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Post by Mickmack on May 6, 2018 14:34:22 GMT
All you need to know about the Joe McDonagh Cup
Updated / Saturday, 5 May 2018 1
This weekend sees the first fixtures of the new second-tier hurling Championship - the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Named in honour of the Galway All-Ireland winner and former GAA President who passed away in 2016, the competition offers the chance of promotion to next year's Leinster or Munster round-robins and a path into the knockout stages of this season's Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Antrim, Carlow, Kerry Laois, Meath and Westmeath will all play each other, in just five weeks, with each team being guaranteed a minimum of two home games.
The top two sides will meet in a final at Croke Park on July 1 as part of the Leinster final bill.
The champions will replace the lowest-placed finisher in the Leinster Championship for next year, unless Kerry win it.
To gain promotion to the Munster Championship, the Kingdom must win a play-off against the lowest-placed Munster finisher, a situation our hurling columnist Richie Power has called "unfair and wrong".
The winning and losing finalists will play the third-placed finishers from Munster and Leinster respectively, for a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
In order to reduce the number of teams in next year's Joe McDonagh Cup to five teams, the bottom side will be relegated while the fifth-placed team will face the Christy Ring Cup winner in a relegation/promotion play-off.
Simple, eh?
THE TEAMS
Antrim
Managers: Terence McNaughton and Dominic McKinley are in their third season in charge.
The Saffrons were relegated from Division 1B after losing to Laois in the play-off but will be heartened by their victory over Leinster participants Offaly and the narrow margin of the defeats to All-Ireland champions Galway and Dublin.
After losing two Christy Ring finals in a row, including the controversial 'ghost-point' final against Meath in 2016 that required a replay, the Ulster men are back with a chance of competing at the top level.
Former All-Ireland winning Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy is involved this year as an adviser to 'Sambo' and McKinley and they will be confident of competing for a place in the final.
Player to watch: Nigel Elliott proved dangerous from open play in the league, the forward scored in every game except the clash with Dublin.
Carlow
Manager: Tipperary native Colm Bonnar is in his second campaign in charge of the Scallion Eaters.
Under the old format, Carlow would have been in the Leinster Qualifier Group, having won their third Christy Ring Cup last year.
They finished behind Westmeath in Division 2A this spring but reversed the result of their opening-day defeat in the final to seal promotion to 1B for next season.
Player to watch: James Doyle (above) has an eye for goal - he found the net in three league games.
Kerry
Manager: Fintan O'Connor takes the reins for a second season
The Munster men were back in Division 2A this season after two years where they held their own in 1B.
They only lost to finalists Carlow and Westmeath in the league but will want to be to more competitive than they showed in those two seven-point defeats.
The system is unfairly stacked against Kerry gaining promotion to Munster should they win the Joe McDonagh Cup but avoiding being sucked into the relegation mix should be more of an immediate priority.
Player to watch: Captain Padraig Boyle (pictured) always chips in with a couple of scores, he racked up 1-15 (3f) in Division 2A.
Laois
Manager: Former Kerry and Offaly boss Eamonn Kelly is in his second year in the hotseat
The O'Moore Men are the deserved favourites to win the Cup.
They beat rivals Kerry, Meath and Westmeath in last year's Championship and got the better of Antrim twice to preserve their Division 1B status.
Player to watch: Forward Stephen 'Picky' Maher is available again for the first time since injuring his cruciate ligament last summer.
Meath
Manager: Nick Fitzgerald is in his maiden campaign
The Royal County have been making solid progress in recent years - in 2016 they claimed the Christy Ring title for the first time and last season won promotion to Division 2A.
They beat London and Kildare to preserve that league status and will have similar ambitions in the Joe McDonagh - a repeat of last year's Leinster victory over Kerry would go a long way to achieving that goal.
Player to watch: Jack Regan (22) scored 2-47 in five League games.
Westmeath
Manager: Waterford native Michael Ryan is the longest-serving boss in the competition (fourth year)
Despite the disappointment of losing the league final to Carlow, Westmeath won all their other games and will fancy their chances of being challengers for the Cup.
They beat Meath but lost to Kerry and Laois in Leinster last year and will need to defeat at least one of those two if they are to be in the mix for a spot in the final.
Player to watch: Captain Tommy Doyle was perhaps unlucky not to gain an All Star nomination at full-back last year.
Round 1 fixtures
SATURDAY 5 MAY
1500 Meath v Antrim, Páirc Tailteann
Antrim will be favourites for this one after a respectable showing in Division 1B but Meath will have no fear given they won the last meeting between the sides in the 2016 Christy Ring decider.
Only Paddy Burke, Nigel Elliott, Simon McCrory, Conor Johnston and Eoghan Campbell start from the Saffrons XV that day however.
Meath: Shane McGann; Niall Weir, Sean Geraghty, Stephen Morris; Joe Keena, Damien Healy, Shane Brennan; Keith Keoghan, Adam Gannon; James Kelly, Cathal McCabe, Eamonn O Donnchadha; Alan Douglas, Gavin McGowan, Jack Regan.
Antrim: Ryan Elliott; David Kearney, John Dillon, Ryan McCambridge; Paddy Burke, Conor McKinley, Joe Maskey; Nigel Elliott, Simon McCrory; Conor Carson, Conor Johnston, Neil McManus; Donal McKinley, Michael Armstrong, Eoghan Campbell.
1500 Laois v Westmeath, O'Moore Park
A tough first test for the Lake County as they travel to the favourites' back yard.
Westmeath haven't beaten Laois in the Championship since 1968 and it would be a surprise if they can end that run here.
SUNDAY 6 MAY
1400 Carlow v Kerry, Ne*ch Dr Cullen Park
Carlow won the Division 2A meeting between the sides by 1-18 to 1-11 but Kerry will have learned a lot from the last two seasons in Leinster, including victory over today's opponents in 2016.
A tough contest to call and one that will quickly put the losers under pressure.
Teams
Carlow: TBC
Kerry: Martin Stackpoole; Sean Weir, John Buckley, Bryan Murphy; Brandon Barrett, Daniel Collins, Tom Murnane;
Shane Nolan, Brendan O’Leary; Dáithí Griffin, Mikey Boyle, Jordan Conway; Jack Goulding, Padraig Boyle (captain), Shane Conway.
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Post by Mickmack on May 6, 2018 14:36:33 GMT
McDonagh Cup welcome, but comes with one major flaw
Updated / Thursday, 3 May 2018
'The Joe McDonagh Cup should cater for an improvement in standard, but it's unfair on Kerry'
The hurling championship gets under way this weekend with the Joe McDonagh Cup, and the secondary competition offers more hope to those counties looking to bridge the gap to the top-tier.
It has taken a bit of time to get fully to grips with the new format of the Liam MacCarthy Cup, but if nothing else, it adds to the level of excitement for 2018.
To recap, the Leinster and Munster Championships will both contain five teams. The winners of the respective round-robin series will go into the All-Ireland semi-finals. The runners-up will have home advantage in the quarter-finals and from there is where things become more novel.
Their quarter-final opponents - there are just two quarter-finals - will be the winners of the third-placed teams versus the Joe McDonagh finalists, with the latter holding home advantage.
