Kilkenny GAA Thread

yes shocking all afternoon, OK early then map disappeared.
Student and OAP prices have a 5 euro discount, farcical stuff. Tickets costing almost 25% of a state OAP payment.

Most of them will be with the clubs. I'll wait until early next week and pick some up sent back

Kilkenny were away yesterday for training and stayed over night. I think that was Eoin Cody's first game time in months. Will need a big week to be in contention to start Sunday week.

Yeah heard it was his first full game back but I heard he took them all to the cleaners. If he’s 80% right they’ll have to chance him?
hear anything on the Big man ?

Hard to see Cody not starting, he's too valuable for us. Apparently he was fit enough to play the Leinster Final but they didn't risk him so he should be in good nick, if a little short of match practice obviously.

There'll be a couple of other big calls as well, I'd imagine Blanchfield and Shane Murphy will have been doing their best over past few weeks to try give management no option but to start them. Luke Hogan as well. Bit of depth there at last.

All the talk is about Tipp, which will suit Kilkenny down to the ground. You'd start to wonder about the quality of the Munster Championship in hindsight. Limerick, apart from the Cork win, were staggering around like a drunk uncle in both league and Championship, wining 4 of their last 15 games, but still managed to annihilate what are now the money on favourites in Cork. Cork also failed to beat a Clare team which was decimated with injuries and who, like Limerick, were really poor all year. The only convincing win Cork has since the league was against a 14 man Tipp side. Waterford were Waterford.

Full stadiums and loud fans can compensate for a lot, and I'd suspect that's masked a good bit of mediocrity in Munster. You only have to look at how dead the Tipp/Galway game was last week.

I reckon we're in a good place. We're better than last year and the minds are surely focused now. Very hard to see the Dubs being good enough to produce 3 monumental performances back to back, which they'll need to win Liam McCarthy. The big 3 though will all be licking their lips, and both Kilkenny and Tipp will fancy their chances against Cork in a final.

We have 4 players who have been consistently good this year. Huw, Kenny, Billy Ryan and Mossy. We will need a lot more players to step up if we are to progress much farther. I am told Eoin Cody has been bursting a gut to get ready. Adrian Mullen has shown signs of improvement after struggling last year, similarly Mikey Butler has struggled since the 2023 AI but has shown signs of his form returning. John Donnelly and Blanch haven't been as good as in 2024 but both are talented hurlers and I would be hopeful of performances. TJ is TJ, just needs proper ball played into him. Eoin Murphy, Richie Reid and Paddy Deegan are not going to surprise us at this stage, their strengths and weaknesses are well known. For me Shane Murphy has to start. Mikey Carey and Molloy are solid enough.

Stephen Donnelly and Luke Hogan should be an improvement on our subs options.

Puckouts and use of ball hasn't been great, hoping this 4 weeks might bring some improvement but not expecting miracles

In summary, we have only hurled in patches this year. Potential is there, depends on more players regaining form

Will there be more decent tickets on Ticketmaster next week?

Missed out on them earlier with the work schedule undecided. Poor ones on it now.

Poor Harry Shine tore his cruciate. So tough on him after working very hard to put himself in the frame for championship inclusion. Wishing him a speedy recovery and looking forward to seeing his return to action next year hopefully

Desperate luck for shine. You'd wonder do the younger lads struggle with the intensity of the senior county training. Marty Murphy has had 2 hamstring issues this year already.

Will be interesting to see how we come out of the 4 week break. Tipp had a good break after munster, then the galway match should bring them on more. Granted galway were awful. We are a more mature experienced team than tipp but we have been knocking on the door a good while now which brings added pressure.

Not too many would have given tipp a chance 6 months ago but they have búilt a nice squad of youth experience and lads in the mid 20s. They have got impact from their subs the last 2 matches.

Ronan Maher and Bryan ó méara would surely make the kilkenny team. But you're right, probably more than the sum of their parts. If kilkenny are close to their best they should win.

Ronan Maher is very, very slow. Powerful man but badly caught for pace, I certainly wouldn't have him.

I agree he is slow. But as a CB he's levels above Richie Reid and probably no slower.