Kilkenny GAA Thread

I’d say that for sure in the first half especially when we hit some stupid pot shots. But even when we hit the ball in for the second half we were cleaned on first touch, on the breaks, and in the air.

Brian Dowlings stock rose after this.

Galway by far the better team, some lovely hurlers on their team and you’d imagine they’ll mine quite a few seniors off of it. Bergin, Sweeney and Buggy improved of us when they came on but it was a very poor performance, Kilkenny players first touch was so bad for this level and when they got possession they made bad decisions with the majority of it. No fight no aggression… very disappointing.

Lahouf, Mcderrmott, Garrett, Vereker, Dollard, Kelly, Bergin all played last year. A lot of and probably 5/6 them played some part in the final last year.

The gulf in class was very disappointing

Agreed re the decision making.

Watching Kilkenny underage teams a lot over the past 10 years, one item that keeps coming up is selfish play taking place and Kilkenny players playing for themselves as opposed to the team.

I see the same players doing it week in week out- not passing the ball to the man in the best position but taking on shots from the sideline - hail Mary attempts - as opposed to playing it to the man who is best placed to shoot. Or backs who decide they have to run the ball every time and lose it in contact as opposed to just passing it. And the worst thing is that these same players get picked week after week on team after team and nobody shouts stop and says you will be out on the bench if you keep doing that - so there seems to be no consequences to this type of play and so the cycle continues.

And then when Kilkenny underage teams come up against a team (who it's drilled into them that it's all about the collective and it doesn't matter who scores) it can become very apparent that this type of individualism doesn't work.

I thought Lauhoff and Anthony Clifford were our standout players. Kilkenny didn’t look like they were motivated from the start.and were always second best. Hope the weekend changes things Celtic challenge against Galway on Saturday and the Dubs on Sunday.

Could the lads who spent the last few weeks scolding people for being too negative on this thread spare us the lectures tonight? That was a shambles and if we aren't willing to call it out we are going nowhere. That's a team that had high expectations. Didn't need a win, just brave performances, a bit of tactical savvy, a clear sense of what people's job is etc. The minor team a few days ago let go a big lead but there was so much positive about it, and that's a side and a management that was written off. This group was highly touted and the red carpet was laid out for Henry. It's not good enough and there's an urgent need right now for a full review of the entire county set up. Every year we stumble along trying to cobble together a better performance is another year wasted. It's not all on Henry today, or all on anyone, the whole setup is simply not up to standard and the occasional positive result shouldn't blind us to the overall pattern of decline. And beating Dublin at the weekend, if we happen to do it which I'm not confident of, would be a great result but it wouldn't change the fact that the county is in a crisis right now.

Where things are falling down for me

Basic skills- struggling to win ball in the air at all levels tendency for players to bat the ball down rather than go with the hand

Taking two to three goes to rise a ball hurling to slow 

Can’t win clean position 

Tactically-can’t predict quick enough what opposition will do with the ball short puckouts line balls teams running the ball up the pitch to slow slow to react never pro active always reactive 

We are not throwing the ball enough 

Athletically-Players aren’t quick enough can’t change direction stop turn pivot out of trouble to offload the ball no angled running from forwards or backs supporting the man in possession all to static 

Fitness levels aren’t highly enough to play a running game off the shoulder we don’t have players breaking lines to offload the ball

Structurally-When we do play a game plan we struggle because of all the above breaking down and our players don’t seem to understand where they should be on the field from a puckout a line ball etc 

Often our only game plan is to hit it long to the big man and work from there opposition deploy a free man or numbers under the break and work the ball out over and over again 

Opposition always seem to have spare men against us we’re not able to read where the ball will be always one step behind our forwards in particular seem to be outnumbered by the oppositions backs far to often

We have a generation of tactically inept coaches which is all down to our county board being asleep at the wheel for far too long 

The players we are producing are not that bad but we just don’t seem to be tactically aware on the field or able to see what’s happening in front of them and that’s down to coaching 

Teams are taking the ball short against all our teams running it up pop pop pass  point or goal without a hand being put on them and it’s all done at pace 

Or it’s a couple of passes and a perfect ball into there forwards putting massive pressure on our backs every time

These issues are prevalent from senior right down to minor same issues all the time we just don’t hurl smart on the field anymore

An Offaly man was going through his all time greats on the Wexford Scrap Book page on Facebook. A few names might give ye a laugh.

