Even the local pitches have no stands, it’s not as if we have a summer two of the three city clubs are land locked and cannot expand. A few years back everyone thought the village were mad moving out to the Kells Road venue even the village lads thought so, it doesn’t seem so mad now does it as I said above a bit of vision is all is required. I’m so glad there is so much unity on this topic. The ordinary county board members must also be in favour of these ideas and is up to them to stand up and be counted. Just on another note Waterford GAA seems to be in a bit of trouble financially? They also lacked vision by not going in with WIT at the time even Walsh park was half arsed it should have been double the existing capacity or forget about it.
From looking at the various underage squad panels over the years it seemed to me that the city players and club players close to the city were located in Dunmore for instance. And similar situation with North and South club players. I may be wrong.
Re underage squads, dragging chaps from one end of the county to another (or out of the county on many occassions) for training is precisely what happens. Squads are not split based on their location, they are divided based on grading.
Do you think the setup in Rathkeale is good? It's not close to being sufficient
I thought the underage squads were split over 3 regions for logistical purposes. This would make sense, rather than dragging chaps from one end of the county to another for training.
I thoroughly agree about our lack of facilities but did Phil not present a plan a short time ago. It'll take a few years, not weeks!
Many of the Leinster counties, and others, with centres of excellence don't seem to have much payback in terms of success. The absence of a centre of excellence didn't hinder Kilkenny up to now. But, yes, to state once more - we do need to catch up with regards to facilities. I'll pin my hopes on Phil, not necessarily on the county board.
Here is an article from 3 years ago on the centers of excellence in Ulster. Monaghan, one of the smallest counties in Ireland by population, have a center of excellence since 2008, all of 16 years ago, with 5 pitches, four dressing rooms, a medical room, a gym, a meeting room and an office. The fruits of their investment has been clear to see.
https://www.gaeliclife.com/counties/ulsters-centres-of-excellence/
Kilkenny is a long way behind in this. Hopefully Big Phil can get something moving quickly on this but it really needs to get going, the current lack of facilities is desperate.
Even just from a juvenile point of view, currently you have panels across each age group being split across as many as three different venues each week. Sometimes you are travelling outside the county, sometimes you are going from one end of the county to the other. Imagine the difference it would make if they were all training/playing in the same central venue, with the different age groups coming on before or after.
On the facilities we have in Kilkenny I would go as far as saying we are about the worst in the country. Our facilities are way off most counties.
In the whole of Kilkenny we dont have what is called a "centre of excellence".
We have Dunmore and if anyone comes along saying it is a top class facility then they need their head examined. We have nothing.
How many clubs even have floodlights that can host a hurling match? Mooncoin, Muckalee, Piltowns back pitch, Dicksboro and a couple more but its pathetic. We are Kilkenny ffs.
We have lost out in the fact that we dont have a University campus in Kilkenny. SETU Waterford and Carlow have excellent facilities but we need to look further. Our nearest neighbours Wexford, Carlow, Waterford and Laois all have facilities that their inter county teams use that puts us back in the dark ages when comparing facilities. Good facilities wont guarantee all ireland winners but they would certainly help with player wefare/support etc.
At some stage we need to have a focal point and again dont anyone bring up Dunmore into this conversation as its a farce for a facility. Get a group of investors on board and state grant aid (every other county is at it) and develop something that will be the focal point for the next 30 years and something we would be proud of.
1) 1 full size grass pitch under lights with a stand capable of seating 3000-5000.
2) 1 full size 4G (astro pitch) under lights
3) 2 full size pitches adjacent to the above for training etc
4) Dressing/meeting rooms that can cater for 4-6 teams at any one time
5) Purpose built gym to cater for all inter county setups
Take a look at what JP has done with the Rathkeale setup in Limerick and see how an intercounty team can benefit from investment. I know thare arent too many JPs around but the KK county board should get off their arses and start being serious about this.
