Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 3 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

Bit of a mixed bag. the 3rd goal was a very poor goal to concede we were 4 up with a few mins and failed to see it out.clare drove a few stinkers near the end (and during the 70 mins) but sheehan had a chance near the end but his striking let him down.Aylward made a burst today he didnt make in a few years...we started great and our half foward line was very good but we went flat then around the 20 mins mark and Clare got about 1-4 without response.mullen looked in awful pain I hope it's not the knee but it doesn't look good
Shannagher caused lawlor problems when he came on but wallace was excellent.Good to see alan murphy doing a bit more from open play and his free taking was excellent.eoin cody caught a good ball and threw over a nice point.Darren mullen was very good aswell.
Some of the ball we were giving our fowards in the first half was absolutely terrible and you could hear the groans from the stand.Hopefully this improves during the year

brookville wrote: »

Some of the ball we were giving our fowards in the first half was absolutely terrible and you could hear the groans from the stand.Hopefully this improves during the year

Same old same old blame the ball in and not the forwards who are incapable of winning their own ball.After every game for the past two years we hear the same monotonous rhyme "The Ball In to the forwards was terrible" never the forwards could not win the ball. They cant win the ball period and they have not been winning the ball for the past two years and we persist in trying various combinations of the same twelve names and all the while expecting different results.

Thoughts:
Mullen and Wallace excellent.
Our forwards drop an outrageous amount of ball.
All three goals conceded were poor.
Leahy is twice the hurler at midfield when he's picking the ball up deep than he is at half forward with his back to goal.
Thought Wally was very poor until his late point and catching the resultant puck out. He never seems to get subbed off regardless of his level of performance.
Thought Kelly gave Buckley a roasting and I just don't think Buckley is a midfielder at all.
Don't know where Sheehan was going at the end, he'd beaten his man so take the bloody shot - serious lack of confidence in his left side.

Fingers crossed for Adrian but he looked in a lot of pain.

savannahkat wrote: »

Same old same old blame the ball in and not the forwards who are incapable of winning their own ball.After every game for the past two years we hear the same monotonous rhyme "The Ball In to the forwards was terrible" never the forwards could not win the ball. They cant win the ball period and they have not been winning the ball for the past two years and we persist in trying various combinations of the same twelve names and all the while expecting different results.

The ball in makes a huge difference these days particularly with the high, hanging, often straight down the middle long passes that we regularly hit. When we're playing against a sweeper system these passes are more ineffective as it allows the sweeper to also challenge for the ball as well as the forwards marker so instead of a one on one, its often a two on one which is doubly difficult for our forward. It also makes it easy for the defense to break the ball as they know its more likely for the defense to have more players to win the breaking ball.

The high, hanging ball also doesn't suit the forwards we have at the moment whom with the exception of Wally and Donnelly are on the small side. Until TJ and Colin Fennelly come back the ball into our forwards needs to be low, quick and to the flanks to allow our forwards to run onto it and to avoid the crowding that happened far too often against Wexford last weekend which suits teams that play with the sweeper down to the ground.

Mixture of some good and some not so good. Some good handpassing to players running off the ball. Trying to find a free defender so that he could measure a ball into the forwards. Didn't work a lot of the time. Darren Mullen played well, may be a bit small. Ciaran Wallace did well. Deegan impressed, Tommy Walsh okay when he came on. Huw Lawlor didn't have his best day but will improve. We were totally outfielder today. Adrian Mullen's injury concerning. Thought the touch and control of the ball wasn't great today, even John Donnelly was snatching at the ball.

Does anyone actually know what the story with Eoin Murphy is? Is he injured or just having a break?

Village87 wrote: »

Tony Kelly is a class act, Buckley looked way off beside him. Good match for the squad, lads developing. John Donnellen and Darren Mullen excellent stick men, we badly need more

For 2nd week in a row a hard and very simple fact contributed to us not winning
Scores dried up as less and less accurate shooters were on field for last 20 mins, replaced by grafters.
For 2nd week in a row Richie Hogan was hauled off when we looked set for wins.
We fell short both days.
Not deciding factor, but I would contend undoubtedly a contributing factor

Fingers crossed on Mullen, he was looking very dangerous before injury
His brother is a pure gem of a hurler and surely a main stay for years to come
Regrettably, worries only increase on Buckley ever returning to his pre injury pomp

The game has not changed so much that accurate stick men aren't still the main difference between teams, and having watched Limerick again chalk up an impressive win, I think for that very reason they too will remain very vulnerable to getting chinned like last year's semi
29 points today and yet again a bucket load of wides.
There will likely again come a day later in year when their by now normal 15+ wide total catches up on them

