Kilkenny GAA Thread

THe problem has been that huw Lawlor has been disguising deegan's shortfalls the last 3 years, and now he is gone, deegan's lack of defensive ability is there for all to see. Believe me, I don't want to come on criticise any Kilkenny player consistently but it is getting ridiculous now. For God's sake, our full back got our only goal! And that bourke got 3 or 4 points off of Deegan today. Butler is more concerned with off the ball shenanigans. I do agree that the current management has to go, but nothing will change if whoever replaces them doesn't bring a bit of ruthlessness to the setup. If y if you don't want to work hard, you are not going to be getting a jersey. End of story.

That’s the problem in this county now, to much inside information is common knowledge…Back in Cody’s day you wouldn’t know who was even in there training!!

A lot of hot air on here led by yourself as usual. Not a good performance by KK but we were up against an up and coming Offaly team with one asset we don't possess anywhere in our team . Pure pace. A rare off day from frees for the the Great TJ was symptomatic of the day overall We will do well to make it out of the group and you can throw on a Kildare or Dublin jersey for the next two matches if you wish but the majority will see it out. Plenty players saw action today and for me all the backs did well enough but overall when the game was in the balance Blanch, Doyle ,Deegan and particularly Cian Kenny were warriors. We now know two wins to make a Leinster final and one loss leaves us out pre June. When the going gets touch etc etc.Finally I hate commenting negatively on a ref but Murphy was shocking for us.

The difference in puck outs between the two teams very noticeable , not a Murphy problem but a management problem. Offaly keeper pucking into space and the forwards run from the middle towards the pocket of space on the sideline where when Murphy goes long its to a static forward on the opposite 45, no movement or runs to create space just high floated balls.

The 7 missed frees on our side just kept them in it and anytime we got level upstepped Murphy with his whistle to give another soft free.

You need 30 points a game to be competitive nowadays and we dont have the free scoring forwards to get that. Mossy does well but it feels like hes living of scraps. Why is TJ back in his own half back line in the first half? Edge of the square and stay there. Eoin Cody looks completely out of form. Moore scored and was then taken off before the next puckout. Phelan was decent and Kenny was our best player

Doyle got on a lot of ball, runs into trouble sometimes but is getting better each week

Its clear the players are not playing for the manager and its not the happiest camp

Twice in the early stages TJ ended up at wing forward for Offaly puckouts on Ter Guinan, one of the fastest young players in hurling.

Offaly completely vacated that side of the field up top and hit the puckout into him to run on to, naive of Kilkenny to let TJ be left their for puckouts and to not have a midfielder/wing back to see what was going on.

Dan Bourke carried so much ball and twisted the Kilkenny half back line inside out

You're obviously a big Mikey Comerford fan but fact is we calved as a team fitness wise in 2 All Ireland semis in a row, and also in many other big games. Something had to change, it was obvious to all concerned.

Doesn't shock me one bit he's doing a nixer for one of those players that he was close to. And that itself raises far more questions than answers.

Another game with more questions than answers

Fair play to Offaly I think they were the best team for long parts of the game and would have deserved the win

If we won it would have been a fluke

Johnny Murphy got a rousing reception from both sets of fans at the end so that will tell you how well they thought he performed

As mentioned on here loads of times giving opposition the puckout is putting our backs under serious pressure filtering to many players back the field is to negative we have no one up the field when it does go up in the last 5-10 mins it was one forward vs 3 Offaly backs and we were chasing the game

Can’t put my finger on it but especially up front we’re not hurling as unit

He took off Tj rightly so but then took Liam Moore and phelan off who looked very dangerous and left eoin Cody on which was madness

Doyle molloy Bolger and Kenny were very good I thought and deegan when he was moved upfront in the second half

Its very clear now that Derek and whoever his backroom are can’t a proper tune out of these players whether it’s on the players side on management something is not working

We’ve had wall Doherty Corcoran Eddie all in coaching with very little improvement

Lyng should have went last year it’s just not good enough from players or management anymore something needs to change but I’m not sure what at this stage

The hurling IQ of some of those Yong Offaly hurlers is very good or they are seriously well coached.

Their movement on and off the ball was phenomenal today.

Whether he has or not has feck all to do with us, or with today. He's a fitness/S&C coach not a hurling coach. Bizarre how anybody brought up his name in the first place other than someone who didn't agree with his removal. There's anlwas plenty of axes to grind here when results don't go our way.

I thought he should have gone today before Moore and Phelan. It's the hope that he will actually do what he's capable of. And it's literally the hope that ends up killing you…

He seems to be in a crisis of confidence at the moment, nothing is working for him.

We scored 3 from 10 places balls, I think Offaly scored 12 from 13? 3 fantastic goal chances butchered as well in 1st half. People have commented already, but Johnny Murphy seemed to be on a mission to ensure Offaly were kept in the game. He was reffing our backs at a completely different standard than Offalys. Even the Offaly people around me were laughing. Every time we'd get level he'd award a bizarre free. It was no surprise at the end when he actually overruled himself to give the 65. Both he and the umpire on that side had waived it wide. Never have I seen it before.

There's no doubt Huw Lawlor is a loss that we haven't dealt with, and you can also say his dominance papered over many cracks in the side. We're just not anywhere near as good as we were, we don't have the players. Having said that we should still have won that game comfortably today, and we didn't.

The positive remains that a win against Kildare and Dublin, and we are in a Leinster final irrespective of whatever else happens. The negative is if we beat Kildare and lose against Dublin, we are very likely out of the top 3.

We have 3 points, Wexford2, Offaly 2, Kildare 0. Unless there is a suprise result I think we make top 3 once we beat Kildare?

that would put us on 5 and Offaly beat Wexford at home and Kildare they have 6. Is Leinster head to head or score difference ?

Ah I see, you were only taking the opportunity to congratulate a fellow Kilkenny person on their success. And here was me thinking you were claiming schadenfreude on behalf of Mikey, on a day the management team who let him go have come under increasing pressure. My bad, carry on 😉

TRUE

Hogan Fennelly larkin comerford etc were all brillant at taping it down to an oncoming runner the problem is now the ball is tapped down to a waiting defender and we have no forward near the ball to run onto it