First became aware of Cillian Buckley at primary schools hurling. One of the very best at that age. He continued to show his class right up to this year. The resilience and dedication to come back time and again from injury that would finish many another. He was a class act in full flow and hopefully we can see plenty more of him with the Boro.
Would have thaought Tullaroon was in North Kilkenny.
The vast majority of clubs in the north of the county have been struggling and not producing many county standard players. Galmoy, Johnstown, Urlingford, Freshford, Lisdowney, Ballyragget, Conahy, Cloneen, Castlecomer and Muckalee in that area. Castlecomer the only senior club, Lisdowney have had recent success. The rest are surviving in intermediate or junior clubs.
I thought Cillian was fantastic at half back in 2014 and 2015 in particular when he won All Stars. 3 AI, 5 National Hurling Leagues and 8 Leinsters. Had a tough time with injuries latterly. Kilkenny were blessed to have him.
Happy retirement, can walk away with his head held high. Quality player and athlete before he got his injury set backs . Great role model to the younger players last 6/7 years
Buckley some man for KK and the Boro.
Alk the best lad represented club,county. Well ,must be the last man to receive a natiional final cup 2018.
I like how Buckley’s game changed and adapted over the years, he was a promising wing forward at one stage and settled as a very strong wing back for many years, fair play to him for his comitment
a big weekend ahead in the club, youd hear lots of talk but we will all know more by Monday
i think Tullaroan vs boro might be a lot closer than people think, it might take boro time to settle on there team with there absences from last year, Tom kenny is a huge loss he was brilliant last year
olg should have too much for clara
village ttown is too close to call, do ttown have a few injuries? will village start any of the young lads, they won the minor league monday I saw
did comer lose a couple more to australia? The noisy neighbors in mullinavat will be really targeting this, i hear they are moving well
shamrocks will have too much for gbc who I think could be missing Billy
I also think glenmore are down a few which should suit the bridge
in junior i think windgap will have a big year
Fair play to Cillian, great servant to the black and amber at all grades and could play anywhere. Best of luck to him on his retirement.
What a player Buckley was remember watching him in a county minor final in 2010 maybe he absolutely ran the show was the best player on the field
Him and Padraig Walsh in full flow on the wings made up a great half back line
He had a lot of injury’s the last few years and it’s a testament to his mentality that he kept coming back for more that goal in last years Leinster final was a reward for not throwing in the towel when others might have
Similarly to r hogan he squeezed the absolute most out of kk career and we should be very grateful for his service
Best of luck to Bucks. Relentless commitment and had a moment last year that at sportsman or woman would kill for
Cillian Buckley has announced his retirement. Thanks for all the great service Cillian.
well then is it cash on the stiles.
is there any local season ticket on sale or would that be too much to expect.
I feel the same about the Village saw them and they were really really poor the depth isn’t there with who has went away etc.
Hard to call senior think Ballyhale will be gunning for championship so I will go for them.
With regards to Mackessey (excuse spelling) he looked good for Kerry so it will be interesting to see how he goes. I would imagine he didn’t just come to Kilkenny to play club hurling would someone have spoke to him? Hopefully he goes well.
What Lyng needs to do is scout players that weren’t in and bring the 20-27s in and start putting his own stamp on this.
We will have a better idea after the weekend who is missing who. I think dunnamaggin missing victor costello and Michael Cody so that's the 3 and 6 which is obviously huge. The boro are missing a few big players and although they have the biggest conveyor belt it's hard to beat experience.Some good young lads like kelleher,getting these lads game time will be important.ĺThis is why it's important moylan,clifford and shine go up another gear and and have good championships. O loughlins are everyone's slight favourites especially with the new addition but the shamrocks are in a better position this year and I think they will win it. Joey and ronan corcoran would be huge if thats true although I would like to see daragh corcoran at 3 especially if lawlor is going travelling.killian hurled well full back for the 20s and probably better on the legs.
The village will probably be forced to play the younger lads quicker than they thought. I think niall mullins is back but tadgh dwyer is gone. Conor browne doesn't look like he will be back for a while. I think Michael Ryan is helping out in tullaron. Dunne,mossy and Shane are 3 good club forwards. The bridge could be dark horses so it will be intresting to see how they go. Kevin blanch was a huge loss last year and Ciaran brennan. Ballycallan got a good bounce from their young lads last year. Vegas team is on the road a long time now and have alot of miles on the clock but on their day can be a match for anyone especially in thomastown or ballyhale. Ttown have a few injures but alot of people will be interested to see how they go.
I think Thomastown will have plenty of momentum going in to this league and will certainly have a say in the last four.
I'd have OLG as marginal favourites ahead of the Shamrocks this year. Followed by the Boro. They seem to have quite a few gone travelling. While the depth is there to replace them it might be a year too soon for some of them.
Next I'd have Bennettsbridge and Thomastown. Both have the potential to go deep if things fall their way.
