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

The lads would seriously want to pull the finger out at half-time. If it continues like this in the second half I can't us winning.

The forwards are getting more and more involved but the backs look very shaky and I wouldn't be surprised if they conceded more goals.

The defense is absolutely chronic

The league really means nothing eh

Stole that to an extent but fair play to the lads. Defense will need to improve seriously next time out.

Phew

Got out of jail there. Keaney going off turning of game. Lots of mistakes in back line, dropping ball out of hand. Dublin answered alot of questions. This should bring team on a lot. Full back line looks very shaky. Don't know what to think after that.

Well that was a total shambles.

Man handled all over the field and doesn't bode well for the Galway game considering the similarities with them and Dublin in terms of their physical strength.

Full back line woeful.
Bucks use of the ball woeful.
Forward line couldn't get any space and absolutely obliterated in the air.

Robbed them blind.

Delighted for Blanchfield getting the goal.

Thank fcuk it's Offaly next week and not Galway/Wexford

Garyp88 wrote: »

I think Dick Turpin has been spotted leaving Parnell Park in a kilkenny jersey

yeah, he was accompanied by D Kirwan in a dublin jersey

Referee was awful. But KK got out of jail. Dublin the better team. Should have won. If this is the kk team going forward we will win nothing

Bambi wrote: »

Honestly don't think yiz ground anything out this time, escaped by the skin of yer teeth. If we'd taken our chances in the first half, our forward line running out of steam in the last ten wouldn't have made such a big difference.

Would expect a big response from that KK team now, seem to be relying too much on TJ to do all the heavy lifting.

I think this Dublin team will always have problems with taking their chances, put Con O Callaghan and Mark Schutte in the team and it would be a different story but unfortunately they will not be available.

Kilkenny definitely were outplayed for the majority of the match but I don't think our forwards are our big problem, we don't have a natural full back, our spare man in the back line always seems to end up trying to help Padraig Walsh to contest high balls with the full forward, usually only causing additional chaos and when Buckley is forced to man mark somebody his distribution of the ball can be very poor. Apart from Walsh and Buckley the backs struggle to break tackles.

Still think there was some positives to take from today, we did well to hang on in there, there wasn't any panic and the heads didnt go down when we went 5 points behind. I thought Paul Murphy and Colin Fennelly did very well when they came in, James Maher was decent, John Donnelly got a nice point, worked hard and won a fair few frees and Walter looks to be playing his best ever hurling at intercounty level.

Nickindublin wrote: »

Referee was awful. But KK got out of jail. Dublin the better team. Should have won. If this is the kk team going forward we will win nothing

I think these sort of comments should be balanced by accepting that we had 7 players starting a championship game for the first time today against a team that far more experienced Kilkenny teams have struggled against in recent times.

brookville wrote: »

Just home by god we were steeped in it.you would have to feel sorry for dublin today a tiny bit more clinical and they would of bet us comfortably.
Gilroy had them spot on today rushe and keaney very affective and Moran very good as sweeper.
Dissapointing that 3 lads making their debut replaced but donnelly i thought worked his socks off.
Hopefully today will stand to us and dampen a bit of hype Parnell is a very very hard pitch to play on with very little space but id prefer to be winning playing poorly than losing.
A win next week will put us in a good position and thankfully no obvious injuries so hopefully we can up it a notch next week.

Dublin were the better side but they are a very very physical side that our younger guys were always going to struggle against.
Thought the ref was very one sided when it mattered and they giving us frees when it should not have been. Dublin lucky to finish with 15. Keany blatantly ripped the helmet off Joey 50:07 Into the game.

According to RTE Parnell Park is 12ft shorter and 24 ft narrower than other major hurling stadium.If this is not an advantage to a home team then nothing is as it makes marking & bunching considerably easier thus favouring the more physical and less skilful player. That is a simple fact. With seven debutants and a lot of them very young  Kilkenny did very well to hang in when the going got tough. It was not easy to come back from a pair of body blow goals one a definite result of a charge the other being its first cousin and both at a time when Kilkenny appeared to be gaining a bit of momentum. That allied to Alywards miss in the first half a miss that would have been easier to put in the net I suspect made a big difference to the way the game subsequently played out. Not perfect by any means from Kilkenny but not too bad either taking everything into consideration and scoring 1-25 in the tight confines of Parnell Park was no mean achievement.