Kilkenny GAA Thread

The bottom line is, even removing talent from the equation.
Kilkenny are just miles behind in graft and work rate. That has nothing to do with what’s coming through, it is down to Lyng, and Lyng inherited a KK side that had that culture all ready embedded in it, so he had an advantage, which he has now let slip and go from this side.
Also, all the other counties are able to bring on players that can compete at senior level when still young except KK.
I don’t buy the b.s. that there is nothing coming through in KK.
KK competed in numerous all Ireland finals at minor level between 16-23. They lost the AI minor to 13 manTipp side ( again due to side management, fight, not ability) in 24 and lost to Waterford by a puck of a ball in the semi final of the all Ireland in 2025 and Waterford won it out.
KK won a minor in 93 and did not win another one until 2002, so how come those losing sides gave us players that ended up being a 4 in a row team.
KK problem, is very poor coaches and mangers.
And currently a KK side, that is very poor compared to other inter county sides, in the areas, or fitness, speed, work rate, and fight. Nothing to do with talent. And a given under Cody sides.

yeah tis strange one… KK won all ire minor in 2014 beating Limerick… 5 of the 6 Limerick forwards that day and 1 defender Sean Finn have gone on to win multiple all-irelands with LK at senior level… while KK have struggled… KK are looking at a Cork style famine happening…

id be slow to blame Derek Lyng… if he is giving management the same efffort as he gave as a player with KK ive no doubt he is leaving no stone unturned to put out the best team

some poster mentioned Ollie Walsh and how he turned things around when he became manager… that poster failed to mention the absolute stroke of luck Ollie enjoyed that literally every other intercounty manager at that time would have given their right arm to have.. anyone guess what that bit of luck was??

DJ

Yep.. no other player past or present would have got that goal again wexford in 91 leinster semi final.. ollie walsh tenure would have been shortlived only for it

Still can’t believe what I witnessed last night ,poorest performance in generations, indeed our biggest beating since 1954 in league or championship .I would never get carried away with the league and especially the version of the league we are now left with these days ,but the simple basics were not there last night .A lot of posts on here seem to be guys promoting and bigging up players( I would think from their own clubs ) and the attitude towards some of the more genuine and experienced players is disgusting .I think we got caught trying to do much last night in blooding new players , and am worried about how little time we have to get things right . From this forum you would think our keeper for example was the bees knees on puck outs …. Clearly he isn’t,albeit the ball winning from half forward lines was pathetic ,I am so disappointed with Cody and and mossy the past couple of games , Cody blows so hot and cold , we had hoped he had finally developed into a leader , but when he gets boxed in and marked closely he is such a frustrating watch,given the ability we all know he has … mossy after a couple of stellar seasons seems to have regressed backed to early career inconsistency.im sure we all hope here that it’s March , it’s the league and all will come good later but I’ve never had as many doubts as I have right now , as someone alluded to here earlier , why are two of our best players, one the best full full back in the country taking time out in their absolute prime ? ( Also something we need to get over and move on )

I said last year I dont think Derek is the right man and I hope he proves me wrong. I am not going to have a pop at him here now and I dont think anyone should. The hurt in his face was enough for me. Time to get behind the team now more than ever. We can criticise but try and be a little sensitive.

There are a lot of issues in KK ATM. Facilities Finances and decision makers at CB level are probably out of their depth.

We are the most successful county and will be for quite a few years more. IMO re style of play we need a manager who can come in and play a style of hurling that suits our players. No point playing a short game if there not comfortable playing it. Like wise no point lobbing high balls into our forward if there not capable of winning it.

Just a note on this question as to why 2 of our best players taking time out in theor prime? What a piss poor argument. These players put their lives in the hands of the kilkenny hurling county scene for 8 months of the year, are amateur in an otherwise professional setup and have lives to live. They may not get this chance to travel in years to come with family and other commitments so gtf off with your shite talk. We know the two lads are a massive loss. That's life. We are kilkenny and we should have plenty of fine hurlers to take their place. We will be delighted to get them back when they're ready.

Call Me old fashioned or whatever but this short tippy happy game doesn't work.have seen so many scores conceded from turnovers in our own half because of this style.Lee chin today coming into his own 45 to receive z ball from his corner back with his back to goal fumbles and its over the bar.same with us. We're conceding more than we're scoring with this short game.Also how do we score goals with 1or 2 up.just shite to watch

@usualstripes Jesus lad I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding regarding my earlier point on Huw and Billy. I completely agree with you… neither player owes the county a thing . We all know the sacrifices these players make as amateurs in the modern game. They have given massive service to Kilkenny and are 100% entitled to live their lives how they want and when they want. I certainly wasn't suggesting that they were letting anyone down or anything like that.

