Kilkenny GAA Thread

It's not announced because Doherty got the suspension I think.

It will be announced after Christmas.

Have to say looking forward to the inter county season for two reasons, potential new faces and more competitive games. Its particularly good to have them in the park, they have been few and far between the last few years.

How many guaranteed starters do we have and who are they is question? I'd say Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Blanchfield, Cian Kenny, John Donnelly, Adrian Mullen, Eoin Cody and Mossy have to start. Everyone will have different opinions but that is lots to find.

I haven't included TJ as because of his age he not available for every game with injuries and minding him.

Eoin Murphy probably as well but he has serious competition now, if Kilkenny have a puck out plan he has to improve, he is better all round better keeper than Tallis and Galway. Galway is a machine on puckouts and easily adds a few scores to Thomastown directly from puckouts. The only thing is Murphy can stop 1 or 2 goals per game. The competition might bring him to another level.

We need to experiment either way, I'd prefer to finish middle of pack but learn loads in the league than win the bloody thing.

Yeah i agree, i think he has become a weak link with his man marking role, teams know who he will man mark and is dragged everywhere creating space for opposition, then exposed to aerial duel when left isolated, if left free his hurling is not great so teams dont mind him having a free role, gone very predicatble. In the club he was completely bullied by Stephen Donnelly and other Thomastown forwards, same happened against the Galway club in the All Ireland final.

There's no guarantees mackessy will even make the team or panel but if he does I will be getting behind him and I would hope everyone else will. He has moved up,got a job in town and is playing club hurling. Kk didnt ring him to come up and get him a job and accommodation. Yes I agree this isnt something we ever done in kk but let's just see how this plays out first. He grew into the club campaign but like many of his team mates had a bad day in the final. He has settled well into the group by all accounts so we will just have to see how it plays out.

The new year will bring optimisim to plenty of teams including ourselves. Kk are never far away but this team has seen very little change over the last number of years and has become predictable and a bit stale.Tactically there's lots of room for improvement,puckouts and delivery of ball to the forwards. Noel Doherty and decky wall should be a help in this department. Yes the loss presence of some experienced players will be a loss but it will open the door to fresh legs and faces. The league will be more competitive than previous years. We won't like losing league games but players will have to get experience and thats the only way they can learn. Jeff neary,Billy Reid,Peter macdonald,luke connellan,podge moylan,Zak Bay and Harry shine all had good club campaigns. Jordan molloy,luke hogan,aidan tallis,Shane Murphy and Owen wall will be more experienced. A number of players like Marty Murphy,eoghan lyng and denis Walsh could be tied up with fitzgibbon over the next few weeks but most counties have challenge matches organised now that the pre season competitions are gone. Kk will be playing wexford and waterford before the league starts.

Yep I hope it goes well for him too. Obviously has plenty of ambition and the fact a good lot of his clubmates are with kilkenny too will hopefully help him settle in.

To me he looked like a player that was carrying a or bit of a knock or wasn’t fully fit for most of the year

I could be wrong though

Ah ffs will you cheer up it's Christmas. We'll be there or thereabouts this year like we always are, and with a bit of luck we'll do the fcuking business. We're kilkenny and we'll always be there or thereabouts. We've nobody to fear. Plenty to work on, on and off the field, as always, but there's no team that we would play this year where I would say "we can't win this".

Should have beaten Clare which would have been our 3rd final in a row, I know should would and all of that.but were clearly in around it but you would think on here sometimes were a mc Donagh team.

Must be Wexford/ Kilkenny Jan 4th and Cork/ Waterford are playing a fundraiser for Brian Greene that day.

Comerford must be your little birdie. Very disrespectful to Conor Phelan and the other coaching staff. You place all the blame on the one place . I have no doubt the best 6 forwards have been picked more often than not. Cork at times when under pressure just landed ball into their forwards v Limerick and Hayes, Harnedy. Barrett etc cleaned up. Clare did likewise in the 1st half v Cork and it took O'Donnell and Duggan in particular to make do with whatever came their way. Ours particularly Cody and Mullen need to be able to do the same under pressure if they are going to be true greats. We haven't been seeing out our games so S&C side probably needed a shake up.