The hurlers of Antrim, Carlow, Kerry, Laois, Meath and Westmeath, who are all in action this weekend, begin the round-robin competition with genuine ambitions of competing in the MacCarthy Cup.
They are guaranteed five proper, competitive games. Those six teams should be in and around the same level. Laois, as well as Westmeath and Carlow, could well be a little bit ahead in terms of quality, but it should be a relatively level playing field.
JOE McDONAGH CUP FIXTURES
The one thing these players want is to be playing in the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and this format allows for that as the two finalists will come into their quarter-final preliminary matches with a confidence that winning breeds.
Heavy defeats, which a number of the aforementioned sides have suffered in the past are no good for anyone. People often point to the plight of the defeated side, but it does little for the victorious side either.
I held a spectator's brief for Kilkenny’s Leinster win over Westmeath in 2006 due to injury.
You are expected to win those games easily, though it doesn’t always work out like that. They were very competitive for the first-half before we pulled away to win by 14 points.
In the last five to six years, the top sides have upped it a gear and the so called weaker sides have regressed rather than progressed.
That is a huge worry for the overall game. Those teams haven’t developed like they would have wanted. Until the GAA and these counties invest in their underage, it is hard to see that changing significantly, but the new format is at least a step in the right direction.
The Joe McDonagh Cup should cater for an improvement in standard, but I have one problem with it; the unfair conditions placed on Kerry.
If any of the other five counties win the competition, they are promoted to compete in Leinster from the following season, with the bottom team in Leinster dropping down.
However if the Kingdom come up trumps, they must play-off with the bottom team in Munster for the right to play in the Munster Championship the following year.
How can the GAA distinguish between Kerry and the other teams? I think that is wrong and unfair. If they are good enough to win the Joe McDonagh, they should be promoted automatically.
"If Kerry win the Joe McDonagh Cup, more questions will be asked regarding the format"
Whether you are the bottom team in Munster, or Leinster, it should be the same procedure.
Why couldn’t Kerry go into Leinster? Galway are there already, Antrim would be if they won the the tournament, so geographical boundaries aren’t as sacrosanct as they once were. Kerry haven’t competed in the Munster Hurling Championship since 2004.
If a Laois or Westmeath for example were to win the Joe McDonagh Cup, I have no doubts they would compete with an Offaly, Wexford, Dublin, or even a Kilkenny or Galway on their day. I don’t see a weak team in Munster, that’s just the way it is in the province.
In order for Kerry to be competitive, they need the same leeway as others and Leinster might provide a better solution.
If Kerry win it, more questions will be asked with regarding the format.
Back to the competition itself, and you would have to feel that at this point, Laois are favourites to lift silverware. They open their campaign against Westmeath on Saturday at O’Moore Park, another side I expect to see in the shake-up.
They finished top of Divsion 2A, but disappointed in the final defeat to Carlow who gained promotion.
The winner I feel would come from one of those three sides, with Carlow hosting Kerry at Dr. Cullen Park on Sunday.
The Kingdom, along with Meath and Antrim, who meet at Pairc Tailteann, are perhaps a little behind, but I can see them causing one or two surprises along the way.
It should make for an intriguing championship.
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Post by Mickmack on May 6, 2018 18:00:46 GMT
Carlow 0.21 Kerry 0.18
Carlow produce late surge to edge out Kerry in Joe McDonagh opener
Carlow showed all the character and class that earned them the Allianz League Division 2A title earlier this year when they came with a late surge to deny Kerry with five late points in succession at Ne*ch Cullen Park this afternoon, picking up a victory in an entertaining first round Joe McDonagh Cup clash.
The home side could and should have established a firm foothold in the first half of the contest when they created a series of great goal chances in the warm sunshine, but their close-range finishing deserted them and that could have cost them dearly when Kerry started to find some form after half time.
The Kingdom started to get on top in their own half of the field and while they struggled to make any impact on the scoreboard from distance, their inside line of Padraig Boyle, Shane Conway and Jack Goulding started to cause Carlow plenty of problems, moving two points up as the game entered the last five minutes of normal time.
Carlow dug deep to produce a stunning late run of scores however, with Kevin McDonald, Jack Kavanagh and man of the match Edward Byrne all prominent as they did enough to secure a vital victory.
Both sides burst out of the traps, taking full advantage of the glorious weather and the immaculate playing surface.
Kerry led by the odd point in nine after just eight minutes of hurling and while both sides approached their attacking play in very different ways, they were equally effective.
Kerry used the pace and elusiveness of young hurlers such as Shane Conway and teenager Barry O’Mahony to break tackles and create overlaps, while Carlow’s hurling was far more direct, striking long diagonal balls into the corners to try and bring James Doyle and Denis Murphy into the game.
Doyle, Murphy, Chris Nolan and Edward Byrne all failed to find the net with excellent goal chances as the tie ebbed and flowed, with Carlow taking the smallest possible lead – 0-10 to 0-9 – into the dressing room at half-time.
Carlow also had the better of the early stages of the second half, extending their lead out to three points when Kevin McDonald pounced on a short puckout and fired it straight back over Martin Stackpoole’s crossbar, but Kerry made a few tactical switches, not least moving Daniel Collins to centre back, and they started to get the upper hand in a number of the key individual battles.
A glorious sideline cut from Jack Goulding and a string of excellent points from Padraig Boyle edged them in front, and when Boyle fired over a ’65 to make it 0-18 to 0-16 in favour of the visitors after 60 minutes, they looked like the more likely winners.
There was to be one final twist in the tale however as Carlow dug deep and with Edward Byrne leading the charge, by now the primary target for the vast majority of Brian Tracey’s puckouts, they produced a string of late points that wrapped up their victory.
Carlow: Brian Tracey; Alan Corcoran, Paul Doyle, Michael Doyle; Richard Coady, David English (0-01, free), Richard Kelly; Jack Kavanagh (0-01), Kevin McDonald (0-02); Jack Murphy, Paul Coady (0-01), Edward Byrne (0-04); James Doyle (0-03), Denis Murphy (0-06, 0-05 frees), Chris Nolan (0-01, free).
Subs: Ed Joyce for Nolan (50), Ross Smithers (0-01) for J Murphy (56), Diarmuid Byrnes (0-01) for Denis Murphy (57).
Kerry: Martin Stackpoole; John Buckley, Bryan Murphy, Tom Murnane; Sean Weir, Mikey Boyle, Daniel Collins; Brandon Barrett, Daithí Griffin; Brendan O’Leary, Barry O’ Mahony, Colum Harty (0-01); Padraig Boyle (0-07, 0-01 free, 0-01 ‘65), Shane Conway (0-06, 0-05 frees), Jack Goulding (0-04, 0-01 sideline).
Sub: Daniel O’Carroll for Harty (67). Ref: Justin Heffernan (Wexford)
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Post by Mickmack on May 9, 2018 11:59:04 GMT
For perhaps the first time all season, Pat Gilroy has a welcome selection headache as he contemplates his ideal line-up to try and ambush Kilkenny next Sunday in Parnell Park (2.0).
The Dublin hurling boss had to plan without any Cuala players for their topsy-turvy Allianz League campaign ... but Cian O'Callaghan, Seán Moran, Jake Malone and David Treacy have all rejoined the panel in the wake of their back-to-back All-Ireland club exploits.
