter finals that they can't meet again and same for Clare/waterford?

citykat wrote: »

Sadly for him, JC wouldn't lace TJs boots at this stage in his career. Yesterday, was as good an example as you'd get. When KK needed him in the second half, TJ stood up. When Galway needed him, JC was nowhere to be found.

Ah you're talking nonsense there citykat. Sure TJ is playing at a level above Canning for the last couple of seasons.... but to say that he wouldn't lace TJ's boots is just ridiculous. He is still an extremely good hurler.

You're either over-exaggerating to get your point across, or else you don't have the ability to appreciate hurlers who are not from our county.