The outsiders group I'd have Tullaroan, Ballycallan and Mullinavat. Capable of beating most on their day but might struggle to put 3/4 strong performances together
The teams I think will struggle this year are Clara, Comer, Glenmore and The Village. There is a chance Village could get close to relegation
It will be interesting to see how Thomastown get on, they have been putting up big scores the last 12 months. Tullaroan were impressive 2 years ago but dissappointed last year. Graig Ballycallan had some promising youngsters last year, wonder will they progress. Mullinavat could be in the regulation battle but they are fighters. James Stephens threw in the towel against Ballyhale last year, first time I ever saw a whole team do that. I agree that Clara could be in trouble, not sure if they have anyone coming through. Hard to see outside Boro, OLG and Shamrocks. The glut of matches plays into the hands of the clubs with the deepest panels which would be Boro and OLG. The Bridge would need to avoid any injuries to have any chance. Comer don't have the forwards. Glenmore should pick up a couple of wins to see them safe but like a lot of clubs will be nervous if they lose their first match. Can't wait for throw ins
That’s the start of the second tier jobs now for Davy.
After Antrim it will be Kerry or Laois hurlers.
Ballyhale Shamrocks still team to beat once the championship proper starts.
Dicksboro, OLG & Bennettsbridge will all hope for good runs and more if things went their way.
Any of the other teams first priority will be to avoid bottom 2 in their group. Clara & Erins Own might be in bother if early results go badly.
Teams are bound to pick up injuries given the schedule so a decent panel will be essential.
Lads from an outsider, who do ye fancy for the Kilkenny senior hurling championship? I’m looking to get down to at least one of your club championship games this year. I just remember last year talking to lads and hearing all about Dicksboro who were supposedly ready to make the breakthrough. How are they moving this year? Genuine contenders?
Is this Fionán Mackessy the real deal? Does he make OLG the favourites or are Ballyhale the rightful favourites in the bookies?
You can be solid jaysus certain of it.
He'll **** up their bank account too.
ye Dave’s going North I wonder will he **** up all the good work Gleeson did?
This is nearly a bit of a rebuild now. We all agree he has being very slow to pick and stick with change so that's why I wouldn't be surprised if it was given to someone else for 3-5 year. If scruff,lawlor and tj also go it's a huge amount of experience gone from the squad and a bigger job than we might of thought. Who the next management could be is anyones guess but we can take it derek iss staying. A few fresh faces to the backroom team is definitely needed so hopefully theres lots of work going on behind the scenes. Im on the same page as Marrooned regarding the county board being backward and he raised a very valid point regarding free taking for the senior its going to be a big concern. Eoin cody might take them for a few rounds of the league for the shamrocks while tj is being rested. Hopefully a bit of forward thinking means he will spend alot of his spare time in the shamrocks pitch practicing frees like his uncle done years ago. It will be intresting to see the various management teams especially the u20. Would the county board approach henry for this one?Pace was one thing this year but the winners have a bench that make a impact and change game and we hadn't got that. As others have said the team and 3 or 4 subs were known months ago. Building and trusting a panel will be huge next year. The subs shouldn't weaken a team. I heard joey holden and ronan corcoran are home for shamrocks. They will be as hungry as ever to win again this year. Yes fionn macekssey will have to settle into kk Club hurling but I'd be surprised if he wasn't good enough to make the kk panel if he made himself available. How long is he in kk or is the plan to play for kerry next year? I have seen him play for kerry and he definitely is a good hurler.He should be a big addition anyway.Chris Nolan of carlow would have no problem making the kk team if he lived a few minutes down the road from borris. Must be plenty of money up in antrim davey and Anthony Nash strongly tipped to be heading north. Davey would have the Glen boys all fired up for the cats up there. So he will.
wasn’t that some forward thinking by cluan tech to sponsor the academy Jerseys of well over a 150 young people and still not interfere with the main KK sponsor. These jerseys and kits will be worn by kids throughout the county for years to come.
The Only way to spread that out more is shorten the league, League is way too long for a secondary competition and most teams don't really care, I think Div 1a teams next year play 7 games atleast, contrast that to the championship where if you lose 1st 2 games unlikely to get through (Cork being the exemption of that a few times).
4 League games and a final is enough in my opinion.
Fair point. I'd say the bigger issue is how the provincial group stage in hurling and the football round-robin group stages feel compressed compared to how the championship used to be. Now a lot of that is just the outcome of having extra matches. I'd like a slightly more spread out provincial hurling championships and definitely a shake-up to the football All-Ireland. The round robin can stay but it definitely needs to be spread out more.
I've no idea if he's Kilkenny county standard but to be far to him he's 1 of Kerry's 2 most high profile players, the other being Shane Conway.
This year's championship was 1 week shorter than the 2019 championship, the last championship where the April club month was still a thing, that 1 week less is a 2 week gap between the semi final and final rather than 3, I find this talk in the media of a compressed championship a bit disingenuous myself.
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