Galway vs Kilkenny - The Actual Leinster Final

Kilkenny are a great side. Their reading of the ball and its likely destination and anticipation of it is on a vastly superior level to any side I've seen. Tommy Walsh and Shefflin have this nack perhaps better than any other lads who've ever hurled in the modern game. They, and this entire Kilkenny team are a credit to all the greats who've gone before them.

Galway looked nackered. They went the distance in the Walsh Cup, in the league, and threw in a replay in Leinster for good measure, not to mention the bridge boys excursions.

Farra had a 'mare', Burke was missed, Cully was the wrong option having been injured for so long. Callinanis not a center forward and never was. Sadly, Cyril isn't much of one either. Time for Tannion in there. He fought hard today for the dirty ball, didn't always take the right option when he won it, but he was making a statement that's been obvious for some time, ie put the man right in with the action, CF is the job for him. HF line
Defense did ok, albeit up against a KK side who never went beyond 3rd gear, Kavanagh had a couple of shakey moments, otherwise I thought they were solid enough. Other than Shefflin's KK never looked like scoring too many goals. Herein lies the rub.

Everything about Galway today was designed to stop Kilkenny. Joe Canning is a better hurler than our tactics allowed him to be today. John Mac wants to seriously re-design how he wants this group of players to approach a game as they played into the hands of a poor enough display from the cats today, Galway were so afraid of the goal threat KK possess that they forgot to consider the even more emphatic threat from the Cats when it comes to picking off crucial points from distance, Cody knew this and I'd say he told them all to take a pop which might, along with a blustry Salthill kinda wind, explain KK's serious wide count.
They may have been there for the taking if we'd played to our strength's as opposed to trying to stop what may well be the greatest team of all time from playing to theirs. Our first touch and our running off the ball looked zonal and heavy footed all day, better we play our own game than try and stopsomeone else playing theirs, that is where we have found success against KK in the past.

That said, Hickey, Brennan and Walsh would probably all have seen the line today were they not wearing black and amber. KK getting it a bit handy from understanding officials is more or less old news though at this stage and this is a variable that would be taken into account by most opposing management outfits by now.

Bottom line on the day is that Kilkenny were awesome without even trying too hard. They are the team of teams. Five in a row is in the bag.

mossbags wrote:Kilkenny are a great side. Their reading of the ball and its likely destination and anticipation of it is on a vastly superior level to any side I've seen. Tommy Walsh and Shefflin have this nack perhaps better than any other lads who've ever hurled in the modern game. They, and this entire Kilkenny team are a credit to all the greats who've gone before them.

Galway looked nackered. They went the distance in the Walsh Cup, in the league, and threw in a replay in Leinster for good measure, not to mention the bridge boys excursions.

Farra had a 'mare', Burke was missed, Cully was the wrong option having been injured for so long. Callinanis not a center forward and never was. Sadly, Cyril isn't much of one either. Time for Tannion in there. He fought hard today for the dirty ball, didn't always take the right option when he won it, but he was making a statement that's been obvious for some time, ie put the man right in with the action, CF is the job for him. HF line
Defense did ok, albeit up against a KK side who never went beyond 3rd gear, Kavanagh had a couple of shakey moments, otherwise I thought they were solid enough. Other than Shefflin's KK never looked like scoring too many goals. Herein lies the rub.

Everything about Galway today was designed to stop Kilkenny. Joe Canning is a better hurler than our tactics allowed him to be today. John Mac wants to seriously re-design how he wants this group of players to approach a game as they played into the hands of a poor enough display from the cats today, Galway were so afraid of the goal threat KK possess that they forgot to consider the even more emphatic threat from the Cats when it comes to picking off crucial points from distance, Cody knew this and I'd say he told them all to take a pop which might, along with a blustry Salthill kinda wind, explain KK's serious wide count.
They may have been there for the taking if we'd played to our strength's as opposed to trying to stop what may well be the greatest team of all time from playing to theirs. Our first touch and our running off the ball looked zonal and heavy footed all day, better we play our own game than try and stopsomeone else playing theirs, that is where we have found success against KK in the past.

That said, Hickey, Brennan and Walsh would probably all have seen the line today were they not wearing black and amber. KK getting it a bit handy from understanding officials is more or less old news though at this stage and this is a variable that would be taken into account by most opposing management outfits by now.