I thought Hugh Lawlor did really well, seeing off John Conlon is no mean feat, Shanagher gave him more problems but Shanagher is hurling really well at present
That brings me neatly to Walter
I think we should start Colin and spring Walter
I think playing two of them together robs us too much shooting

Darren Brennan is a decent keeper, but we got a reminder today of just how lucky we are to have a one in a generation keeper in Murphy


btw
Great performance by Cleere in Cork v Limerick
Consistently nailed players for steps and throwing ball (the two biggest blights for me in modern game)
He hit Limerick alone for at least 4 blatant throws, great to see, it is hard enough combat that super fast ball movement of Limerick without the added split second advantage accruing from throwing the pass

Well done Cleere, more please from others

Alonzo Moseley wrote: »

For 2nd week in a row a hard and very simple fact contributed to us not winning
Scores dried up as less and less accurate shooters were on field for last 20 mins, replaced by grafters.
For 2nd week in a row Richie Hogan was hauled off when we looked set for wins.
We fell short both days.
Not deciding factor, but I would contend undoubtedly a contributing factor

Fingers crossed on Mullen, he was looking very dangerous before injury
His brother is a pure gem of a hurler and surely a main stay for years to come
Regrettably, worries only increase on Buckley ever returning to his pre injury pomp

The game has not changed so much that accurate stick men aren't still the main difference between teams, and having watched Limerick again chalk up an impressive win, I think for that very reason they too will remain very vulnerable to getting chinned like last year's semi
29 points today and yet again a bucket load of wides.
There will likely again come a day later in year when their by now normal 15+ wide total catches up on them

I thought Huh Lawlor did really well, seeing off John Conlon is no mean feat, Shanagher gave him more problems but Shanagher is hurling really well at present
That brings me neatly to Walter
I think we should start Colin and spring Walter
I think playing two of them together robs us too much shooting

Darren Brennan is a decent keeper, but we got a reminder today of just how lucky we are to have a one in a generation keeper in Murphy


btw
Great performance by Cleere in Cork v Limerick
Consistently nailed players for steps and throwing ball (the two biggest blights for me in modern game)
He hit Limerick alone for at least 4 blatant throws, great to see, it is hard enough combat that super fast ball movement of Limerick without the added split second advantage accruing from throwing the pass

Well done Cleere, more please from others

Agree completely on the throwing off the ball issue for which Limerick are by far the biggest culprits. Joanne Cantwell took some of the pundits to task on this recently but was more or less shot down by Cusack and Daly - disgracefully if you ask me.

Alonzo Moseley wrote: »

For 2nd week in a row a hard and very simple fact contributed to us not winning
Scores dried up as less and less accurate shooters were on field for last 20 mins, replaced by grafters.
For 2nd week in a row Richie Hogan was hauled off when we looked set for wins.
We fell short both days.
Not deciding factor, but I would contend undoubtedly a contributing factor

Fingers crossed on Mullen, he was looking very dangerous before injury
His brother is a pure gem of a hurler and surely a main stay for years to come
Regrettably, worries only increase on Buckley ever returning to his pre injury pomp

The game has not changed so much that accurate stick men aren't still the main difference between teams, and having watched Limerick again chalk up an impressive win, I think for that very reason they too will remain very vulnerable to getting chinned like last year's semi
29 points today and yet again a bucket load of wides.
There will likely again come a day later in year when their by now normal 15+ wide total catches up on them

I thought Hugh Lawlor did really well, seeing off John Conlon is no mean feat, Shanagher gave him more problems but Shanagher is hurling really well at present
That brings me neatly to Walter
I think we should start Colin and spring Walter
I think playing two of them together robs us too much shooting

Darren Brennan is a decent keeper, but we got a reminder today of just how lucky we are to have a one in a generation keeper in Murphy


btw
Great performance by Cleere in Cork v Limerick
Consistently nailed players for steps and throwing ball (the two biggest blights for me in modern game)
He hit Limerick alone for at least 4 blatant throws, great to see, it is hard enough combat that super fast ball movement of Limerick without the added split second advantage accruing from throwing the pass

Well done Cleere, more please from others

Limerick hit 7 wides today and at least 2 of the handpass frees were clear hand passes.

therealdonster wrote: »

Agree completely on the throwing off the ball issue for which Limerick are by far the biggest culprits. Joanne Cantwell took some of the pundits to task on this recently but was more or less shot down by Cusack and Daly - disgracefully if you ask me.

McGrath and Daly made a big deal of all the frees being given.

