I'd share the views of most people here and for lot of reasons Saturday was a very disappointing day. I think management will rightly get a lot of flack for how we were set up and how timid we were but the players have to take some responsibility also for how flat we were. I think Neary was unlucky for the first goal, it looked like he got caught by the sun and batted the ball out but I think Tipp were beginning to get on top at that stage. I think Tipp had the experience of losing the final last year to drive them on this year, so hopefully for the 5/6 lads who are underage again next year the pain of this defeat will drive them on for next year. As disappointing as the loss will be I still think we will get a decent amount of seniors from this team, Bolger and Murphy loo like they could make an impact at senior next year, Lyng, Neary, Vereker look good prospects also and even though they were poor at the weekend McDermott and Lauhoff look like they have something about them also. A lot of posters here have talked about the support on Saturday and it was very disappointing to once again be outnumbered in our own back yard, people say it doesn't have an impact on players but speaking to one of our senior hurlers recently he mentioned how disheartening it was to hear the roar for the opposition team and barely a whimper for us, especially at Nowlan Park. The disconnect between the supporters and county teams is very worrying and definitely something that needs to be looked at but not sure what can be done solve the issue but no doubt if we get to the senior final this year they'll all be coming out of the woodwork looking for tickets.
Yes Neary had a good game and got on lot of possessions, but the distribution and physicality from him and the half back left an awful lot to be desired, i am not sure of how many times we were turned over or put on our arses coming out of the backs but it was sickening to watch. I said on this last week that if we go with the short game we are in for a long afternoon and it proved that way, what also did not help was when we went short to Lahouf, Mcphilips and Mcevoy in the first half, there touch was dreadful. The only player who is anywhere near senior level physicality is Murphy, a lot of them all they wanted was easy ball, as Marooned stated the management need to be called out on this, where is our savage hunger gone. It is simply not good enough.
He was at fault for the first goal as well in fairness. I like Neary, I think he's a lovely hurler however I don't know where you play him. He's been played in the backs by both Kierans and KK U20s and he's not a good defender. The team was moulded this year to have him free so it's pretty easy look a good hurler when the team is set up for you. I'd like to see him as a deep 11 similar to Cian Lynch but that's not to say he's anywhere near that level. I hope it works out for him but he's pretty small. I couldn't agree that he had a good game Saturday though.
This is it exactly, we are in a leinster final, without even being tested yet. And it will probably be the All Ireland semi final before our first serious test, which is not ideal.
Jeff Neary is an outstanding young player and alongside Ivan Bolger was one of the few that on the day brought the fight to Tipp. I have no doubt if he was given a one on one role with any of the opposition he would come out well. He was turned over for goal no 3 but at that stage the game was long decided. He is one for the future. Tipp didn't target anyone in particular, they were always in the comfort zone. Our manager acknowledged we were flat on the day and that's how it felt to me. If we had a few more with the hurling ability and bottle of young Neary we would be fine. PS I don't know the chap.
The biggest problem we have in Kilkenny now is Leinster competitions from Minor to Senior are not giving us any real tests of as to what our best teams are and when we meet stonger oppposition from Munster we cant seem to cope for 75 minutes. We have no intensity or urgency in our play at times. Supporters are not going to matches due to the standard of hurling and it is very hard to watch all teams play the short game with the breaking tackles. Some players don't even strike the ball with their hurl in some games. If this does not change attendances will get even smaller as people just wont go anymore.
Reid at 6 means from now on in Huw Lawlor has perform Heroics at full back line because it is like the red sea parting when Reid is at 6 against the top teams.
Reid is a very very good ball player and will get away with it v the Antrims, Dublins etc but Clare ran at him constantly in that second half of the semi-final last year and got their rewards and Limerick the year before.
The problem is there has never been anyone to replace the great Brian Hogan yet at 6, though P. Walsh, K. Joyce and C. Buckley all done fine jobs their at certain times.
In the current climate the two most important positions on a hurling team are your goalkeeper and your centre back, and Kilkenny are struggling with both. (It is why Limerick needed Nickie Quaid back in goal and sorted their 6 position out straight away after the Cork defeat last year).
I doubt Shane Murphy will be able to start.
Those 6 forwards are the same as the last couple of years. Stephen Donnelly might start.
Murphy, Lyng, Vereker and Neary are part of the senior panel. They were with the u20s only for the last 6 weeks or so, so they will be back with the seniors this week. He may be on the 26 but is he good enough?
Galway will fancy getting at us the same place every one else does. Down the middle.
How are we going to line up against Galway
Will Reid be installed number 6 ?
Will Shane Murphy start ?
Billy Ryan, Mossy Keoghan, John Donnelly, Eoin Cody, Adrian Mullen, TJ will that be our starting 6 forwards ?
Will Marty Murphy be included in the 26, as we are poor off the bench all year ?
Where can Galway really get at us ?
I agree completely, last week I said that if I was from Tipp I would be targeting Neary, that's exactly what they did. I got abuse on this and messages privately. I'm not blaming Neary but the half back line with him were shambolic.
You'd want to be fairly thin skinned to be offended by daly. Constructive criticism is not having a cut. Anyway, I didn't see anything untrue that he said.
Nicky brennan said on the radio last week that beating laois and dublin was not a true test facing into a good tipperary team. And of course he was correct. But If a munster pundit said that it would be framed differently on here.
Some people on here just want munster lads to criticise us so they can act offended it feels like.
On the camogie. Big lack of pace in the forwards and playing Katie power as 6/sweeper didn't work.
I deleted a post meant for elsewhere that’s all. Huge admirer of Kk hurling and certainly no offence meant to anyone.
