Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 2 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

jeff bingham wrote: »

Has Sean O Shea of Clara ever been on the panel? Has always stood out at full back any club match iv seen

citykat wrote: »

Don't rule out MF at CF. That would kill two birds for Cody. Bolster a forward line weakened by retirements/injuries and free up a spot for you know who!

citykat wrote: »

If Kierans had taken those two goal chances they'd be cruising. They were the better team in that half. They're winning most of their battles and have finished the half stronger. They'll have the wind in the second half.

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

I thought they were slow to find their form tbh. Either way they clearly had the better players and that showed increasingly as the game wore on. Made tough work of it in the very end considering how at their ease they looked in the second half. Cuddihy MOTM (was it him who kneed the ASR back in the chest near the end? Bit of a dirty blow whoever it was). All in all a very good performance from kieran's and another notch on the belt.

blackcard wrote: »

What Kieran's players are eligible to play Minor for Kilkenny?

JH: Once again, are we in a situation where there are question-marks or what ifs about every team other than Kilkenny. You know exactly what you're going to get from Kilkenny and it has won them the last two All-Irelands. They might not have the players they once did, but they are solid and you know what you're going to get and there's no what ifs.

GL: I would say this. Looking at Kilkenny now and their personnel, there is no way that Kilkenny should be winning the All-Ireland. There is no way this Kilkenny team should be going for three-in-a-row. Three-in-a-rows were so hard to get before Brian Cody came along. And teams that won three-in-a-rows were legendary teams. Now the present Kilkenny team is functional beyond belief, and they're getting the best out of what they have to an extent that no-one else could do other than Brian Cody. But, at the same time, a team with that talent should not be winning an All-Ireland. I have no problem in saying that. They should not be winning an All-Ireland with that team. Totally dependant on TJ Reid, one forward, and maybe Richie Hogan as well.

The danger of course is that the longer they go on the harder it will be to beat them. Will Mick Fennelly come back even if it's only for a few games? Eoin Larkin will be back again. The longer they go on, the bit more difficult they'll be to beat. I think if they're not stopped in an All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-final, then they won't be stopped on the first Sunday in September. That's the point where you must stop them.

Who'll stop them there? Maybe Clare could stop them at that juncture. At a semi-final or quarter-final. But they have to be stopped there because once they get into the All-Ireland Final at all they're able to deal with the occasion and they're able to produce a display in an All-Ireland Final. Cody can get so much out of them and time his run to get them at their very peak for the All-Ireland that nobody else can reach. No matter what backroom they have or expertise they have, they can't match the instinct of Cody. He's just a once-off, totally exceptional person in charge of a team. What he can get out of players is remarkable.

JH: In some ways have the last two All-Irelands been his greatest achievements of all because he doesn't have the quality of player he once did?

GL: You can't put in words the greatness of Cody. But how you can even begin to start to measure it is the incredible consistency of performance of his teams over the whole era he's been in charge. How many sub-standard performances did they produce in big games? You wouldn't need a hand to count them in the 15 years or whatever he's been in charge. The absolute level of consistency of high performance and getting the best out of players is just extraordinary. And the culture he has created within Kilkenny. The hurling culture he has created there. What every other county wouldn't give to have a culture like that. That every young lad from the time he's able to walk, his ambition is to get a hurley first of all and then improve himself to the extent that he can get on the county team.

If only other counties could have a culture like that, hurling would be in Shangri La. If you could have that kind of thing because you'd have such competition. I suppose it all comes from his own personality. The consistency of his own personality. He never does or says anything that's not in keeping with his own personality. To maintain that for 15 years can't be fake. It has to be totally and utterly genuine. He's an extraordinary person. Just an extraordinary person who has created an extraordinary culture within his own county and it's from that then that everything else stems. If only other counties could get something like that.

JH: Kilkenny put a massive effort into their underage structures when they had a blip in the 1990s and now have the best system in the country. Is that why they have moved clear of the pack?

GL: If you look at the Kilkenny website the week of the All-Ireland they might have a small bit announcing their team, but the main thing will be updates about their development squads and their various meetings. It's just taking care of what's important for the future. And Ned Quinn (Kilkenny County Board Chairman) has been so influential in that. Ned Quinn was the man who recruited Brian Cody. He's a fellow who was so successful outside of hurling and brought that brain and intellect to bear on the game in Kilkenny.

The next generation is all that matters in Kilkenny, that's their whole mantra. They're all watching out for who's coming next. When they had Tommy Walsh they were looking for the next Tommy Walsh. And you see the culture that's within St. Kieran's that we've heard about so much this week. Is there any place in Cork that has that culture? There isn't. And why shouldn't there be with their hurling tradition?