Moreover, all four are likely to be in contention for starting berths in Parnell Park, with O'Callaghan and Moran especially viewed as near-certainties for defensive recalls.
Gilroy can also call on a fit-again Liam Rushe who, based on the admittedly sporadic spring evidence, is likely to be considered as a forward this summer.
That's the good news for Dublin as they prepare for their crucial first step in the new Leinster SHC round-robin format.
More ominously, they may have to face 2014 Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan, who has come through a series of Kilkenny training sessions unscathed following his recent return from a recurring back issue. The talk on Noreside is that Hogan could even come straight back into the team, despite his total lack of competitive action this year. Decorated duo Paul Murphy and Colin Fennelly, both returned from overseas Army duty, are also back in training and pushing for game-time.
Bedrock Murphy has long been Kilkenny's defensive bedrock but even the four-time All Star faces a major challenge breaking into a full-back line that has performed so well in his absence.
Whatever personnel are utilised by Brian Cody, his opposite number will appreciate the extent of the challenge in the wake of Kilkenny's unexpected run to another NHL Division 1 title.
The clear indicators, based on league selections, is that Gilroy will seek to blend youth with plenty of battle-hardened experience following the return of several mainstays who weren't involved in the latter stages of Ger Cunningham's reign.
Alan Nolan has been the man in possession of the number one jersey, ahead of former All Star Gary Maguire. Danny Sutcliffe (back from a two-year sabbatical) and Conal Keaney (out of retirement) look nailed-on for places in attack.
The versatile Rushe is also likely to join them there, even though centre-back has been his more regular haunt for several seasons.
Rushe featured as a forward in his three league cameos off the bench, against Antrim, Limerick and Galway.
An oblique muscle injury, affecting his rib cage, put paid to any involvement against Laois or Tipperary but he's now restored to full fitness and set to be a key man for Gilroy.
Of the younger brigade, apart from the already-established Donal Burke, who is believed to be an injury concern, Paddy Smyth looks poised for a first championship start after establishing his corner-back credentials during the league.
Fergal Whitely will also be pushing for a spot up front in Gilroy's attack.
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Post by Mickmack on May 11, 2018 8:38:43 GMT
Jackie Tyrrell: Dublin miles away from winning Leinster title
Thorny questions and negativity surround Dublin ahead of the Kilkenny opener Going into the championship no team has more question marks hanging over them than Dublin. At the start of the week you would have been hard pushed to name any more than maybe 10 of their team for Sunday’s game against Kilkenny. Whatever 15 Pat Gilroy puts out, it will be their first time playing together. That’s not ideal when you’re starting your championship, regardless of the opposition.
The questions aren’t just about personnel. What sort of shape are they going to play? How are they going to link up from one line to the next? How does it work during games on the sideline? What influence does Anthony Cunningham have once the whistle goes? They are working these things out as they go.
You look at the Dublin team now, and what you see is a squad that was mismanaged in the years after Anthony Daly left. The result is that there’s a load of young lads on the panel and a group of older players who have come back in, and a massive gap in between them. I heard Conal Keaney talking recently about how they believe they can win Leinster. To me they’re a million miles away from that.
Gilroy has been left with a massive task, having to forge some level of unity and cohesion in a group that has been surrounded by negativity for a few years now. He obviously set out from the start to offer everybody a clean slate, but you have to wonder was he nearly too generous in giving so many lads a chance at making the panel, especially some of the older lads who were clearly at the end of their careers. That looks like desperation to me.
The downside of trying out that many players is that you reach this point of the year still searching for your team. Kilkenny tried out a fair few in their league too, but by the time they got to the final you had lads nailing down their place. They have a few big names to slot back in, but they know where they’re going. I don’t think you can say that about Dublin.
On a high Kilkenny also have the advantage of ending their league on a high. Dublin’s league fizzled out with a desperate performance after a great start against Tipperary. The way they were reeled in that day made them look like a team with no leaders and no confidence.
The worst of it was the Tipp didn’t need to do all that much to catch them despite Dublin blitzing them in the opening stages. They just had to tip away and Dublin lay down and let them.
The sense I got from Dublin that day was that they didn’t believe they deserved to be at this level. It was as if they got a glimpse of it and thought, ‘oh no, this is Tipperary’s place in the world. We don’t belong here.’ If you get a start like that in a game you need to use it as a springboard. Kick on and take encouragement, put the game out of reach. Dublin looked to me to be a team that was waiting to get caught.
This didn’t happen overnight. The Ger Cunningham era was clearly a disaster. The only positive I can see out of it is that he did bring in so many young lads. They’ve had a couple of seasons of trying to get used to senior intercounty hurling, they have a good bit of experience now. But it’s hard on them too having to take on so much responsibility and at a young age.
In the Daly years, any time we played Dublin we knew they’d have something up their sleeve. We felt we would have a bit of an edge when it came to pure hurling ability, but we knew they’d have a plan for us. And that Daly would be bouncing up and down on the sideline forcing them to drive on and fully commit to their game plan.
Long-lost kid They had such unity. I always remember a vivid image that stuck with me in 2013 after we played them; Dotsy O’Callaghan ran and jumped into Daly’s arms as if he was a long-lost kid who hadn’t seen his father in years. You could see that these guys had a serious bond. You looked at them, and you knew you wouldn’t break them with a couple of early goals. They were going to keep fighting for each other, keep pushing each other.
They aped the Kilkenny model in a way. They brought so much intensity and physicality. They took a few risks here and there as well. They beat us in a league final and won Leinster in 2013, and they were a serious team with a clear game plan.
In this year’s league Dublin adopted a sweeper system for a while, kind of out of nowhere. It looked from the outside like they decided after taking a few beatings that they would be better off sticking in a sweeper. Then they seemed to move away from that again. You couldn’t say for sure what way they will line up this Sunday.
The biggest shame in all this is that there’s no doubt Dublin have the hurlers. The work that has been done over the past decade and a half has been phenomenal. When I was playing schools hurling with St Kieran’s College we came up against a Dublin colleges selection. Now they’re Dublin North and Dublin South. On the club scene, Cuala are back-to-back All-Ireland champions. There’s no shortage of hurlers.
Cuala lads By all accounts only four of the Cuala lads have come into the Dublin panel. I know Con O’Callaghan and Mark Schutte have gone in with the footballers and Paul Schutte is injured, but surely the likes of Oisin Gough and Colm Cronin could be in there fighting for a place. It’s not a great sign when those lads and Darragh O’Connell are not in the panel for whatever reason.
Gilroy’s first task will be to build a spirit and a unity. If they lose to Kilkenny but there’s evidence of that then they might be on the right road. But if it’s like the Tipperary game – if they just roll over as soon as the heat is turned up – then they’re in big trouble.
Because what that will tell us is that they’re not going to have the fight and togetherness to overcome their other shortcomings.
In the background you have to wonder what sort of pressure is on Anthony Cunningham as the hurling man in the Dublin set-up. In this day and age, is one hurling man on a management team enough?
My instinct would be that it isn’t. I’m not saying hurling people have all the answers – Michael Dempsey is a football man and he’s a vital part of the Kilkenny set-up. But everyone around him is a hurling man, whereas Gilroy and Mickey Whelan are football men alongside Cunningham.