Very disappointed, they haven’t progressed from the minor grade at all.
My point though was you seemed to be very critical of anyone that questioned the KK management tactics so I was interested in your own opinion on them. It turns out you thought they got it wrong yourself.
Tipp were more clinical on the day. Full stop. Having watched all of our u20 matches I had the opinion that this was the first kilkenny team that actually looks comfortable playing out from the back but every game is different. You have to alternate your strategy if its not producing results throughout any match. There was a period of about 15 minutes in the 2nd half where our play was breaking down in our half forward line and we weren't able to win anything there. We should have brought marty Murphy out for 10 minutes as the ball was t getting into him. Granted, he is most effective in the edge of the square bur if you're not feeding him, bring him into the game further out. You must have several switches in your head for any match, depending on how the game is panning out. He was the only forward we had that was capable of taking his man on.
Overall, like the camogie match before it, we were 2nd best when it comes down to speed and strength. This is something we have to work on with intercounty squads. It's so evident.
With the seniors there hasn't been one match this year where you are excited after a performance. Granted, the opposition haven't tested us massively but its been laboursome throughout the campaign. We need some kind of spark. Let's hope eoin Cody, mullen et al will give is something to get excited about. Anyone think of not going to croker this weekend, just get off your arse and go. Regardless of what way we think, we still have to support the lads.
Any word on injuries ahead of Sunday, are Shane Murphy or Eoin Cody fit?
Anytime I see an article from Anthony Daly and Kilkenny in it, I keep scrolling, you can sure there is a chance it in somewhere to have a cut off Kilkenny or talk about his provinces superiority over Leinster.
Tipp were clear favorites from the start of this championship and rightly so, some outstanding talent. The only question was whether Cummins would throw a spanner in the works. It would have taken a monumental effort from KK to win against a team who are probably anywhere from 5 to 10pts better than them. They caused us problems all over the field and definitely looked to be working harder than us without the ball. I do think KK have done well this year and a lot of these lads will have learned a lot from Saturday. Just a couple of points….
Just my thoughts……
True, but have many real star forwards come on the scene over that time from any county, the Clare all Ireland team team last year was spearheaded by players who were playing in 2013, the Limerick team who won four on a row in 2023 have been on the go for a fair while now, there has been some hype over Limerick and Cork underage forwards but is there any exceptional player there who will lead those teams to multiple All Irelands, I'm not so sure
You'll have to ask Anthony Daly about what he thinks, but there is definitely potential on the Minor panel this year, albeit at 16/17 they are very young still, but there looks to be some really good talent there. Fingers crossed they'll keep progressing. Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen are probably the last 2 really serious forwards we've produced and they're both mid twenties at this stage. It's a big gap back to a 16 year old from there so in fairness he has a point.
What do you, Anthony Daly and the "examiner" think of the forwards on the minor team?
Very disheartening display by Kilkenny, never rose a gallop at all. I think that's the most disappointing thing really, that we never really showed any teeth or aggression, while obviously our game plan was just really poor as well. Having said that Tipp are an excellent side, and their 3 inside forwards were a huge threat, even if Bolger did a good marking job on McCarthy. O'Donoghue and McCormack are very clever hurlers, they use their bodies really well and if they're not winning clean ball, they both have a great knack of knocking it into a good position for themselves. Tipp were at their ease really, they looked a far superior team all through. Our tactics weren't working but we stuck to it which seemed a bit crazy. It was as if we were unable to play any other system than the sweeper. At half time we were only hanging in thanks to the wind. The writing was on the wall so we nearly had to make 2 or 3 subs at that point and throw caution to the wind. Most of our lads just didn't perform, particularly from midfield up. If Marty Murphy wasn't winning it, it was hard to see where else our threats were, although in fairness to Glynn he fought hard but just made some silly decisions in possession. Anthony Daly said it in the Examiner today, we just don't seem to producing top forwards like we used to, which continues to be a worry.
Tipp will get at least 6/7 good seniors off that side you'd expect. If we get half that we'll be lucky.
Presume that too but even then very harsh
I presume he meant to say "at nothing". I can't remember my exact words but I said I thought Tipp would be strong favourites and didnt have any confidence going into the game.
You see people complain about our support of our teams on here and then some of same people say that a Kilkenny team who gave their best and won a Leinster Championship against the odds are nothing, pretty odd thing to say about any inter County team let alone this one, assume its a typo, but take some care about your language while you complete your complicating, these lads are 18 and 19
Straight after the win against Dublin you said we are nothing and we have no chance v Tipp. You were 100% correct. Yes we were not good enough, but that display yesterday was hard to take. It was so bad I'm stilll here contemplating it and don't know where to begin
Not particularly , and it felt like we set out to contain Tipp even when we had the wind , my view is either way KK didn't play to their potential on the day, but even if they had they wouldn't beat an exceptional Tipp team. You must have been extremely disappointed with the Laois showing in the Leinster semi ?
Assume 5 full stops are an indication of dissaproval from a Laois man, I prefer the 2006 to 2015 era of hurling too but things have moved on and if you are going to try something you may as well give your self some chance of doing it right
…..
The lads who got bottled up yesterday leading to turnovers and Tipp scores had nobody making themselves available for a pass, if you look at Limerick and Clare teams they break past the first tackle and then power on into space which gives them the option either to go short to the midfielders and half forward line or long into players in the full forward in a fair bit of space, we are still the worst of the main hurling counties at that off the shoulder support run which comes naturally to players who have played Gaelic football, we see so many passes even at senior level given to a player who is stationery facing their own goal.
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