Kilkenny GAA Thread

Based on that team, Blanchfield would be the only player from 1 to 7 to retain his position from last year. I do think major surgery is required.

Mikey Butler needs to regain his form from 4 years ago imo.

I think Rory Glynn's best position is centre forward where Eoin Cody may be playing

I see DCU won this match by 3 points. Did we have any stand-out performers from Kilkenny? So far from reports I've only been able to see that Hackett got a goal and Denis Walsh contributed 11 points.

I believe we have to go to Galway and Dublin this year. Dublin is the last match - which could end up being be a Leinster semi final with Dublin looking at the chance to knock us out of Leinster in a home match. So there's a scenario there where we finish third (presuming we stop coughing up points to Wexford!) - in that case we get a Munster team for a Q final. We need to take the points in Galway to have some comfort but we haven't done that before.

We have a terrible record against Munster teams the last 10 years. We have been bet by them all apart from Kerry. We really need to start turning the tide on this. We will have no problem finishing top 2. Galway and Wexford are starting a severe re build. While Dublin have a mental block against Kilkenny.

KK need a sugar daddy. We cant coimpete on the financial side and everyone knows that. When you dont have the dosh you need to think differently. Unfortunately we dont have the right people in CB to do that. They are still living off the glory days of old.

Derek Lyng is planning without Huw Lawlor and Billy Ryan this season, but the Kilkenny senior hurling boss hasn't ruled out the possibility of one or both featuring at some stage in 2026.

Three-time All-Star defender Lawlor and Ryan – an All-Star nominee in attack last year after his best season in black and amber – both opted out of the Kilkenny fold for this year to go travelling, but Lyng has not totally ruled out a return this season.

“The way I’m looking at it now, they’re not available and we’re driving on. Who knows what might happen down the line but for now, we’re planning without them,” Lyng told ‘The KCLR Hurling Podcast'.

“Two great guys who have given Kilkenny a huge amount of service and it’s something that is important to both of them. While we’d love to have them, we don’t and we wish them well on their travels. We’ll see what the future holds but we’re planning without them for the minute.”

It is 11 years since Kilkenny last scaled the All-Ireland SHC summit and Lyng has made many changes to his backroom team for this year with some high-profile additions.

Former Kilkenny star Eddie Brennan comes in as a forwards coach with former Dublin defender Niall Corcoran working as head coach, while former Limerick goalkeeper Timmy Houlihan has come in to put Eoin Murphy and the other netminders through their paces.

“The opportunity was there to add to it and freshen up the backroom team and we wanted to get the best available people,” Lyng said.

“Niall Corcoran has huge experience on the coaching front and he’s already doing a huge amount of work, a massive amount of work in the last couple of months.

“Eddie obviously has huge experience as well and both of them have hit the ground running. Timmy Houlihan as well as goalkeeping coach brings that freshness there so I’m really delighted with the work the three lads have put in so far.”

Seven-time All-Ireland SHC winner TJ Reid returns for a 20th county season with the 38-year-old captaining Lyng’s side on the back of Ballyhale Shamrocks landing the Kilkenny SHC title last October.

“What TJ has achieved is phenomenal, and he has been a captain before. He has that experience and he’ll bring a huge amount to it. Whether he’s captain or not, he leads by example so I'm happy with TJ there in that role,” he said.

Reid’s clubmate Adrian Mullen won’t see any game time for a while, though, as he continues to recover from an injury-ravaged 2025 having undergone surgery on a broken thumb in November while several others face varying time on the sidelines.

“Adrian has had his procedure and he’ll be working on that in the next while, I don’t want to put a time frame on him at the same time. David Blanchfield, Fionán Mackessy, Tom Phelan, there’s a number of guys who are working away in the background,” Lyng said.

“Harry Shine and Tommy Walsh are obviously working on long-term injuries and making good progress as well. There’s a number of players there who are fighting their way back to fitness.

“I’m hoping some of them will be available in the next few weeks and some of them will be a little bit longer term.”

Lyng was “frustrated” and “disappointed” with how last year ended as their All-Ireland charge came up short at the semi-final stage once again and he is chasing small margins to help change their fortunes.

“We did an awful lot of things right last year but ultimately we fell short in a couple of key areas and that will form the basis of what we’re going after this year,” he said.

They are carrying the guts of 50 players on their panel at present – although he revealed that there were only 16 fit players for their first session – but that will be trimmed over the coming weeks.

A lot of new players are “getting exposed to the inter-county environment” while he intends to carry a development squad outside of their main panel with some games to be played on the same weekends as League matches to keep players in the system.

Citing his own start to county hurling at adult level with the Kilkenny intermediates, Lyng is trying to create something similar to that in an unofficial status as a means of helping with the “big jump” from U-20 to senior, one that can be “hard for players”.

keep experimenting Derek .

Add Tj A Mullen D blanchfield and T phelan and D barcoe that’s our league/championship panel give or take one or 2 I’d imagine

Personally I prefer to see Cian Kenny in a central role either at midfield or centre forward purely to keep him more involved in the game.

When Kenny is on the wing you can go long spells without seeing him, especially if the ball isn’t coming down that side or if he’s tied up tracking runners. Thats not a reflection on Cian it’s just the nature of the wing forward role . He’s one of those players who plays best when he’s constantly in the thick of it.

He’s well able win his own possession, break ball and link play and he brings a serious amount of workrate . Centre forward in particular would allow him to act as a focal point , getting on puck outs, laying off ball and dragging the opposition six out of position.

The problem there is we probably want Cody at eleven to keep him more involved in the game too.

Would Kenny and Doyle complement each other’s game at midfield with Molloy going back to wing back?

Agreed, would like to have seen a bit more of Tallis or Galway too…. it’ll be interesting to see if the new GK coach has any influence on Eoin Murphy’s puck out and his use of the ball in general.

Can't say I've seen a huge amount of him. Wasn't he on mccormack in the u20 final last year?! Would you rate him better than Bolger?

Theres a possibility billy ryan could be back in a few months. It would be hard to get back up to speed but it would be a good headache if he was back for a leinster final or semi final. Huw is definitely gone. When push comes to shove the big fear among many kk supporters is derek will pick 13 of last years team for big championship matches and continue being conservative. Kk desperately need a few fresh faces and competition for places. The team has picked itself for the last few years but molloy and stephen donnelly were two big additions last year,killian corcoran was very solid against wexford Wednesday night.Peter macdonald is better tried in defense so good to see him named in that position. Its good to hear that kk are going to carry a bigger panel this year and for example when playing tipp or galway the extended panels will play each other earlier that day. It keeps players involved and anyone showing form would be drafted in for a match the following week. Sam byrne hurling well for the college. I dont know if denis walsh is involved but he was good for waterford Thursday night. Anthony ireland wall isn't involved with the county.doesnt seem to be anyone from danesfort. Pity daire o neill didnt commit. Is Aaron mcevoy involved he is hurling for cork college.

Hopefully the new coaches from outside the camp will have a good input on what went wrong over the last few years from the outside looking in and hopefully Lyng will take it onboard and not fall back into the old ways.

Eddie Brennan will surely have a good input and improve the forward play and work rate.

I'm sure Dowling will have Kildare well pumped up and hopefully they give Kilkenny a good rattle.

Kilkenny very poor in that first half, heavy pitch not helping but our first touch has been very poor and or use of the ball not nearly as good as Kildare either. Hope to see a big improvement in the second half. Peter McDonald hurling well on the half back line and Molloy and Cian Kenny getting on plenty of ball.