I’ve met Anthony Cunningham a good few times, and he has a very shrewd hurling brain. He has gone from being the main man at the helm of Galway to being part of a coaching set-up with Dublin. But what’s the dynamic there? Is he calling the shots during a game or is the manager? Is it up to him to spot everything that is going on, and then communicating it up the chain? Has he a veto over switches and that kind of thing? There are just so many questions.
Pitch is tight Dublin do have one major thing going for them this weekend – Parnell Park is a very tough place to go no matter what state Dublin are in. The pitch is tight, and the atmosphere can be intimidating. They’ll be chomping at the bit for the team to get stuck into Kilkenny. Especially in the first game of the championship, that gives them a chance.
But I would fear for them if they don’t find something to take out of Sunday. Their biggest game this summer is a few weeks down the line against Offaly. It’s worth saying at the outset that I don’t think it’s right that a Leinster team gets automatically relegated while the bottom team in Munster gets the second chance of a play-off. Any bit of common sense would tell you it should be one rule for both provinces, and that’s something that needs to be changed at the end of this year.
However, Dublin have to play what’s in front of them now. And Offaly too. There’s a high likelihood that the bottom spot in the Leinster table will go to whoever loses between those two teams at Parnell Park on June 3rd. Ideally, both sides would love to pick up points here and there before that game, but realistically it’s hard to see where they will come from.
Leadership For Dublin to have any chance they need to find some leadership, some structure and some unity. The few positives they’ve had this year have come from Danny Sutcliffe and Chris Crummy – you’ve seen both of them standing up at different times, both of them getting involved in physical battles and showing their teeth a bit. But you need it from more than two lads in a squad. They shouldn't stand out like sore thumbs.
I really hope I’m wrong about all this, and that the Dublin team that shows up on Sunday is a different entity to the one that was finding its feet in the league.
But we can only go on the evidence of what we’ve seen so far this year, and at the minute all I see when it comes to Dublin is negativity, questions and a lack of cohesion.
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Post by kerrygold on May 11, 2018 13:37:43 GMT
Do Kilkenny still operate the open door training policy where the people can go in and enjoy their team. Hard to see Brian Cody getting paranoid about the having the door closed.
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Post by kerrygold on May 13, 2018 13:46:01 GMT
Great to see Conal Keaney still playing great hurling. Walter Walsh is turning into a machine. I presume Pat Gilroy will keep the Dublin hurlers tight and cosy in Parnell Park until such a time as they a ready to be unleashed in Croker. A serious operator.
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Post by kerrygold on May 13, 2018 14:47:04 GMT
Massive last 7-8 minutes from the Cats. Pat Gilroy starting to have an impact with the Dubs. A fine game of hurling.
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Post by kerrygold on May 13, 2018 16:48:57 GMT
Kerry goal burst gets them back on track in Joe McDonagh Cup
By Paul Brennan at Austin Stack Park
Three first-half goals laid the foundation for an important home win for the Kerry hurlers against Laois in this Joe McDonagh Cup second-round game, which keeps the Kingdom in the hunt after last weekend's loss to Carlow.
Jack Goulding's goal after 90 seconds was the perfect start for Kerry and that score remained the buffer between the teams for the next 30 minutes until Brendan O'Leary struck for the Kingdom's second goal in the 33rd minute to make it 2-8 to 0-7.
Shane Conway converted five frees for Kerry in the first half, with Ross King scoring three frees and a '65' to keep Laois in contention.
Laois had to withdraw full back Leigh Bergin after just 10 minutes, and his loss was acutely felt with O'Leary and Sean Weir getting in for really good goal chances, with the former shooting wide and Weir taking a point with the goal at his mercy to make it 1-5 to 0-5 after 15 minutes.
Moments after conceding that second goal, Laois had defender Padraig Lawlor red-carded for helmet interference and then, three minutes into additional time at the end of the half, Shane Nolan finished off a great Kerry move to the net to make it 3-10 to 0-9 at the break.
Early second half points from Barry Mahony and Conway stretched Kerry's lead to 12 points and the Kingdom never looked in trouble thereafter. Ben Conroy scored four from play in the second half for Laois but with that extra man Kerry never looked like conceding a goal, and they matched the visitors' 10 points after the interval to ensure the win.
Kerry: Martin Stackpoole, Sean Weir 0-02, John Buckley, Bryan Murphy 0-01, Brandon Barrett 0-01, Daniel Collins, Tom Murnane, Shane Nolan 1-02, Brendan O’Leary 1-00, Dáithí Griffin 0-01, Mikey Boyle, Barry O'Mahony 0-01, Jack Goulding 1-02 (0-1 s/l), Padraig Boyle, Shane Conway 0-09 (0-07f).
Subs: James O'Connor for T Murnane (inj, 24), Daniel O'Carroll for S Nolan (55), Tomas O'Connor for D Griffin (68), Maurice O'Connor 0-01 for J Goulding (70+3), Jason Diggins for S Weir (70+4).
Laois: Enda Rowland, Podge Lawlor, Leigh Bergin, Lee Cleere, Ryan Mullaney, Matthew Whelan, Eric Killeen, Paddy Purcell 0-01, Cian Taylor 0-01, Charles Dwyer 0-01, Ben Conroy 0-05, Willie Dunphy 0-01, Ross King 0-08 (0-06f, 0-02 '65'), Stephen Maher 0-01, PJ Scully 0-01.
Subs: Colm Stapleton for L Bergin (10), James Ryan for L Cleere (24), Joe Phelan for R Mullaney (HT), Mark Kavanagh for E Killeen (47), Mark Dowling for PJ Scully (58).
Referee: David Hughes (Carlow)
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Post by Mickmack on May 13, 2018 17:08:43 GMT
KK started with 8 lads making championship debuts but Cody had to send in the old dogs for the hard road towards the end. KK not as good as their league final form indicates perhaps as neither Tipp or Galway were up for winning it this year.
Dublin played with the sort of heart and guts that you would expect Pat Gilroy to inculcate. They will need to be putting 20 points on the board though as the goals wont always happen.
Very hard on Dublin to lose this with Keaney going off seemed to turn it. Three from Galway, KK, Wexford and Dublin to progress. It makes next weekends game between Dublin and Wexford in Wexford a huge game.
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Post by Mickmack on May 13, 2018 17:49:51 GMT
I saw bits and pieces of Kerrys victory over Laois on Buff Egans instagram page or whatever it is called. Jack Goulding is putting over a side line cut in nearly every game now, and todays effort seemed to be from an acute angle. Kerry got three goals in the first half and Michael OLeary also missed a sitter for what would be the fourth goal. Big win for Kerry.
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Post by Mickmack on May 16, 2018 21:28:07 GMT
Is Dublin v Wexford being shown anywhere. This could be dramatic. Dublin have a huge panel of hurlers to draw from now and a big panel could be the difference with a game every weekend for the next few weeks.
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Post by kerrygold on May 17, 2018 7:10:19 GMT
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Post by glengael on May 17, 2018 8:35:26 GMT
Big weekend coming up in Munster hurling.