I would have no fears of Mikey. As far as i am concerned the full back line of Mikey, Huw and Tommy is as good as we have. On Darragh Corcoran i think his best position is full back but he wont displace Huw there.
I agree completely, Kilkenny clubs and county badly need a facility that you have mentioned. A location around Kell's or Stoneyford would be a suitable location. Club matches can be played there when the weather is not suitable and the county teams have a base. At the moment it is impossible to maximise county training with changes in location, pitches unplayable and trying to cater for more or less 3 professional set ups(senior, u20 and minor) must be a logistical nightmare
Checked out the app there, is a bit of a work in progress. The main page is a news feed about kk gaa which is grand but then there's a "skills" tab that's about getting job training or something. And the email when I registered says "Welcome to the Kilkenny Cats Platform!
We are delighted to have you on board! This is an innovative platform with an array of features - from specialised communication tools to real-time updates, job listings, and matching opportunities, alongside free education options and much more that you can access as a Kilkenny Cats member!"
I mean...it's not that big a deal but I'm not signing up for a job listings and training app so it seems a bit ill fitted.
Yes, I agree.
I agree with you completely grats and by all accounts Phil Hogan is doing great work. The county board need to listen.if and when this happens it has to be state of the art no second best to save money. Just about the pitches Dunmore should be up to scratch no excuses
We're playing catch up but we'll have to bear with it and see what Phil Hogan achieves. I'd be surprised and disappointed if he takes any nonsense from the County Board. He's achieved a lot so far, so I'm prepared to give him time.
By the way, pitches all over the country are unplayable, not just in Kilkenny.
I’m just going to go on a mad rant for a few minutes bear with me. Everyone on the site here does be giving out about the players at times but from what I’m hearing recently the facilities are terrible with pitches not being playable and the team sometimes have to go outside the county to train. Now if this is the case it is totally unacceptable. We need to start purchasing land now, we need about a hundred acres and develop it into the finest training facility in the country. We need to have about 10 pitches, 2 all weather with floodlights ,2 other pitches with floodlights, a state of the art gym meeting rooms, dressing rooms and dining facilities and also a stand for spectators which could eventually become a second county ground. The Dunmore training centre could be handed over to the camogie and ladies football associations which as we know is going to be amalgamated in the near future anyway. Now mad rant over for now. People will now come on and say it’s an outrageous suggestion but you have to have a vision and it is certainly not beyond us if the powers that be stop shooting themselves in the foot as I have mentioned at the top of the page on this forum there are a good few sponsors looking to come on board but are being turned down because they don’t want to offend existing sponsors, I say bring them all in include everyone. We were forever doing things piecemeal which served its purpose years ago but it doesn’t now. I would also seriously think about building a dome and get in there before someone else does. The county board has being dragging its feet way too long. I would like people to comment on the scoreboard debacle.
When you click on home-name you should see Kilkenny Cats underneath. Click on that and then click on Next to register.
When you follow the link to download it on Android it just downloads the club 360 and then asks you to enter your URL. I don't have a URL so I have no idea what the story is. Hopefully they iron that out, would be nice to have results and news through it, the kkgaa website has always been a pain in the arse
Thanks Greenspurs
The new app has been released.
I doubt anybody is writing off Mikey Butler but he's clearly struggling for a while now at both club and county level. He supposedly had a leg injury which may be restricting him still. Fingers crossed for him.
I think the problem Corcoran has at 6 is that he tends to follow his marker out the pitch and into midfield and was leaving an ocean of space in front of our full back line, I wouldn't be worried about his athleticism I think he could do a good job at midfield, I think he could be a good foil for Kenny ad hopefully both might get a run on Sunday. I'm surprised we haven't given Blanchfield a run at centre back he seems to be our best bet with what we have on the panel. I'd agree with you on Mikey Butler, don't see what all the worry is about him.