Very sobering night. We looked flat from the beginning I thought, and Galway's defence were on top throughout. Galway's forwards seemed to have tonnes more space than we did, particularly the full forward line. I felt sorry for our full back line with the quality of ball they were getting in. Even when we held up runners, they repeatedly had options straight away off the shoulder. Our attack on the other hand lacked spark and aggression, and even the few decent balls that came in which favoured our attackers, seemed to come out twice as fast.

Plenty of theories here but it's very hard to put a finger on it. I'm not sure the best team was on the field at the start, and far too many of our players were passive throughout. Galway were the better team and crucially they looked like they wanted it more, and the result was a 9 point defeat which flattered us on the night. I reckon the scare that Galway got against Wexford really benefitted them and they looked like they were making sure that performance wasn't repeated. We on the other hand had 2 bloodless victories against what was vastly inferior opposition. In hindsight it was very poor preparation for a game against a side of Galway's quality, who were on a mission after their poor display against Wexford.

Fair play to Galway, they have some excellent players and their attitude was spot on. I hope they go on to win it out.

Very disappointing showing last night

We were likely set up wrong from the start

40 players on the U20 panel ……. Most carry 30

How can you drive all 40 , most know they will never tog out for any match , going along for the spin .
drive to be on 24 named and then the 15 drives the panel !

2025 loss to Waterford in u17 semi was a major disappointment but it showed something, that ,that panel are not as good as they make out … that loss is not solely on management, those players got a lot of chances, last year , the year before and now this year.

cbc Kilkenny exist from schools this year was a major disappointment and prob the most under delivered team of the year. again lots of players involved in U20 set up and how strong was the Kieran’s team this year. Only three started Last night in the end.

but more worryingly is what will change !!!!

Our 64 players at U14 squads are in a Gym one night and on grass one day

We are obsessed with gyms , when we fail to master the skills of the game…….. while the county lead on this is on the sideline last night ….

Route and beach review of squads has to be a priority, put the focus back on all underage club games …… all squads players from U20 down should play all club games from minor down to U14 no exceptions.

we have to dig in now and make changes and bring everyone along the journey and stay united.

The question is, why is this the case (and I agree it is an issue)? Is it a symptom of our development squads? I've watched some of those sessions and it's incredibly individual. Every man is trying too much on their own, presumably trying to impress. I don't know if that is the cause (or partially the cause), but you can certainly see more individual play in our teams where the better option is the pass. Is there too much emphasis on picking the best individuals across the county instead of picking the best team players?

stupid statement by Andy ahead of Sunday’s game, the Dubs won’t need anymore motivation than that. Never run down the opposition. Just on last night there was a big difference when we met Galway a few weeks ago and last night and there manager more or less said that on the post match interview and Wexford’s performance as well took away any complacency they might have had.

Losing to Galway underage is no surprise - they have always been incredibly strong and produce solid teams every single year. But the manner of losing and the discrepancy between the two teams was very concerning.

Go back a couple of years and all you heard was the need S&C for Kilkenny - because we were blown out of it a few times underage. Now the pendulum has swung the opposite way and the opinion is too much S&C and not enough hurling.

Is it the case that Galway just have a golden generation? Or have they cracked what plagued them for years - the ability to bring through senior ready players.

Considering Galway are as orthodox as ourselves in their hurling philosophy it wouldn't do us any harm to go up and learn what they did different to bring through such a great crop of players.

We hammered Galway at U17 four times over the last two years and should have beaten them again on Monday. On the other hand our 2023 minors were easily beaten by Galway on 2 occasions, which would have been last night's 20's group. I don't think it's the case that Galway are doing anything magic up to U17 over the past 4 years and we're not. That doesn't mean we don't have serious issues with our development squads, I think we do. The elephant in the room with development squads is that a very high percentage of the coaches in there are not involved with their clubs, and to put it politely, the clubs aren't overly worried about that fact.

Look, last night was really depressing, but in the cold light of day, the fact remains that this 20 group would have had very little expected of them given they were so far off it at minor level , but the hope would have been the addition of younger players would have bolstered it and improved it from the 2023 version. On a quick count there were 8 U20 players (2023 Minors), 5 U19 (2024), and 2 U18 (2023) starting. There's some very good hurlers there and some big reputations (people should remember though that's not driven by players themselves) , but apart from one or two lads, we seemed miles off it attitude wise and I'm afraid to say, gameplan and structure wise as well. Is it a legacy of the previous coaches these lads have had or is it a failure of current management? I honestly don't know but even if we accept that perhaps maybe too much was expected last night, something is off. I think personally we seem to lack a hardness and a ruthlessness in our teams which we always had in abundance. When it came down to it last night, Galway appeared to have more 'men' than we did. And I don't say that lightly.