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Post by kerrygold on May 17, 2018 19:46:09 GMT
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Post by Mickmack on May 18, 2018 22:28:40 GMT
Jackie Tyrrell: Let’s hear it for the big man at the edge of the square
My very first All-Ireland final was in 1991. I was nine years old. I went with my dad, and we stood on Hill 16 and watched Tipperary beat Kilkenny. We positioned ourselves right behind the goal, and had a perfect view of it and everything that went on around it.
My abiding memory of the day, aside from Kilkenny getting beaten, was of two men – Cormac Bonner and Christy Heffernan. Both of them played full-forward, trotting down to the edge of the square at the start of both halves. To my nine-year-old eyes they were absolute monsters.
I could not get over the sheer size of these men. They were as wide as they were long. Hands like shovels, and shoulders like wardrobes. Bonner really intrigued me – he seemed to go on and on forever, even into the clouds at times.
And when Tipperary men roared “Hon the The Viking!” anytime he went near the ball, his aura and mystique enthralled me more and more. I couldn’t stop watching this man-mountain. “Why is he so big, and why do they call him ‘the Viking?” I remember asking my Dad.
The reply came down saying that if I ate all my spuds I’d be as big and strong as him one day. I was as gullible as the next lad at that age, so I gave it a good try. Obviously I didn’t eat enough of them over the years!
Back then game plans were simple and straightforward when you had these giants up forward. You rained long, high balls down on them as often as you could, and you went from there. Due to their size and strength, more often than not they won those balls or at least broke them for Pat Fox, Nicky English, DJ Carey and all the other members of the small, fast nippy cartel to do damage.
Refreshing Hurling has changed so much in the 27 years since then. It’s a long time since the big man at the edge of the square was considered the way forward. But watching last Sunday’s game between Kilkenny and Dublin it was refreshing to see the ploy making a comeback. Not only that, it was just as effective in 2018 as it was 1991.
Liam Rushe and Walter Walsh were both positioned at 14. Two big men, not far off being similar to Bonner and Heffernan in size and strength levels, maybe just a couple of per cent lower in their body fat levels.
Balls were pumped long, high and sometimes low in front of them to devastating impact. Although there is more of a variation and design to the play today, I loved to see those same old values and ideas being implemented and actually working. It creates panic and uncertainty in defences, and, most importantly, it brings excitement and goals.
Rushe was unmarkable on Sunday, playing with bulldozing authority and a direct approach which was great to see. Simple but very effective – ball in hand, turn and run at and past defenders. Done properly, there’s no stopping someone like that.
I should hold my hands up here and say I misjudged what Dublin were capable of. I didn’t see this performance coming. I did say they had no shortage of good hurlers, but I hadn’t seen anything in the league to suggest they were going to be as well drilled and cohesive as they turned out to be. Or that they would play with the sort of belief they showed right up until so close to the end.
Kilkenny just pipped them on the line, but Dublin brought way more than I expected to the game.
Their first goal is a perfect example. Seán Moran was just outside his own 20m line when he took the free that started it off. Yet it wasn’t just a case of lorrying the ball down on top of Rushe. Jake Malone came short from left half-forward into midfield, bringing Enda Morrissey with him. Fergal Whitely pulled out of the left corner-forward position, and went to the top of the D, with Conor Delaney following him. Those two dummy runs left a lovely pocket for Rushe to run into, with basically no players from either team in that quarter of the pitch.
Head for goal The key to it was that the pocket they made for Rushe wasn’t too far from the goal, meaning that when he caught Moran’s ball in, he was able to turn and head for goal with just around 30m between him and the posts. So now Kilkenny were facing a bulldozing runner with the ball in his hand, making a beeline for the goals, and the game only three minutes old. Whatever Rushe did from there, it was a beautifully designed move by Dublin.
I loved that Rushe wasn’t just happy to take his point. Most attackers in most intercounty teams could come out and collect the ball from that designed play, but how many of them would have just eased themselves into the game by turning and taking a nice handy point? I’d say about 95 per cent of them.
But Rushe has a rare combination of bulk and speed, and on Sunday he had the attitude to go along with it.
No defender likes that direct aggressive running at them. They certainly don’t like it from a man of his size and power. He took on three Kilkenny defenders and drew a fourth one, passing to Paul Ryan at the right time for an excellent goal.
Without Rushe’s brute strength and power that goal wouldn’t have happened. He would have been swallowed up as soon as he entered the Kilkenny 20. But with swinging elbows and quads like tree trunks, he was unstoppable. He had a hand in all three goals, he won frees and set up scores through his aggression and good hurling brain.
Too often we see forwards come back out the field when they secure possession and look for runners and easier options instead of taking the man on and taking the belt, riding the tackle and going past them.
When I played I was hoping and praying that they would do just that. I would keep ushering them out the field and everyone would think I’d done a great job. The truth is, the forward had made my life a whole lot easier by not backing himself.
When a forward gets the ball in his hand it’s a psychological game of cat and mouse. Will he take me on? Or will he recycle possession? Go on, I dare you to take me on!
Egg on my face Sometimes I was left with egg on my face. Maybe I shouldn’t have dared him, maybe I left too much room on a certain side in an attempt to entice him into it, maybe I’m too predictable in the way I handle that scenario. All these thoughts are in a defender’s head as he trots back to his position with a green or white flag flying and his tail between his legs.
Walter Walsh of Kilkenny: he can’t be stopped when he wins primary possession, turns and runs. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Walter Walsh of Kilkenny: he can’t be stopped when he wins primary possession, turns and runs. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho On the up side, there’s no better feeling for a defender than turning over a forward when they take you on. Lure him in, shadow him, get your timing right and pounce. The ball goes loose, one of your teammates swoops in or maybe you get on it yourself and the ball is cleared 70m. That rouses the crowd, it shifts momentum, creates doubts in the opposition. So part of you always wants him to have a go because the risk-reward is worth it.
Setanta Ó Hailpín was the most direct forward I ever came across. He didn’t know anything else but to look into the white of my eyes and go past me. It almost irked him to not have a go – he had no big interest in scoring points, put it that way. I loved that about him, just how ballsy he was.
He didn’t care who you were or weren’t, he got off on scoring goals and taking you on. Never took the easy option, took hardship and looked for more. That’s who Rushe reminded me of on Sunday.
Walter Walsh (Wally) played a more roving role as a 14, and spent time at 11, but there was times when he had his big presence in there. None more so then when Alan Nolan caught a great ball on the line and Walter ended up putting Nolan and Eoghan O’Donnell in the net. Bill O’Carroll bounced off him in the first half as he set Ger Aylward up for a glorious chance as well – Wally basically can’t be stopped when he wins primary possession, turns and runs.
Edge of the square His role was a bit more varied than Rushe’s was on Sunday. He started at the edge of the square, but when it wasn’t happening for him in there he moved around. There’s an onus on him to get himself into the game, and if that means coming out to wing-forward to get his hand on a puck-out so be it.
That creates a different sort of doubt in a full-back. Cian O’Callaghan did pretty well on Wally on Sunday, but again Dublin had worked on it and designed a plan to give him support. When Wally drifted out, O’Callaghan was happy enough to follow him, knowing that O’Carroll and Paddy Smyth would tighten up inside in the full-back line and that Moran was sweeping around the middle.