He’s great going forward imo but very slow and ponderous once turned or chasing back wherever he’s played
There’s plenty of improvement needed in his striking speed and change of direction type movement
Hes a very rough diamond that needs plenty of polishing
Do people really think Corcoran is athletic enough for midfield? Made a couple of driving runs in the second half against Offaly and all of a sudden he's the answer? He was moved out of 6 after 20 mins because he wasn't mobile enough. He's a wing back. Can't have him as a midfielder at all.
And people are panicking over Mikey? Least of our worries, he'll be fine.
With championship only a few weeks away and potentially only two matches left we would want to see a settled team taking shape.Id expect the tempo to pick up for the last two games. Most of the munster teams might be happy enough to avoid getting to a league final. Limerick wobbled in munster last year after the league final.
Going into the league and after last years final defeat management had homework to do and so far i wouldnt be overly pleased. Yes we are on top of the table after 3 rounds but some positions obviously needs strengthening or at least lads tried but that hasnt happened yet.
We need a corner back tried and Mikey butler clearly hasnt being himself so all the more reason to try rowe or fogarty or someone corner back.Against offally it was carnage. We havent found a number 6. Midfield is still being chopped and changed and no consistency. Adrian mullen has being outstanding and without him we wouldnt be top of the table.We have no new fowards putting their hand up, yet anyway.Lyng going for buckley and fogarty against wexford and wally against offally backs up this theory.its a concern that we arent bringing through fowards particularly. Mullen looks like he might take over from tj as our leader but who will take mullens place thats the worry.
We have always struggled in Ennis.we will probably see lawlor and deegan back this weekend. Id expect a much better performance.id like to see Corcoran getting a run at midfield.shane murphy has done well. A few fowards need a big performance.They havent being helped with some of the ball going in but they have being poor.
The match is live on tg4
Jesse Owen’s on Sunday ffs,even Hitler wouldn’t shake hands with him. He certainly increases the odds of us getting out alive out of Ennis. Although he also done Clare in the Gaelic grounds if I remember correctly.
Great credit to St Kierans for that display today against a much fancied ASR team. The other Harty Cup team also lost out in the dying minutes. I'd imagine Nenagh will be disgusted with so much added time.
In the last number of years most county minor teams have played second fiddle to Galway. In fact Kilkenny managed to reach minor finals/semis only to lose out to Galway - other counties faired no better during those years. Its's encouraging to see the St Kierans players, many former Kilkenny minors, develop and turn the tables on the ASR team loaded with Clare all Ireland winning players.
Referring back to Galway's minor successes - they haven't managed to win at Under 20 level. Perhaps there's a lot to be said for going easy on young players and allow them to develop.
Delighted for those Kierans players and the way they played today. Massive work rate.
Ha
Please quote where I said schools hurling is a waste of time.
It's a far lower level than intercounty hurling. I said consistently over the last decade players from kierans are made out to be potential superstars by posters like yourself on here. Straight after every kierans match you are straight on. The last match it was about Neary and how he should be on the Kilkenny senior team next year. It is easy look good on a stacked team. Yet these same players don't really shine at underage level for Kilkenny. Most of today's team was on the last two Kilkenny minor teams who weren't great, one of them knocked by laois in the leinster championship and last year's team was way behind both Galway and Clare.
So no need for posters to get carried away by schools hurling. The real test for young players is intercounty level and our success at this level has been limited for a long time. But you can't see that I'm afraid and will continue to overhype young players from your school.
Give it a rest, Kierans were excellent today, well coached and playing a lovely brand of hurling.
Schools hurling is a waste of time? FFS What planet are you on?
I have no idea how many (if any) of the Kieran's players today wull go on to be good senior intercounty players, but I do know what we witnessed today (and versus the CBS) was top quality hurling.
St Raphaels Loughrea has been in 4 or 5 off the top of my head I'd say. Have memories of Kierans beating beat in 2002 maybe?
Spot on. Why isn’t there people sacked over these boo boos. We are afraid of losing sponsors instead of sponsors afraid of losing us.it just isn’t good enough. Congratulations to st Kieran’s were loughrea ever in a final before.
