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

ProudDUB wrote: »

It's Dublin v Kilkenny in the first round of the 2017 u21 Leinster champo. Should be interesting.

tbiggertycome wrote: »

Personally I would like to see us line out as follows
Scruffy
Murphy, Joey, Prender
Walsh, Joyce, Buck
Fogarty, Richie
Wally, TJ, Power/Lester (which ever is going better in training I'd prefer to start Lester and bring on Power)
Blanch, Colin, Larks

I could see Richie and TJ changing like Richie and Fennelly did too T. De Burca in the semi replay and they'd cause R Maher untold trouble. If you look at Tipps players in the middle third where they expect their going to come and hit us hard it includes 4 lads who haven't played in an AI before and two are in their first season thats a lot of inexperience in that vital middle third.
Tipps middle third players- this match would be there (?th)AI apperance (including the drawn match)
Seamus Kennedy(1st), Ronan Maher(1st), Padraig Maher(6th)
Brendan Maher(6th-1 as sub), Michael Breen (1st)
Dan McCormick (1st), Bonner(5th), Noel McGrath(6th)

Compare that to our middle third players as named above
Walsh(4th- 1 as sub), Joyce(5th), Buck(5th)
Fogarty(4th), Richie(8th- 1 as sub)
Wally(4th), TJ(10th- 3 as sub), Power(4th- 2 as sub)
The as sub means they took the field, I didn't count games or years where they stayed on the bench lots of our lads only made the team in '12 or '14 but still have had the experience of being there on the pitch on at least 4 occassions.

I would say with 4 AI debutants in that middle third, at least 1 of them is in for a tough day, 1 will probably excel and the other two could go either way.

The likely match ups
Murphy v John McGrath- I would be happy Murphy will keep him fairly quite we won't ever stop him scoring we just need to keep him out of the net
Joey v Callanan- Joey should be really confident after the semi's, again keep him out of the net and let Murphy sweep up the loose ball
Prender v Bubbles- strangely enough I'm happy at the thought of Prender on Bubbles, Prender won't dominate him but he'll go about his business quietly

Padraig v Noel McGrath- I'd be happy if Padraig stops him spraying it around and wins all in the air
Joyce v Bonner- I think Joyce has the winning of this one
Buck v Dan McCormick- Buck should get well on top here with any luck, McCormick might win the odd high ball but after that it should all be Buckley

Conor and Richie v Brendan Maher and Michael Breen- Ideally I'd like to see Conor on Brendan and Richie ghosting away from Breen giving him something to concentrate on and curtail his forward drives and if it doesn't Richie will run amok

Wally v Padraig Maher- I think Wally can keep him quite and cause trouble I think it's important to stop Maher making catches that inspire Tipp.
TJ v Ronan Maher- if TJ can do what the Waterford U21's did to Ronan Maher we'd practically have the game won.
John Power v Seamus Kennedy- I'd be happy with a break even here.

Blanchield v Micky Cahill- High ball in here and Blanch would cause lots of trouble.
Colin v Barry- I think Colin could run riot in here if we play smart we can give him loads of joy in there.
Larkin v Cathal Barrett- Larkin probably won't spend long in here but when he is high ball over Barrett is the name of the game.

I'd love to see Larkin and Blanch camp out in their respective corners for the first 15 mins and we send low diagonal ball into Colin this would cause loads of trouble for Barry. If their men don't want to stay out there with them let the ball into Blanch & Larks and tip it over the bar running back out.

All of this is based on us playing at least too the level we played against Waterford the second day if not higher and even at that it'll be very close I reckon. There's never much between us but if we can keep them to less than two goals I reckon we'll have it in the end.