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

Justice for the individual wrote: »

No bother, (little do you know) - a bad idea to talk too cocky, and Brian (or his team) does not do cocky - ever!

Chastenising experiences from the past has ingrained an awareness of not taking any game for granted.

Which of you (non-Kilkenny supporters) is Ger Loughnane?

Well! Whatever about the things Kilkenny have to worry about this weekend, it seems complacency isn't one of them! They can just rest that at the back of their mind somewhere, because complacency is something for other teams to worry about!

I'd be worried wnough about Sunday. I think that Tipp's hammering of Waterford will take the pressure off them. They have nothing to lose and won't take the same beating again.

In regards to their 'system', they must go ahead and keep ahead. If they fall behind, like last year's semi-final, can they change things around?

I think if they being their 'shooting hurls' to Croke Park, they'll be well in the game. Their shot selection must be good. Sometimes they shoot from distance for the sake of it and when they get 2 or 3 wides in a row like that, the confidence starts to go.

Cornerback1 wrote: »

I'd be worried wnough about Sunday. I think that Tipp's hammering of Waterford will take the pressure off them. They have nothing to lose and won't take the same beating again.

In regards to their 'system', they must go ahead and keep ahead. If they fall behind, like last year's semi-final, can they change things around?

I think if they being their 'shooting hurls' to Croke Park, they'll be well in the game. Their shot selection must be good. Sometimes they shoot from distance for the sake of it and when they get 2 or 3 wides in a row like that, the confidence starts to go.

The forecast for Sunday is for it to be very windy so one would expect Waterford to have loads of players back. I don't expect it to be much of a spectacle

I can see Power retained from start

Based on his performances so far in the championship, Lester can feel unlucky not to start. There's a lot of pressure on John Power to preform.

Larkin still must not have 'clicked' into gear yet in training.

I feel more assured have Prendergast at corner-back than Lennon, only slightly though.

RIP Ducksie.

Cody had 2 in reserve the last day..Larks and Lester good men to have on standby

dastardly00 wrote: »

Based on his performances so far in the championship, Lester can feel unlucky not to start. There's a lot of pressure on John Power to preform.

Larkin still must not have 'clicked' into gear yet in training.

I feel more assured have Prendergast at corner-back than Lennon, only slightly though.

Agree on Lester. He threw himself into everything against Galway. Cody couldn't have asked more from him in terms of effort. Power must be playing some stuff in training.

Yeah, Lester will be disappointed as he hasn't done much wrong. Decent enough bench to shake things up a bit.

Always think Power is more suited to the impact sub but now he has his chance to prove what he can do. Hopefully he'll work as hard as Lester does and chip in with a few scores. Will he play in the corner?

With Lennon and JT, there's a bit of defensive cover and Lester can play half back through to half forward.

mountgomery burns wrote: »

In fairness, when you make a comment like your one about not coming outside the 45 you cannot complain about what comes next.

Complete provocation.

Edit: **** it, not worth dredging up that argument again.

blackcard wrote: »

I think this is the first time in 16 years that we have gone into battle into championship without one of Shefflin, Larkin, Brennan or Power starting. Changing times

Yet we keep rolling along blackcard(brillant management)

I'm a getting nervous but I know we can do it if we turn up fully focused no matter what they throw at us (unless everything goes right for them and all those long shots hit the target)

No neutral pundit is giving them a chance they're all plumming for Kilkenny and that never sits well with me, however I don't ascribe to the "Kilkennys unbeaten streak is so long it has to fall at some stage" and that is the reason Waterford might win. Waterford will win if they change their system and are a bit more attacking and it all comes off for them and they work like savages for 75 mins. At most we will face a 2 man FF line and by picking Dunford and Dillon I think McGrath is relying on them to win possession in the middle third and run at our lads or support other runners to create scoring chances. To be honest i think that is their best option far better than having lads taking pot shots from 60, 70, 80 yards on whats supposed to be a nice but gusty day.

Waterford undoubtedly have some very talented players and are a year older and stronger but a lot of them are still very young lots are under 21 and this can be a hindrance especially up front when they have to try and select the correct option shoot or pass?