Contrast that with what happened to James Barry in the league final. Wally ran riot in the second half of that game, so much so that all the chat afterwards was about how much trouble Tipp were in at full back. But I’d argue that Barry actually had the better of that tussle in the first half, and was doing pretty well right up until Wally got away for his goal.
Watch that goal again and you can see that Barry misjudged the flight of the ball in and got under it. I have no doubt that was as a result of Wally coming out the pitch and showing for the ball further from goal than Barry would have liked.
If that same ball was arrowed in on the edge of the square, Barry would have been happy enough just to spoil it, knowing that one of his corner backs would tidy up in front of him or his keeper would sweep up behind.
But you can’t do that when you’re coming out 35 yards from goal. Barry convinced himself he had to go and win the ball, and when he overshot the runway Wally was away and gone. Everything unravelled for the Tipp full-back after that. The Tipp crowd started groaning every time Wally got on the ball and the Kilkenny crowd were overjoyed. I felt sorry for him when Barry got the curly finger close to the end.
Key man Rushe is clearly going to be a key man for Dublin now. I would imagine Wexford’s Davy Fitz will be telling his sweeper to stick a bit closer to the full-back line this weekend, and Liam Ryan will be told not to try and catch the ball at any stage.
The key to combating Rushe will be to get the ball to the ground. He was so effective on Sunday because the ball stuck in his palm almost every time it went in. That meant he had momentum, and meant there was no thinking time for the defenders who had to stop him. Wexford need to get the ball on the ground, crowd him out, and go from there.
One way or the other, Dublin will surely keep trying it, and Kilkenny will try to find their man in there as the summer progresses.
DJ Carey always said the only ball that was a bad ball was the one that doesn’t go into the square. It’s great to see that even though the game has changed a lot, some things are always relevant.
Let it into the bear in the square!
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Post by Mickmack on May 18, 2018 22:29:44 GMT
Not a word about the Munster games by Jackie!
He had dismissed Dublin out of hand before the game with KK which was a surprise.
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Post by Mickmack on May 19, 2018 17:20:18 GMT
Putting the finishing touch to Tipp all a question of balance Finding room for the surfeit of talent at his disposal a conundrum for Michael Ryan
Malachy Clerkin
How do you put together a forward line? Plenty of intercounty teams are sitting down now in the middle of May, the summer on the table in front of them like an organic chemistry exam, knowing that if answered with due frankness, the reply is brutal: You wouldn’t start from here.
Even in Kilkenny, where the rivers will never run dry of hurlers, they’ve been mixing and matching as best they can since their last All-Ireland in 2015. In nine championship matches since then, Brian Cody has tried 19 different forwards – and handed starts to 16. The old racing adage applies – if you think you have eight derby winners in the yard, you most likely don’t have one.
But then there is Tipperary.
Only in Mick Ryan’s panel does the opposite problem arise. Jason Forde’s voracious scoring during the league has understandably carved his name in stone for the Munster championship, at least for starters.
Séamus Callanan missed the whole of the campaign through injury but played club championship last month. John O’Dwyer returned near the end of the spring and though his shooting wasn’t bull’s-eye-perfect, his striking had its familiar snap. Noel McGrath and John McGrath are Noel and John McGrath.
Five strike forwards, all of them capable of wondrous things. Artistic merit off the charts. Any team would kill to have them – just not all of them at once. If history is any sort of judge, we will see all five of them on the pitch at the same time this summer only sparingly.
Since John McGrath joined the panel at the start of 2015, Tipperary have played 42 games in league and championship. In the three-and-a-half seasons since, the quintet of Callanan, O’Dwyer, Forde and the two McGraths has started precisely one match together – the 2017 league quarter-final against Offaly.
Noel McGrath departed at half-time that day with Tipp 1-14 to 0-7 ahead but even so, the 35 minutes they spent in each other’s company was the longest spell they’ve ever shared on a pitch.
Some caveats are in order before we get lost in the weeds. The three-and-a-half year span takes in various ailments and absences on everyone’s part. It encompasses Noel McGrath’s cancer hiatus in 2015, intermittent injury breaks for Callanan, Forde and O’Dwyer, the occasional suspension, Fitzgibbon Cup call-ups, all the rest of it.
The Kilkenny match in Nowlan Park in late February of this year is notable for being the only game in that stretch featuring zero minutes from any of the five. Long story short, it hasn’t always been a case of management not believing they can play in the same unit.
First-world problem It has sometimes, though. Enough of the time, indeed, for it to be anything other than official policy. The numbers are too stark to argue otherwise. A trawl through Tipp’s games since the beginning of 2015 shows that all five of them have shared a grand total of 163 minutes on the pitch together, spread over just 10 games. In five of those games, they played together for 15 minutes or less.
This is, of course, the very definition of a first-world problem for Tipperary. And not, by any stretch, their most serious one. As they suit up for the visit to Limerick tomorrow, the general concern in Tipperary is for the defence first of all and their midfield after that. Sort those areas out and the forwards will take care of themselves.
“Tipp haven’t as many questions answered as we maybe thought they had the evening before the league final,” says Tommy Dunne. “That was the most disappointing part of it. Nobody is sure how the midfield will line out and we’re not really sure how the inside back line is going to line out.
“The forward line is a bit easier, in that there are options and Michael Ryan probably has seven or eight to choose out of. But I would say probably trying to get the balance in it will be the key for him. I would think that Dan McCormack would definitely come in there. And Bonner Maher too, obviously.
“Niall O’Meara has had quite a big role in Michael’s time and he can balance the Noel McGrath, John McGrath, Seamie Callanan type of player. He’s physical, he’s resilient and he breaks up play. Callanan and these guys, Bubbles as well – you really can’t run a forward line with six or even five of those similar type of players in it. It’s very, very hard. I don’t think he will try to fit them all in. Michael’s style is to go for a bit more balance.”
That has certainly been the way of it, as the numbers above show. Interestingly, the stand-out occasion of all five of them playing together is the last 25 minutes of the 2016 All-Ireland final against Kilkenny. Forde came off the bench that day with Tipp trailing by 1-14 to 0-16 after 44 minutes. By the time Noel McGrath went off to a standing ovation as the clock ticked into injury time, Tipp were 2-28 to 2-20 ahead.
Of the 2-12 Tipp scored in those 25 minutes, the same five players were responsible for 2-11. They scored 2-8 from play between them, gave the last pass to each other on six occasions and forced the turnover that led to a score another three. Even Callanan’s 65 came from an Eoin Murphy save from a John McGrath shot at goal. They were a disco ball of shimmering light for those 25 minutes, flashing new possibilities at every turn.
“If you look at that All-Ireland final, Dan McCormack had a humongous game,” Dunne points out.
“He came off with whatever it was, 10 minutes to go but the work he had put in up to that point was a huge contributing factor to the game opening up. The five lads were at the peak of their powers over that closing 25 minutes in that final but the last 25 minutes of an All-Ireland final are definitely not the same as the first 25 minutes.
Serious damage “The first five minutes of any championship game is chaos. There’s a whole different game going on in it where fellas are trying to establish dominance and superiority, trying to make their presence felt. But when the game opens up, they’re capable of doing serious damage.”
