Kilkenny GAA Thread Part 3 **MOD NOTE POST 1***

droppingball wrote: »

Absolutely delighted with the win yesterday, great day for management and the team. Management made good changes to starting line up and also all changes on the day worked well.

Our use of the ball was definitely better, the first goal was so well worked, great ball from donnelly, unreal touch and turn from Mullen and another great ball to fennelly. Also mullen picked out an amazing pass to Bill Sheehan who was a live wire against tiring backs. If lads make runs to space it is great to see these two young lads play good ball to our inside forwards advantage.

Donnelly also picked out fogarty for one score and gave another cross field ball for another score.

Delighted with how Walter, Billy Ryan and Bill Sheehan went off the bench they were all buzzing, 6 points from them was outstanding.

In the second half we went straight down the middle with direct running, Leahy came into his own when he moved midfield.

Think if u20s win Wednesday night a good positive feeling will return and we will give Saturday week a hell of a go.

don't forget the two water carriers - Fogarty and Deegan

Unreal performance by the Cats yesterday. Out hurled and out fought Cork over the 73 or so mins.

Shaky at the start - exposed badly and only for Scruff's excellent save, things could have been different at that point.

The lads themselves managed 'the open spaces' in front of the full back line. Fogarty and Brown was sitting a lot deeper, so too was John Donnelly, in order to protect the full back line. There was a lot of communication in the middle third so the lads themselves take great credit for spotting the problem of Cork's inside line organising accordingly. Reminded me of the 2016 final V Tipp but it was nipped in the bud after 20mins through the players understanding and managing the situation.

Needs to be mentioned also that the other lads worked seriously hard in the middle third to stop the flow of good ball going into the Cork ff line. Well managed by the whole team I thought. Lads really stood up and were counted in terms of leadership.

If somebody would have told me KK would hit 2-27 and TJ not scoring from play, I'd have laughed. I wanted a low scoring game with the Cats edging it but it was a super alround performance. We needed lads to chip in with 2 or 3 pts each and Fogarty and Brown did this. Walter hit 3pts in the second half. Colin Fennelly was excellent at ff, strong and full of running. Reminded me of his game v Waterford in Semple a few years ago - caused havoc for KK and wee Richie was a perfect foil for him, busy and sniping for the break ball. The 2 Billys were similar also, nippy and pacey. We need pace and it was a great move by Cody to bring them in at them times - a tiring defence hates pace, especially Croke Park.

Workrate was key - something all Cody teams have - attitude was super. Cork couldn't cope with it.

Adrian Mullan is some talent. He caught a ball from John Donnelly along the line. It was an unreal piece of skill. Had to been seen in real time to be appreciated. Donnelly is a good asset too - big and strong with no little skill. He'll cause Limerick problems.

Competition for places will be good over next few weeks.

So chuffed with the win but moreso the performance - defending and attacking.

An honourable mention to Pat Horgan. To score 3-10 and go home a loser is disappointing but I appreciate his outstanding talent. An example a point out on Cusack Stand side - 2 men on him, he turned inside and was covered, just turned outside and tipped over the bar. A simple but fantastic point.

Who will ye put on gillane the next day ? Would lawlor be the man for him .

Everything we love about kilkenny was there yesterday.skill grit work rate and love of the jersey.once we get the team selection right I give us a great chance.lennon and lyng were bad selections last year.walter was a big loss also last year.all to play for si lets get right behind the team and the minors who will also be playing limerick.

Although Billy Ryan and Bill Sheehan did well when they came on yesterday, I wouldn't be tempted to start them as they are probably better when space opens up. The one change would be Walter Walsh starting, Cillian Buckley losing out and Richie Leahy playing midfield. Not sure who should mark Gillane, Padraig Walsh maybe with Paul Murphy on Mulcahy, Huw Lawlor on Casey.

Murphy
Walsh Delaney Deegan
Fogarty Lawlor Brown
Maher Leahy
Hogan Reid Mullen
Donnelly Fennelly Walsh

kk.man wrote: »

Hue Lawler would be aggrieved ...and rightly so.

We ought to leave the picking of the team to Cody and Co., at this stage.

Grats wrote: »

We ought to leave the picking of the team to Cody and Co., at this stage.

I was not picking the team I was just engaging in a bit of discussion on a discussion forum.

Topcat32 wrote: »

Any fullback marking Horgan with loads of space in front of him and the rest of the Cork team looking for Horgan at every opportunity is going to leak scores, I was impressed with how he kept his head on Sunday and looked to do the right thing all through the game. All is not fine with the backline but I dont see it as just an individual players issue.

I agree Hue had a very good game. I am actually praising him by suggesting a move to center back where I believing he will become the new Brian Hogan. He has a lot more experience now than when he was tried there before and in Delaney we have a player whom we can trust to man the full back position. We did leak 3-18 and we cannot afford to do so again. I don't care what happened before I see Lawlor's height speed and skill better suited to center than full back in the longer term and indeed even in the shorter term.

brookville wrote: »

I was talking to him he said knee injury

As commented by Brookville, Aylward was injured and unavailable for selection. People have been querying as to why certain known panel players have been seen in their civies clothing at some of the games instead of the usual team kit........this is simply down to a change now where any player not involved in the 26 does not travel on the team bus to match days. I assume all panel players are still given their usual free ticket allocation and those not involved in the 26 make their own way to the game. Players are informed well before squad announced to media as to whether they are in the 26 or not for matchday

Did Kilkenny play Wexford at minor level? Big game for our u20s. A Leinster title and a win over Wexford would give the county a big boost

mullinr2 wrote: »

Did Kilkenny play Wexford at minor level? Big game for our u20s. A Leinster title and a win over Wexford would give the county a big boost

Wexford are on a high at the min and going for the grand slam over kk.There will be a large vocal home support but hopefully we can express ourselves.Maybe a few wexford posters might tell us have they many stars on the team although they have done very well at this grade since chin and co were u21 giving us a few heavy beatings along the way so hopefully we can turn it around tomor evening and play to our best.

droppingball wrote: »

He has the potential to be a great full back or centre back, but he has played well at full back in all games. Even on Sunday he didn't have as bad a game as is being suggested. He conceded 2-2 of horgan the other 1-8 was from placed balls, the two points were from diagonal balls that were hard to defend against and 1 of the goals was just outlandish skill from horgan.

In a way we sold padraig walsh and huw down the river by not protecting them more but it worked a treat as we nullified cork in every other department.

Think he has more attributes for full back thank centre as he has more pace tham delaney, and delaney could also play centre back as he has the hurling, think it would be wrong message to move huw after sunday.

Don't think there will be many changes the next day, we found a nice blend why change it now, we have been criticising cody for too many changes, time for consistency now.

I agree with all you have said however and not wanting to keep harping on it but we did conceed 3-18 and we have to figure out why and try not to do so again. There is a reason we conceeded what would normally be a score to win a game with a bit to spare. I am not by any means blaming Lawlor, I agree he was quite good but if we play the same six backs why would things change, Remember it was after we sorted out the the initial difficulties that Cork still went on to score 2-12 of the 3=18.

Many people are idiots though so...

mullinr2 wrote: »

Did Kilkenny play Wexford at minor level? Big game for our u20s. A Leinster title and a win over Wexford would give the county a big boost

Beat them by 10 or 12 points in the Park. They stuck with us for about 20 minutes, remember Mullen got a goal early in the season half to open a 6 or 7 point lead and we cruised after that.