My point was less about their personal choices and more about the internal environment . In any high performance setup, when key players decide to step away, its natural to wonder "If the squeeze is worth the juice" for them right now.

I just wonder if the camp was a place they felt they absolutely couldn't miss out on right now, then maybe the decision to travel might have been deferred. That's in no way an attack on the players loyalty , it's a question about whether the enjoyment levels in the current culture are high enough to balance out the huge sacrifices they make. We can totally respect their decision to travel while still discussing what it says about the state of the panel and how it affects the team.If it came across badly I do apologise.

We are in serious bother as a hurling county , last year across all grades of the development squads it was the worst year ever , that's what we were told at the Bord na Nog convention . They know we are in free fall , playing numbers are also diminishing again we were told that by Bord na Nog . Unfortunately it looks like long term planning while we were enjoying the Cody years just didn't happen . Ned Quinn who was the best chairman we ever had was going around the country telling other counties how we did it . When your on top that's when you work the hardest unfortunately we just didn't do that from a long term planning point of view .

Once we get relegated to 1b at some stage over the next few years and the Co board coffers are hit that might be the wake up call that’s needed to generate or stir some actual change

I wanted to watch the match back before I posted. It was really hard. To be honest I just watched the first half - because there was enough in that alone to put clarity in my mind as to where the problems are.

It's not just that some of our players are not the greats of the past. It was our execution and setup. It was terrible. I would really make you wonder what the hell we're doing with all these coaches and people on the sideline. It was pure U14 stuff in action.

1. Cathal Mannion is critical to Galway. He is their Tony Kelly. We man marked Tony Kelly. Why the F*** do we not man mark Cathal Mannion? Especially if we want to play only 2 inside - so we have a person to sacrifice. He was to the fore when Galway were settling into the match. Curbing that would have curbed them.
2. Similar to the Cork game. We have no out ball. Cody is not a target man (why can't he pick a ball on the run at the moment?) , Mossey is outnumbered. Neither are tall or good in the air. John Donnelly is not the answer either . If we want to play 2 in there can one of them be a titanic mullocker. Can we not just find the fecking equivalent of Redser o Grady and put him in there (that's a joke btw!). It's just insane when we have the wind for 35 minutes most games. Play the bloody percentages and get better at it and yes of course get better at the short game but perfect the long game as well and put people in there who have a chance of winning the ball or breaking the ball intelligently, as part of a plan - or play 3 in there on rotation - there's just zero strategic thinking I feel - Furthermore when Galway ran the ball out they made lots of mistakes. They were a lot better at it than years past but it wasn't prime Limerick triangles we were dealing with. They gave us chances when they broke down. Also - We might even score a goal if we get the ball near the goals!
3. Related to the second point - the delivery in was once again atrocious. Yes that's the players - but I'm also putting this down at the management/coaching. If the team is not doing it right then either make them do it right - or simplify it. My previous point is about simplifying it and giving us another option and giving the opposition something else to think about. If we do that then the options to move the ball through the middle becomes easier because the opposition have to drop players back. Then it comes down to the players and what's between their ears (more on that later)
4. We got pulled and dragged all over the place as a team, left loads of space in front of the full back line. The answer to that is not to pull even more people back and double down on the other issues - waiting to be picked off and beat.
5. Puckouts - own and defending. What are we doing in training? It's terrible. Can we simplify this also?

Now we play Tipp. They will have no issues defending long ball from us - we know that. They will also go after our full back line for goals that Galway didn't. Could we just create a sensible, and relatively coherent plan(s) for how to play the game and pick personnel to execute that. Forget all the bloody 'Kilkenny will be wounded' shite, yes we are and yes we're pissed off but can we channel that also with something coherent to give us a chance to win.

Last thought - we want players to be blooded and learn - and this is part of that. And management is doing the right thing. But the new players do deserve to be in a more coherent structure and setup built around their individual abilities - of which they have plenty. That is lacking which is really disappointing. This is not the last 10 minutes against Tipp last year - where it was down to the players to do the right thing but they didn't and it cost them. Yesterday and the Cork games (even allowing for Cork being better than us) were down to having either no strategy or a bad one. We're fighting with one hand strapped behind our back - by ourselves. That's on the management team to get their finger out and fix. Because confidence is draining now and it's not just because we blooded players - it's because we're trying to change the players AND the strategy at the same time.

If it's not working then either get better or make it simpler and work from there.

this is why we’re tripping from one fiasco to the next. Lads like you keep accepting failure, where there is no thought put in to selecting a management process.

Our starting forwards scored a total of 5 points. Shocking