The tension is as old as time, same as it is in any team sport. Players who can do anything on the ball and players who will do anything to get it. Tipp have any amount of the former and aren’t exactly understocked with the latter either. And so successive Tipp managements have had to come down on one side or the other.
“It comes down to styles of play,” says Dunne.
“If you look at the likes of Bubbles, Noel McGrath, John McGrath to a certain extent, Callanan as well – these lads are finishers, primarily. They are there for their ability to score very efficiently, very economically and very consistently.
“The other side then, if you look at Dan McCormack, Niall O’Meara, Bonner Maher, their strong point is their physicality, their ability to contest high ball, low ball, ruck ball and especially to turn over ball. They’re able to take a lot of punishment.
“When it comes to championship, there’s a huge amount of physicality involved. It’s very much part of the game. You really need to be able to dog it out against certain teams. Limerick are a team who have traditionally been very physical, maybe a bit less so these days. But they will offer you a robust physical challenge. Just as Kilkenny will. That’s always been their benchmark and maybe that’s why we’ve struggled against them.”
Thereby hangs the tale, of course. Overshadowing all choices that have to be made by any Tipp management team in recent years is the fact that defeats are routinely blamed on a preponderance of Fancy Dans when it was the desperate kind who were needed. Not unreasonably, Dunne sees things differently.
“I’m biased, I know that. But that view of Tipperary really irks me. I remember playing midfield for Tipp with Eddie Enright and we lost an All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny, whenever that was, 15, 20 years ago. I was foolish enough a few days later to read one of the local papers. I didn’t read it – I just looked to see what they said about me. How stupid can you be, like? Anyway, I’ll never forget it – he had one line in it where he said, ‘Our midfield lacked a physical presence.’ I was just disgusted, absolutely disgusted.
“I’ve seen games and been in games where you could be after hurling the life out of someone but all anyone remembers is a shoulder you got when you were off balance or something and next thing it’s, ‘Tipp didn’t win enough of their own ball’. The reality of hurling is you can’t win all of your own ball.
Hard choices “So unless someone is willing to go into a hugely in-depth analysis of every ball that goes in, I would be very careful about applying that label to them. I think if you look at the big matches, in fairness to them, they’re there or thereabouts in most departments and above most counties in most of them, including physicality.”
Maybe so. But when there are hard choices to be made this summer over the shape of the Tipp forward line, there will be times when raw brute force will get the nod over wristy lushness. Nobody pretends otherwise. The question now is, who misses out?
In recent years, there has been a feeling at times that Forde was a handy choice for 16th man. A quiet, personable lad by nature, his toys will always stay in the pram regardless of what route management decides to go down. This has counted against him, not least because his natural deference to the more established players has sometimes played itself out on the pitch.
A case in point was his handpass to Noel McGrath when straight through the middle on the 20-metre line with 18 minutes to go against Galway last year. Apart from not being a very good pass – the elder McGrath had to adjust his stride and hit it on the bounce, giving Colm Callanan time to get down and make the save – it was striking that Forde didn’t consider a shot himself despite being in a great position. Having started on the bench, he finished it there too, replaced by O’Meara soon after that passage of play.
Chances are, however, that the 2018 version of Jason Forde would take that shot on. He was the outstanding player in the country during the league and if Ryan has a choice to make, it’s probably more to do with whether to leave him on the frees when Callanan gets going again. Either way, it’s the original nice problem to have.
How Tipp go about solving it will say plenty about their approach to the summer’s doings.
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Post by glengael on May 20, 2018 10:54:50 GMT
Let's hope so. Clare may be in last chance saloon to rescue something from their historic underage success. All 4 teams fancy themselves to have a big say come late summer.
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Post by Mickmack on May 20, 2018 14:52:47 GMT
In 5 words....Wasteful Limerick defeat abject Tipp.
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Post by Mickmack on May 20, 2018 15:53:58 GMT
Heart attack stuff on South East Radio today. Wonderfully biased commentary.
Wexford had it won. 5 points up with 8 minutres left Dublin clawed it back and went a point up going into 3 minutes injury time. Back roared Wexford to score 3 unanswered points.
Dublin likely to lose out now as they are unlikely to make the top 3 positions in Leinster
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Post by dc84 on May 20, 2018 17:56:47 GMT
They might beat offally hard to see them going to salthill and getting a result
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Post by veteran on May 20, 2018 21:31:01 GMT
I went to Cork today to Cork v Clare. It was well worth the trip. Even though it was close for most of the game I felt Cork were the superior team and looked the likely winners all through the second half but conceded a soft goal when they were five points up. Seamis Harnedy got a wonderful goal to clinch it. Cork always produce skillful forwards but to complement these they usually produce a powerful central forward like Willie Walsh, Tim Crowley , Tomas Mulcahy etc. Seamus seems to fulfill that role on the current team.
If I was a Clare supporter I would have been exasperated by their intent on trying for goals when handy points were on available.
P.S. Any report on the nature of the injury sustained by the Cork half forward, Robbie O'Flynn?
P.P.S. Disappointed to hear on the way home that Kerry were beaten. Is that the end of the road?
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Post by Mickmack on May 20, 2018 21:52:18 GMT
Veteran...did the pitch cut up today. It looked that way on tv.
Kerry will need to win their last two games and hope for favourable results in other games to advance
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Post by veteran on May 20, 2018 22:11:25 GMT
Veteran...did the pitch cut up today. It looked that way on tv. Kerry will need to win their last two games and hope for favourable results in other games to advance Mick there was an occasional bare patch but by and large it looked well and played well.
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Post by Mickmack on May 20, 2018 22:15:17 GMT
Thanks Veteran. I was surprised and delighted to see the gifted and gentlemanly Pat Horgan playing today. I presumed he would be serving a suspension from last years semi final for that red card v Waterford. Maybe it was rescinded. If it was, it was the right thing to so.
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Jigz84
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,017
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Post by Jigz84 on May 21, 2018 9:33:43 GMT
Tipp were awful, didn't seem to have any plan at all. The supply to the forwards was just hit & hope stuff. Michael Ryan refusing to speak to the media then. Strange set-up.
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Post by kerrygold on May 21, 2018 9:39:03 GMT
Tipp v Cork could be a thunderous affair with Tipp needing the win.............maybe even a summer epic.
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Post by Mickmack on May 25, 2018 21:14:50 GMT
LIVE ON RTE2 ON SUNDAY
TIPPERARY V CORK - 2PM - GALWAY V KILKENNY 4PM
Kilkenny have to make the journey to Saltill.
Cork have the chance to end Tipps season as you are unlikely to make the top 3 in Munster if you lose two games
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Post by Mickmack on May 25, 2018 21:26:28 GMT
Jackie Tyrrell
The years when you don’t win the All-Ireland never leave you. I’ve said it before here – the likes of 2010 and 2013 will always be etched into my memory, for all the wrong reasons. Years we failed, years we wish did not exist. I was lucky to have great days in the black and amber jersey but the bad ones contaminate them.
I hate to say it like that. I know it shouldn’t be the case. I know I should be able to say the good far outweighed the bad. I know that in sport you can’t win everything. I know that it’s probably not very healthy to fixate on the ones we lost when we won so many. But that’s just me. That’s how I am built.
