Kilkenny GAA Thread

A 2 man ff line is made for players like Glynn breaking into space in the corners or feeding off either McDermott or Murphy

When you play a sweeper your smaller corner forwards are at an obvious disadvantage as

1. The delivery in has to avoid the sweeper so less likely to be as favourable
2. Because of the amount of short pucks outs conceded you spend most of your time chasing down lost causes as there is always a free man available for next pass
3. When playing with a sweeper teams will tend to take more shots from distance as they work overlaps around midfield. When lads look up and see 2 inside with a sweeper in front are more likely to shoot than deliver.

Sounds like we won't agree but really like Glynn as a player and would love to see him in a more traditional formation.

You are consistent, will say that much for you, make of that what you will. The best brand of hurling I saw in the last fifteen years was played by ourselves and Tipp when we met '09 to '19 not that there was anything wrong with Limericks brand '18 to '23. Cork are impressive no doubt but best brand is usually the winning brand and when they have 4 in a row done we might have this chat again. Well done to our under 20s yesterday another impressive outing . Timmy Kelly will be a huge loss going forward if Red upheld, didn't see the incident so can't say. If Marty Murphy is fit to start next day we might upset the odds and make the provincial final.

this under 20team was bet by Dublin at prelim rounds at minor level and bet by Laois in the quarter finals. I thought the last day Lyng excellent again (I hope that doesn’t warrant a call up).Marty Murphy improved no end from the last day and Ed. McDermott was very good, after that they were all just about OK.I wouldn’t be that confident after seeing them,but hopefully they will improve.

Cork do play a lovely to watch style but sorry to be a killjoy, much of it is due to being allowed overcarry and throw.

Before we coronate them, a reminder that this is still largely Cork 2021 with 3/4 new names.

I checked last night and 13 players that played at some stage yesterday also played in the 2021 rout by Limerick, that's a lot for a team now being heralded as almost unstoppable.

I'm happy with U20 progress, we need to avoid Galway in semi as I think they are the team to beat. I think Leinster winners look more likely to win it out. I'd be surprised if Galway dont beat Offaly tomorrow.

The pass that put the Dublin player clean through for their 2nd goal on Saturday was the cleanest throw you could see. But it didn't need to be a throw, the player was wide open and a legal handpass was just as easy. This tells me that throwing is now simply ingrained and instinctive, the Dublin player just instintively threw the ball. It needs a ref to have the balls to cancel a vital goal, that would at least have these coaches who are essentially coaching players to cheat to get word out to never use a throw for a set up for a clear goal, it's too high risk.

Cork are indeed impressive and the bandwagon is in full swing ,but hype and hysteria from the rebels is nothing new (anyone old enough to remember 82 ?) they could be heading for a massive fall .Interesting to hear Donal og and the boys refer to Kilkenny as “tier two “last night …again short memories …we might be a lot of things but tier 2 is not one of them ….

You're dead right in that we won't agree.

Good coaching would solve these 3 problems, not easily but the players should be capable of playing with and against sweeper systems.

Looking at results from the first two weeks, it seems that some teams may be inappropriately graded.

What's the story with The Village? They were worthy winners of the U13 Roinn A three years ago, but managed only 0-3 tonight. Have they a few county minors who are currently unavailable to them?

Agree with that. There is no lack of aggression and physicality in this Cork team, they proved that twice against Limerick last year. That said I am definitely not crowning them AI champions this year but with the support they have and to be fair the quality of their team they will be hard beaten. Limerick, Clare with O'Donnell and ourselves if we have everyone are the only ones I see capable of beating them.

Agree completely, Mullinavat sailed through B at this grade when U13 yet they're still in B 3 years later. Clubs certainly need to look at themselves, can't be Co.Boards fault all the time

One of the big issues with this topic is the jump from being a very good B team to the standard at A. It can be a massive jump so multiple teams need to make it in order for the competition to be fair. If only 1 or 2 teams bridge that gap and get hockeyed by the big town teams in A it's a sickener for clubs who have maybe landed on a once in 20 years kind of team.

Looking at U16 you've got 8 teams in A, 18 teams in B, 20 teams in C although admittedly you've got Naas in A, MLR in B and a lot of Carlow teams in C which skews the numbers. But there has to be a hard line taken that there's a minimum 12 teams in each grade. That will give that cushion for teams making the jump from B to A that they'll be competitive

Ideally yes, but the reality is the City teams will generally annihilate most country teams mainly due to the volume and pick of players that they have. That doesn't help anyone either.

Unfortunately only a couple of country teams are able to compete with the big 3 at any one time. Callan have done it over the last few years at the 2 lower age groups, Comer as well with one team, and also to a lesser extent Dunnamaggin, Danesfort. A couple of years ago 2 of the City teams split their underage teams for league (I think it's this years minors) and that made league competitive but I'm sure brings its own problems as well.

Shamrocks were allowed to go back to B at U16 last year having been very competitive at A level previously up along, and of course duly won it. I think 3 of that team are Co Minors this year. It was as if the Co Board applied no logic to the grading whatsover.

Rinse and repeat every single year.

Agreed. When you see last year's U14 Roinn A champions regraded to B this year, it speaks volumes about all that is wrong with the grading system....it's who you have on the inner circles at board level that counts

Mcdermott absolutely outstanding, involved in everything good Kilkenny did. He will be some detail in a year or two. I know Murphy was out for a while and the minutes will do him good but he looks like a lad that needs 2/3 weeks hard training. On another note i agreed with Richie Power in commentary that the ref as very good, tried let it flow especially the challenge where players are running into contact looking for frees.

Galway beat Offaly in the U20, looking more than likely now it will be a Kilkenny v Offaly semi final. Will this be in the Park this year