I think Derek McGrath was very clever to instigate this system, much and all as I hate it. It was the best way for a team with so much youth in it to compete and to not get hockeyed and other than the Tipp game he has been successful in that. However we all realise and so does McGrath that it won't beat Kilkenny or Tipp in championship matches, yes you might beat us in the league on a bog when they have 4 months training and we have 4 weeks training done but when it gets to the business end when we're at the perfect pitch absolutely everything will have to go right for them and lots will have to go wrong for us for them to win if they play as they have done up to now. If they push a few lads forward they definitely have a good chance but i still doubt it will be enough. I think next year they would need to be a lot more aggressive while attacking and learn to defend in waves without the sweeper. If they do this they might get a few beatings while they learn their new roles just like they did in 2014 but it is a far more natural way to hurl and shouldn't take them as long to adjust. I'd be extremely nervous if they got this far playing attacking hurling with some of the young forwards they have coming through. I listened to and interview on a podcast with Derek McGrath during the week and from what I heard he would implement some parts of the basic idea above, he wouldn't abandon the sweeper by the sounds of it and therefore I think he should be replaced if Waterford want to progress.

Those that are hopefully for Waterford are sighting the fact that we have gotten beaten 4 times in championship since 2005. They say that we were overwhelming favourites everytime we lost just like we are tomorrow no one could see us losing then or now.
The four championship matches we lost were
Tipp 2010 AI, had won 21 previous championship matches

Galway 2012 Leinster Final, had won 5 previous matches including AI and blasting Dubin in the previous match

Dublin 2013 Leinster Semi, Had won four and drawn two. I think the theory falls apart on these games I didn't fancy us after the drawn game much as I hoped we'd do it.

Cork 2013 Qualifier, had won two matches over Tipp in the park and Waterford after ET in Thurles, a match we could have won but we were never right all year.

The one thing about all these games is we were missing or playing players who were injured

Tipp 2010- Missing Brian Hogan, Henry and Johnn Tennyson hamstrings
Galway 2012- at least 5 players were carrying knocks into this game, Jackie-hamstring, Tommy-shoulder, Larkin-?, JJ-? and AN Other can't remember it all now but our five worst performers were all trying to come back too early from knocks, injuries and strains
Dublin & Cork 2013- we were never at the races that year and all our lads just looked shattered beyond belief we put it up to teams and we were never going to be beaten by Tipp in our own backyard, other than that it was just waiting for the inevitable sucker punch.

This year we don't have any injury worries we have a full squad to pick from even lads with season ending injuries are back training with the panel (Ger Aylward and James Maher). We've had 2 draws and 11 wins since 2013 I don't think this run is going to come to an end like the last ones did if it does it's because we were beaten by the better team on the day.

Since the start of last year KK have scored 10 goals in Championship so in six games we scored the following goals
5 v Wex 2015
1 v Gal 2015
1 v Wat 2015
1 v Gal 2015
1 v Dub 2016
1 v Gal 2016

However we've only conceded 3 goals in the same 6 games
0 v Wex 2015
2 v Gal 2015
0 v Wat 2015
1 v Gal 2015
0 v Dub 2016
0 v Gal 2016

For a team who are struggling to score goals then this is a huge challenge. A challenge I believe Waterford have the players to overcome but not the right system this year.

We scored on average 24 points to go along with those goals while only conceding only 17.5 points per game

Waterford have played 7 games in the same period and scored the following goals
3 v Crk 2015
0 v Tipp 2015
2 v Dub 2015
0 v KK 2015
1 v Cla 2016
0 v Tipp 2016
0 v Wex 2016

Waterford have conceded the following in those same games
1 v Crk 2015
0 v Tipp 2015
1 v Dub 2015
1 v KK 2015
0 v Cla 2016
5 v Tipp 2016
0 v Wex 2016

So Waterford scored 6 in 7 games but with the ultra defensive system ye've still conceded 8 goals in 4 of those games and only kept the ball out of the onion bag against Tipp 15, Clare 16 and Wex 16 to me thats not very impressive for Derek Mc Graths system and actually worse than it thought their record would be.

Waterford scored an average of 21 points in those seven games and conceded and average of 19.7 points.

Waterford are scoring on average 1.3 points more than the opposition and an odd goal more (8 to 6 over 7 games)

Kilkenny are scoring on average 6.5 points more than the opposition and have scored over 3 times as many goals as our opposition in the 6 games

None of the above proves anything or tells us what will happen tomorrow but they give a good indication that Kilkenny can score goals no matter who they are playing and even without the goals they're scoring plenty of points to win especially when they defend so well from 15 to 1.