I have no reason to come on her and tell lies .im not being disrespectful to conor phelan (who is a gentleman by the way) im telling the truth but mickey Comerford done most of the coaching at training. He was very vocal on match days. Conor phelan didn't do much coaching for some strange reason because that was his title. He was always quite on match days. Peter o Donovan done the same drills over and over but also didn't do the coaching. Mickey Comerford was the head man when it came to coaching. If you don't belive me that's OK. Next year will hopefully be a improvement but it's all going to take time.

S&c has looked like a issue a good few years. Threw away big leads and played in fits and starts. Unable to finish teams off.It might be too easy to say s&c it could be a psychologist. The players aren't of a quality a decade ago but there's plenty of examples the last few years where unlike kk teams they couldn't keep the foot on the throat and left teams in it. This is where management review the year and try improve areas for the following year but things have remained the same the last few years.We know we arent proactive.They have promoted John Murphy and someone to help him. I'm sure he will do his best and had the u20 in good shape when they won that all ireland a few years ago but this is a huge step up. Is it a coincidence that the clare s&c has now won 3 or 4 all irelands with different teams. Huge opportunity missed to get in a high profile person and let John and Tom aylward learn under him but there's only one reason this didn't happen and thats because of cost.

Kk spent a large amount on devolopment squads and this was the main contributor in the financial deficit. Inflation is another,cant keep running in the red but it has to be said kk have no football so primarily its hurling. Cluin tech have being generous but the county board can't go giving out because they had to invest in devolopment squads. This was absolutely essential because the underage record has being well publicised. We have being very poor. When kk were going well underage was going well. Its vital that this is stepped up another gear next year.

Supporters wouldn't mind giving a few Bob towards devolopment squads or something along those lines. The golf classic was a great success. We talk again about being proactive. Its being known months there was no walsh cup and although only a small fish in the water,why weren't the couple of challenge matches advertised,generate a bit of intrest with all donations going to the new center of excellence or something that would be a benefit. People would be mad to get out and watch a match and wouldn't mind throwing a few Bob in the bucket. Pj Kenny needs to step it up and look at what michael duignan brought to offally.Has pj attracted any multinational sponsors?

When you say "Mickey Comerford was the head man when it came to coaching" what does that mean? He has no background in hurling. Why would Lyng Et al cede control of the hurling coaching to him. He obviously took care of the warm up as S&C coach which included basic ball skills but after a couple of sessions that just becomes routine and the only job of a coach is to tell the players when to move to the next part of the warm up. I find it next to impossible to believe he was doing any hurling coaching outside of that.

are KK playing a challenge match on Saturday does anyone know? They surely won’t advertise it that might be the right thing to do.

This has being discussed to death here for months. Obviously these are only chaps and some good chaps involved. They might of overachieved by getting to the final but that day will live long in the memory for a lot of kk supporters. I know mick fennelly went down during the match to offer some advice and was told to mind his own business. It has to be said the failure to get to a leinster final two years In a row after inheriting a scarce underage all ireland team was also fairly shocking. I remember a couple of posters raised their concerns about the lack of pace particularly in the half back line because the previous year wexford ran at them and caused huge damage. Two of that half back line got destroyed against offally and didn't do much to counter it during the game. Damage was done after 20 mins think the wing forward had 1-2 and center back caught twice because he was too slow. The goalie didn't look like a natural goalie. I would question the selection of that team and the in game management how certain players were picked and not moved around when getting roasted.

The most bizarre thing seen in a number of years is the two management's got the go ahead again. I'd say they couldn't believe their luck. Talking to a u19 player recently it's the same backroom team, the tipp man and Brian lannon and Robert shorthall.

Agree with you entirely. Comerford was S&C lead and replaced for this year by John Murphy. Obviously not well received by some posters. Conor Phelan is a well respected coach and did a fine job with limited enough resources. Good luck to Declan Wall who takes his position while Noel Doherty replaces Peter Barry as a selector. That is how I read it. No great mystery there, fingers crossed a few of the newcomers respond well to the elite level and make their mark. Must be patient with them .