Kilkenny GAA Thread

Some big games this weekend again. 4 weeks in a row is really tough. Especially in this hot weather and hard ground. Plenty of injuries too. Think I heard on the radio David fogarty has had a acl.

Loughlins ballyhale will be interesting but there could be a bit of shadow boxing. Erins own ballycallan massive match. Ballycallan have shown enough consistency to think they should win this.

Glenmore are the form team and will fancy themselves against the boro in mooncoin.

In intermidiate the village should take care of dunnamaggin while rower inistioge and St lachtains is a very important game. That group is so tight, no team is safe yet.

Dicksboro unlucky not to have getting something out of that game.

Boro seem to be lacking the quality up front, left the game hanging and glenmores bench made the difference. That being said a few missed frees were the losing of the game.

Large crowd in Ballyragget for the Erin's Own GBC game. At one point it looked like half of them were standing outside the Comer dugout! Something really should be done about the numbers on the sidelines, it's a recipe for disaster.

I thought GBC were the better team but Comer hung in there, thanks in part to some soft frees. But it's another game where they should have won and didn't. Sean Ryan was quite impressive today.

Yeah the list of injuries is ridiculous but even with them all fit, the boro are a serious collection of hurlers but the lack of exceptional forward quality is not there. You are more worried about the collective overpowering you than forming a plan to take their main men out of the game.

Paddy Deegan, Huw Lawlor and Jordan Molloy were a class apart particularly in the second half. Richie Reid one glaring first half error apart outstanding for Shamrocks. Nice bit of needle in the game and would be a must see if they were to meet again. Dara and Killian Corcoran and Niall Shortall potential county additions were disappointing in this one. GBC /Comer game not of the same quality but hard fought. Comer deserved the draw and it was interesting to see Aaron McEvoy and young Corcoran benched by Ballycallan. They seem to puck every ball down on Conor Flynn and Conor McMahon did a decent job for Comer dealing with him.

Another game next week is no good to gbc lisdowney blacks & whites st martins or any other team trying to stay out of relegation there going hard for the game there playing at the present moment

The teams with the bigger squads like the village or olg can afford to lose a game or 2 as they have pints in the bag

The other teams are treating every game like a knockout game everyday

I was wondering that myself. Think first round /league finals were week after 5th round last year. This schedule will test the strength of squads especially with a lot of injuries..

Clara and gbC have been very unlucky as you say, very competitive but just coming out on the wrong side of scorelines. If erins own finish out of the bottom 2 that would be a great escape as they looked poor early in the first few rounds.

Wouldn't surprise me if clara beat mullinavat though. As good as mullinavat can be, when they're off it they can be very poor on certain days.

Probably the most even it's been and the pack seems to be a lot tighter, with a top 3 (OLG, Ballyhale, Thomastown) and then an even enough spread across the remaining 9 teams.

Group A, OLG are the best team in it but they are still missing a forward or two before anyone can say they will definitely win it out. Ballyhale would have to be considered a top 3 team despite the loss against Glenmore. If they get their forwards firing in championship only O loughlins will beat them. Glenmore have had a great year after a close call last year while Boro's injuries and fellas gone travelling have depleted them. Bridge aren't too far back and Lisdowney despite their losses have put in battling performances. Another year at senior would probably stand to them.

In the other group, Thomastown have had a few wobbles before finishing strong in nearly all their games, are they looking to time their run? Tullaroan's injuries probably rule them out of competing for championship this year but at the same time they will die with their hurls in hand. The other 4 teams are very even, with Comer and Mullinavat both looking stronger than last year. GBC seem to have regressed slightly and can't seem to put teams away at the moment, but they will look at their results and wonder what could have been and maybe will take a bit of encouragement from that. Clara seem to be the most stagnant, with the two Glynns adding a bit of bite to their forwards.

Whoever they have lined up for u20 must be in action with a club now and don't want/need the distraction of an announcement.

It’s a pity we haven’t a successful u20 manager over the last few years to make the step up to the senior role

Cork have been lucky with Ryan having underage success and o Connor more recently it’s easier to change manager when there’s good candidates comming through similar to when Derek stepped in after actually winning something underage

did they even start the process?

I think anyone in contention would already be attending, watching and scouting for emerging talent at this stage.

I must congratulate the Kilkenny GAA website on giving us all the information on teams, times and venues for today’s accademy matches and the best of luck to all KK teams participating.