How do I banish those thoughts? Truthfully, I don’t think I ever will. I have worked at it and trained my mind to restrain them but I don’t think they will ever go completely. All-Irelands are what we as players and ex-players are measured on in Kilkenny. We are held accountable for our actions and performances in that jersey.
When Kilkenny people have a conversation about a certain year, how Kilkenny did isn’t far from the thought process. It almost shapes that year. Was it a good year? Well, sure, we won the All-Ireland so it can’t have been bad. Either that or we didn’t win the All-Ireland so let’s not talk about it. *e weather we’re having, isn’t it?
If you’re a Kilkenny hurler, you feel this in the air. This pressure to succeed. There’s no point pretending you don’t. It’s the opposite, if anything. By acknowledging that it’s there, you give yourself a baseline to aim at. If you don’t do enough to hit that baseline, somebody else will. So you don’t really have a choice in the matter.
I remember going around the schools in the county with the cup in September in 2009. I got talking to a teacher during one of the visits and he was laughing, saying that the class we were in front of started school in 2006. To them, Liam MacCarthy visiting for the day was just a normal part of being back in school in early September. It meant no class for the afternoon and no homework that night. They knew nothing else.
Things like that bring it home to you. The normal, everyday run of peoples’ lives depended to some extent on what you did in a Kilkenny jersey. People were always telling me that they had the Monday after the All-Ireland booked off work from back in February. It was an unofficial bank holiday in the county and it was down to us to make it a good one.
I’m only bringing all this up now because I get a sense around Kilkenny that the pressure is starting to ramp up again. Winning the league is being taken as a sign that the good times never went too far away. Even though the wins over Dublin and Offaly haven’t been overly impressive, it’s two wins from two and nobody else has that under their belt. Now they’re going to play Galway in Salthill and the expectation levels are rising.
After two mediocre enough performances, I would think this is the perfect game for Kilkenny now. Apart from anything else, if they play like they did against Dublin and Offaly, it’s going to be a long afternoon for them. But there’s more than just the need for improvement feeding into this game.
When you don’t win the All-Ireland, the first order of business the following year in Kilkenny is to get your hands on whoever did. We were always bulling for the team that had won the previous year’s All-Ireland if it wasn’t us. It was always more than a normal run-of-the-mill league game.
Bringing war If it was a league game away from home, so much the better. We beat Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2005. We went to Thurles in early 2011 and did the same to Tipp. That was a big statement game, almost like a psychological stand. It was a flexing of your muscle to the enemy. Don’t think we’ve gone anywhere, lads. We’re here and we’re ready, all day and all night.
We had them lined up from a distance that night. Tommy Walsh and I had even spoken about it briefly at the All Stars function the previous year. Me standing there fairly full with a vodka and Red Bull in my hand, leaning against the bar in the Citywest Hotel wishing the game was the following week. But it wasn’t, so I had to eat humble pie for the night. It tasted like *!
When February came around, we were bringing war to Thurles that night. No need for a team-talk, Brian – just pick the team, give us the jersey and open the dressing room door. Management could have stayed in the Newpark Hotel after our pre-match meal, we would have hitch-hiked to Thurles in our gear that evening.
We gave Tipperary a guard of honour under the floodlights before the game. It boiled our blood. It turned my stomach. I gave three claps and couldn’t bring myself to clap anymore. That’s my All-Ireland ye have, lads. Three claps is probably three too many.
In my time, we only ever lost our first game back against the reigning All-Ireland champions once (out of four times). It was against Clare in the league in 2014 and it still irks me that I got done for a crucial free near the end of that one. I was coming out for a ball and got a pushed in the back but Brian Gavin didn’t call the free. Instead, he whistled me for lying on the ball.
I was raging. I probably did lie on it half a second too long but I definitely got a push. It should have been my free. I said it to Brian a couple of years later and he remembered it alright but said he didn’t see any push. It ate me up for four or five days afterwards. The two points in the league didn’t really matter one way or the other. It was losing the chance to put Clare back in their box.
That’s what this Sunday is for Kilkenny. They haven’t had that luxury of getting their hands on Galway so far this year but it is coming down the track fast. A Galway train building nicely, on a bye week last week, at home, fresh from a week’s recovery after sticking five goals past Offaly. Galway didn’t beat Kilkenny last year but they are still the All-Ireland champions. They took over and dominated the hurling world. Kilkenny can’t allow that to stand.
Galway dominated Leinster, won an All-Ireland and threw in the league for good measure. That’s a recipe to drive a sane man mad watching on from the sidelines. This is Kilkenny’s first chance to set the record straight. It doesn’t matter that Galway didn’t beat Kilkenny last year – they kept Liam MacCarthy for the winter. That’s enough to get a nice sick feeling in Kilkenny stomachs.
They’re envious of hearing about Galway. Of looking at them at the All Stars last year. Of the image of David Burke lifting the cup. Of seeing them on The Late Late Show, the Toy Show, in the papers, on the news. Of them doing any promotional work in the GAA world. Sick it’s not the Rose of Mooncoin playing through the winter.
Core group The current Kilkenny team has a lot of lads who have no All-Ireland medal so you might think they’d find it hard to muster up that jealousy. Or that it might be hard to be offended by someone else having possession of the title when you haven’t been up those steps yourself.
Don’t believe it for a second. Roll the names of the leaders off your tongue – Eoin Murphy, Paul Murphy, Cillian Buckley, TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly, Conor Fogarty. I guarantee you they’re in training this week talking about how Galway have their All-Ireland. Everybody else has to take their lead from them.
Life is short. Life in an intercounty set-up is even shorter again. Players come in and think they’re doing well and then they get overtaken by someone else who is just that bit more desperate for it or who is learning that bit quicker what it takes. Ollie Walsh isn’t even on the panel anymore and he was starting league games only a couple of months ago. That happens every year.
Every intercounty set-up that is going well is generally made up of four subsets. There’s the older lads hanging on for a last year or two, doing their best to get themselves right first and foremost. There’s the shy lads who are happy enough to fulfil their role without any fuss. There’s the young lads, full of energy and good intentions, making mistakes and learning the ropes.
And then there is the core group of lads between 24 and 29 who are driving everything. For Kilkenny, that’s Cillian, TJ, the two Murphys, the lads mentioned above, basically. You are never sure of your place under Brian Cody but there’s always a handful of players who know that if they’re right, all things being equal, they’re at the front of it.
They’re hungry and cranky and used to the pressure that always hangs in the air in Kilkenny. They will shield those young lads from it all. Just row in behind us here, lads, and pick it up as you go along. But most of all, they’ll be in the team meeting on Friday night, on the bus to Galway, in the dressing room, out on the pitch, in the huddle, driving home the message – they have our All-Ireland. No more.
This is no reflection on Galway – they celebrated and rightly so. But they will be spoken of and thought of in the Kilkenny camp this week with contempt. These players have come up in a culture that says you should be All-Ireland champions every year. It doesn’t matter that that’s unreasonable, that’s just how it is. Every year without an All-Ireland is a waste.
That’s what we grew up with, that’s what we know. Cody’s team talk will be a short one.
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