At least in Tipperary you see Liam Cahill (Tipperary minor manager) not being fooled by what he saw last year even though they go to the All-Ireland minor final. He saw the same as all of us did looking out that these were not really Tipperary hurlers. They haven't the skill or movement that Tipperary hurlers have, so we'll have to get players who will concentrate totally on hurling. At least Tipp are making every effort to keep their status within the game. Cork totally took their eye off the ball and as a result they're now paying the penalty. And hurling is all the worse for it. There is nothing better than playing good Cork teams in Championship games, but now the Clares, the Limericks, and Waterfords don't even fear Cork. They have lost their place in the hurling world, and it's very disappointing.

JH: The 1990s were a great decade for a game because there were so many genuine competitors. We thought the 2013 All-Ireland Championship might herald a return to that sort of era when Clare, Cork, Dublin, and Limerick reached the All-Ireland semi-finals, but the Kilkenny empire has struck back since then. And when you look at how well Kilkenny are set up in every way possible compared to their competitors, are we ever going to get another era like the 1990s or is it just going to be more of the same in the coming years?

GL: I would think that this year and next year will tell us a lot about that. If Kilkenny can win an All-Ireland this year and one next year, then people are really in trouble. Because the group they have coming, the minors they had two years ago and the group they have coming along behind that now, are going to be the next Tommy Walshes. What's coming resembles the sort of players they brought through with their 2003, 2004 and 2005 U-21 teams that produced all the stars. That's what they have coming. So if teams cannot stop them now, what's going to happen three or four years down the road? That's what you have to be looking at, down the road.
How well prepared are the rest? Are they (Kilkenny) going to have the All-Ireland for themselves? That wouldn’t be good for the game. And it wouldn't be good for Kilkenny either.

I think that most counties have to have the Jeffrey Lynskey approach. They have to get that Jeffrey Lynskey approach that your whole aim at underage is to produce players of inter-county standard. Who will they have supervising this in order to ensure that they are going to be of inter-county standard?
Rather than picking your favourites at U-15 and U-16, people who just go along with what you say. I think you have to have a body almost independent of hurling people in those counties, almost independent of the County Board, supervising this. Genuine people who know their stuff and who want to produce the kind of players that are going to be needed for the future. Unless those counties adopt a professional approach like that, like Limerick have in fairness to them, then I think they'll find it very difficult to compete with Kilkenny three or four years down the road.

JH: History will remember Brian Cody as the architect of this Kilkenny period of dominance. But does Ned Quinn deserve a large slice of the credit too when you talk about the importance of those sorts of structures?

GL: During the era when they were at their peak, that four-in-a-row team, I always said that Kilkenny was a three-legged stool. It was Cody, Quinn, and Shefflin. They were the big drivers of that. Now they're able to go without Shefflin!

Quinn has been vital to it. Ned Quinn's contribution to Kilkenny hurling, I think all Kilkenny people realise it, but outside of Kilkenny it's not realised that much. The effect he has had and the reassuring presence. He's always there, he's always watching out, he's always the man in the background saying very, very little. He has an iron will. Everything is for the good of Kilkenny hurling. That's his bottom line. Anything that's done has to be for the good of Kilkenny hurling. To have a man like that, at such a powerful level, invaluable doesn't even begin to describe how important that is. When you see in other counties how much better things could be if they had a Ned Quinn. And maybe if you had more Ned Quinns you'd produce more Brian Codys as well. Because they'd be looking out for who was the best to take it on. And they'd ensure that everything at ground level was being done almost to perfection. And then you give yourself a chance.

That's where other counties have to start. Not just looking at their structures, but looking at the people who are driving those structures and driving the thing. I think that's the secret that everybody should take from what Kilkenny are doing.

tbiggertycome wrote: »

Interesting team
Kil.v Offaly
E Murphy
P Murphy R Lennon S Prendergast
C o Shea K Joyce C Buckley
M Fennelly L Ryan
W Walsh C Fennelly K Kelly
L Blanchfield JJ Farrell J Power Subs
R Reid
J Tyrrell
J Holden
P Walsh
B Kennedy
D Cody
TJ Reid
C Bolger
J Maher
C Martin
M Malone

dastardly00 wrote: »

I'm not at the match... Just checked the score. Jaysus this is some demolition job.

Cornerback1 wrote: »

Pádraig Walsh...hamstring according to KCLR!!!!!
Be interesting to see how they are in a few days.