McGrath especially hard on the refs for giving frees for throwing the ball..
In his (humble?) opinion the ref , even though he was 5-10 yards away for the incidents, was wrong according to the very blurry replay/freeze frame that rte were using.
But McGrath could say that the ball was cm's from the hand before it was struck by the hand ?!?
No way could you tell from the replays/freeze frames used !
I say well done to the refs , and I hope they keep it up, as it is a scourge on the game.

Noddy33 wrote: »

The ability of kk forwards to win the aerial and dirty ball was always a great feature back during the period where kk dominated but yesterday we consistently pumped highball in on top of a small in stature full forward line that were at huge height disadvantage to their men and we completely played into Clares hand here. Would have liked Wally to have gone in FF and then hoped richie and billy could pounce on few breaks.

The reality is though that Clare should have won this game only for some seriously bad wides and and thankfully didnt take two glorious opportunities at the end. Sheehan had great chance to win it and even could have taken the option of an easy pass inside to Alan Murphy who was inside on his own in acres of space. I like Sheehans work rate and honesty but that instance just showed up his limitations and for me he just doesnt quite have the skill levels and physicality required for senior inter county.

Be interesting to see if Brown gets another run at Corner Back or is that experiment over but have to say Shane O'Donnell over the years no matter who has marked him has caused KK huge problems. Thought Wallace and D Mullen were excellent and for me Mullen has to be slotted in to team somewhere at either Full Back line or Half back line.

Completely away from the playing side of things..........was seriiously dissapointed with a crowd of only 5,500 in Nowlan park yesterday and this was similar crowd wise to the Dublin game and the low numbers played its part in what was a very subdued atmosphere yesterday. I know the game clashed for those yesterday who had interest in the rugby perhaps but KK have always consistently had league crowds in the 8-10k mark for home games and perhaps was the driving factor in the tight games that we would have always previously been able to edge

Is it the price they are staying away.

Fred Daly wrote: »

Is it the price they are staying away.

Doubt it, it’s the same price as last year.
I’d say it’s the new league format. The last few years, all games were “must win” because of the relegation. IMO, this year is just not the same. We knew we’d beat Dublin at home and Laois+carlow before a ball was pucked.
The rugby prob affected the attendance yesterday for both sets of supporters

greenspurs wrote: »

McGrath and Daly made a big deal of all the frees being given.

McGrath especially hard on the refs for giving frees for throwing the ball..
In his (humble?) opinion the ref , even though he was 5-10 yards away for the incidents, was wrong according to the very blurry replay/freeze frame that rte were using.
But McGrath could say that the ball was cm's from the hand before it was struck by the hand ?!?
No way could you tell from the replays/freeze frames used !
I say well done to the refs , and I hope they keep it up, as it is a scourge on the game.

If you were to believe most of the hurling pundits, the game would be better without a ref. The more you let players away with, the more they'll push the envelope. It's gone into a very hard game to referee, with the congestion around the middle and constant grabbing of the man in possession. There's also a lot more teams running the ball, rather than more direct hurling. This lends itself to more questionable tackles. The teams need to look at themselves rather than constantly berating the ref.

Any word on Adrian Mullen?

Disappointed we didn't get the win & I hoped we might be able to preserve what up until yesterday had been a nonexistent goal threat, which has stung us in the past. ...still have nightmares of Shane O'D rounding Paul Murphy like he wasn't there. Scruff would've likely kept out 1, possibly 2 but still good to be getting Darren B. some experience.

+This is based on radio only(was very exciting on radio!). I haven't seen any highlights or The Sunday Game yet.

While in and out at times I thought the forwards shot well, very well it sounded. Seemed to slow down when A. Mullin went off as he and J. Donnelly seemed to be working great together(Great seeing a Thomastown lad doing so well). Thrilled that for once my prediction(feeling) is off to a good start in Darren M. doing so well & even getting MOTM in his first start. As I've said here & elsewhere, something about him has me thinking he'll be the most influential Mullin. Unfortunately I sent my MOTM entry to 5 wrong numbers while attempting to text Darren M. into KCLR. I imagine there were a few confused recipients of international txts with just his name. Lol.
Tony K was absent for long periods though the reasons weren't easily gleaned from the radio. Hopefully the Sunday Game will have it. If not, BUFF, you're our last hope ;-) Lots of positives though. Nice to see Eoin Cody get his first IC point. Thought he was maybe a year or so off IC level along w/E. Shefflin. Now I'd like to see E. Shefflin get a little league action to gauge where he's at though he looked a bit off in last Fitzgibbon appearance. Interesting times.


+Anyone able to tell me how broadcasting rights among Eir, RTE & Tg4 are determined?