Kilkenny GAA Thread

Lets hope they take their time and interview a wide selection of people even if some of them are not interested. Feedback is required. I would hope anyone interetsed in the jobs at underage would be attending matches. Re the senior is interesting that they could not say if Lyng is staying or if they have offered him anothe rcontract. This will only lead to more speculation. If he has agreed to stay on its best to say he is staying on and maybe just say he is working on his backroom team.

Re Thomastown.

And then they became Senior champions soon after.

So did they do that because of Henry's input for the year, or did it show what Henry should have done with them?

Angles, it depends on your own angle..

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I would have no problem with Shefflin managing any KK team. I am not sure he would do a better job than Lyng. But as you say the backroom team is just as important if not more than the manager himself.

I would have no problem if he became senior manager. Be better if he took over the U20 IMO as i think he would be inspirational to that team. I think one of Lyngs biggest negatives is the sideline.

On the Shamrocks do they have many more to come back I wonder??

Talk of Joey Cuddihy but not sure of full story there. Adrian Mullen it seems has to be minded with his injury, hopefully he gets back in next game or 2. His brother Darren is home from Australia too but maybe his body breaking down so much is stopping a return, a lovely player to watch, would be great to see him back where possible.

Wouldn't rule out a County Final win obviously but they are not at the level even depth wise compared to 4 or 5 years ago. Some of their forwards would struggle to break on a lot of other senior teams imo.

Yep

No wonder there's so many injuries with the amount of games. Lads playing 3 games in 7 days is a recipe for disaster especially with the physicality of hurling nowadays.

The county board would seriously have to be questioned if derek was allowed to stay on because he wants to despite the team regressing.Derek has full backing of the county board. He would of being told to step down if they werent happy. Unfortunately this is where the problem lies and why poor underage managers were re appointed. Any lads ive met at the clubs matches all think its stale and very predictable. Eddie brennan would generate a bit of a stir but definitely the backroom needs a shake up

I'd disagree that Henry had it easy coming in as Shamrocks manager in 2018, he came into a situation that could have turned toxic very easy and he deserves a lot of credit for helping to smooth. It's easy to look at the success that came after and say that any one could have done it but when you look at the team Henry took over it was a very young team with 7/8 players under 21/22. In his year with Thomastown they were very unlucky in the semi final against Glenmore and should have had a penalty at the end if that game to win it. In his time with Galway the first year they played well and were very unlucky to lose to Limerick in the semi final, the second year they should have won the Leinster final but for Cillian Buckley's last second goal, they ran out of steam after a good first half against Limerick in the semi final but not a disaster of a year by any stretch. Fair enough his last year with Galway didn't go well but when you look at how Galway were under O'Donoghue this year I'm not sure all the problems were on Henry's side. I think if Henry is interested in taking over the U20 team next year we should be delighted that someone of that stature and caliber is interested in helping develop our younger players.

It's not the western environs it's the Boro (as you know) and I think that type of wording is very important to dispel. When I looked at the clubs back in 2016 based on my map of the clubs. The Boro had the smallest population by quite a margin of the 3 city clubs.

James Stephens 10,753

OLG 10,062

Dicksboro 7,584

The catchment area for the clubs is a bit different

OLG 22.95 sq/miles

James Stephens and Dicksboro, practically equal at 12.96 sq/miles each.

Obviously the population in the Boro will increase with the amount of houses being built on that side of town In reality it will only be catching up with our city rivals. The Boro will likely not see an increase in playing numbers for at least 10 years. Many of the people moving into these houses will have home club allegiances and it's only with the arrival of children who might go to the CBS/Pres or Canices that the numbers will start to filter into the Boro.

I'm helping out with the U7's in the Boro at the minute we have 15 young lads the Village and OLG both have 30+ at the same age group. This is only a snap shot and can be flipped on it's head depending on different years. I would say the city clubs need bigger numbers as there is more distractions and a lot of players are lost to other sports and activities.

As I said before if you look at a town like Portlaoise it has one club for a population basically the same sizes as Kilkenny. The difference is the country clubs boundaries come much closer to Portlaoise as far as I know and also many players from the town play with the country clubs.

Rather than trying to set up a 4th city club at huge expense, in a location that already has allegiances and history with it's existing club/clubs in the city. Trying to raise volunteers and establish a culture and passion for the club would be very hard. I think it would make more sense to allow city players to more easily move to the surrounding clubs- GBC, Threecastles/St Lactains, Conahy, St Martins, Clara, Bennettsbridge, Danesfort.

In reality (cost wise) to set up a 4th city club it would have to be a good distance from town, similar to the James Stephens facility on the Kells Rd or even further. If kids have to be driven that far from town anyway why not go that bit further and use the existing clubs resources, dressing rooms, pitches etc.

Of the clubs mentioned above Threecastles would be a prime candidate to get a lot of help. They have room to grow their pitches are relatively close to town (as are Danesfort and Clara) and of all the clubs their the one that struggles most for numbers.

Trying this before spending many millions "creating" a club where few will want it would make more sense. Threecastles have a great history and a passionate group involved and more support somewhere like that would make more sense to me than making a 4th city team.

100% correct here on a 4th club in the city. There is no appetite in the city for a 4th club and the only ones that bring it up are in pubs and who don't volunteer in any club. All three city clubs find it very hard every year to get people to volunteer and coach at underage levels.

The idea of allowing players from the city clubs going back to their parents club or the clubs mentioned above has to be looked at in order to help these clubs survive in the future. I say this because of the lack of housing being built in Graigue Ballycallan, Threecastles, Bennettsbridge, Conahy, Clara, Castlecomer will have an impact on playing numbers in these areas and more in the years to come.

IMO for KK to win an all ireland with the current squad of players available we need to have the best sideline. I personally dont see that with the current manager or anyone being linked with the job either. This applies to all grades. Tipp won the AI this year on the sideline. We can all talk a good game like Shefflin on the Sunday Game but can he or anyone else deliver is the question.

Glenmore hurled us off the field that day but it was back to three when that free should have been given, they were 6 down but had reeled them in a bit. Glenmore more than deserved the win though. We had struggled at centre back for years and the balance was off with where lads were playing. Henry changed the mentality in the players and actually brought in Noel Doherty and Sean Kelly who were the difference makers in the end along with the u21 team that won were exceptional.

Henry being announce as Galway manager before that match was a nightmare when it came to timing. It would have been interesting to see what Henry would have achieved if he had stayed on.

Gut feeling is Noel Doherty was the ideal man to get the minds right after a disaster few years and Sean Kelly couldn't have drilled them any better. It took Sean Kelly 18 months to get them playing the way they play now, using the ball the right way and staying cool but it's a good brand of hurling.

Not sure if you could write Henry off on just Thomastown is the point. The choice to take on Galway was a risk as they can be a basket case. There is a slight tail on the Ballyhale team now so it is a more difficult job than you would think. Injuries could effect that panel more than most of the other front runners as panel depth is not there.