Bottom line on the day is that Kilkenny were awesome without even trying too hard. They are the team of teams. Five in a row is in the bag.

or would that be the (moss)bag

The game was lost in the half forward line and everything Galway landed down on top of their half back line came straight back down, the Galway defence did well under the huge pressure on them. I would disagree however that Tommy Walsh was man of the match, he had a good game but I would have picked Michael Rice. Himself and Fennelly bossed the midfield all day long.

mossbags wrote:


That said, Hickey, Brennan and Walsh would probably all have seen the line today were they not wearing black and amber. KK getting it a bit handy from understanding officials is more or less old news though at this stage and this is a variable that would be taken into account by most opposing management outfits by now.

Bottom line on the day is that Kilkenny were awesome without even trying too hard. They are the team of teams. Five in a row is in the bag.

Some of the decisions Michael Wadding didn't give to Kilkenny was a disgrace.

mossbags wrote:Bottom line on the day is that Kilkenny were awesome without even trying too hard. They are the team of teams. Five in a row is in the bag.

I have been telling you that for months now .... and I know nothing about hurling according to you ....

mossbags wrote:

hurlingguru wrote:
Well done coolcat, I mentioned on another thread and mossbags never replied.

Don't take it personally. Other than Clash, Turlough, Hag,Sami and NSG theres no one really worth replying to on this forum when it comes to hurling.
The rest is all no more than gentle banter, no harm in that either.

Oh and another thing just because I'm from a small county and one of the so called "weaker" counties doesn't mean that my opinions should be ignored.

Lads/Lasses, joking aside Kilkenny are awesome. I said a while back that Coady was going the direct route this year, Leinster final, all Ireland semi, and Final. Forget the league and Walsh cup and the rest, just peak for three games.

I also said Cork would win Munster and I stick by that, but neither Cork nor Tipp are good enough to beat Kilkenny just yet.

I have also said that I believe Galway to be the biggest threat to kilkenny because they have the talent and they have new talent arriving every year. Maybe that's the fault line, they never allow themselves to get a settled team.

The amount of "wasted" minors in Galway is a tragedy. In the last number of years as the Tribune pointed out yesterday Kilkenny have used the lowest number of players. With Galway it is chop and change, and the same with the manager.

The club scene in Galway is too competitive OFF the field for them to prosper. Should have stuck with Noel Lane as manager.

So the Cats this year, slip up in 2011 when Galway surprise everyone, but Kilkenny return in 2012 for Henry's 9th.

Can you imagine the rubbish papers in September "Henry the Eighth"

patrique wrote:Lads/Lasses, joking aside Kilkenny are awesome. I said a while back that Coady was going the direct route this year, Leinster final, all Ireland semi, and Final. Forget the league and Walsh cup and the rest, just peak for three games.

I also said Cork would win Munster and I stick by that, but neither Cork nor Tipp are good enough to beat Kilkenny just yet.

I have also said that I believe Galway to be the biggest threat to kilkenny because they have the talent and they have new talent arriving every year. Maybe that's the fault line, they never allow themselves to get a settled team.

The amount of "wasted" minors in Galway is a tragedy. In the last number of years as the Tribune pointed out yesterday Kilkenny have used the lowest number of players. With Galway it is chop and change, and the same with the manager.

The club scene in Galway is too competitive OFF the field for them to prosper. Should have stuck with Noel Lane as manager.

So the Cats this year, slip up in 2011 when Galway surprise everyone, but Kilkenny return in 2012 for Henry's 9th.

Can you imagine the rubbish papers in September "Henry the Eighth"

Patrique i agree fully with your post however if Kilkenny have used the least number of players does that not mean that loads of talented hurlers down there are not getting a chance either

[quote="hurlingguru"]

mossbags wrote:

hurlingguru wrote:
Well done coolcat, I mentioned on another thread and mossbags never replied.

Don't take it personally. Other than Clash, Turlough, Hag,Sami and NSG theres no one really worth replying to on this forum when it comes to hurling.
The rest is all no more than gentle banter, no harm in that either.

Oh and another thing just because I'm from a small county and one of the so called "weaker" counties doesn't mean that my opinions should be ignored.[/quote]

Absolutely true HG ............ next ...

clash-of-da-ash wrote:The game was lost in the half forward line and everything Galway landed down on top of their half back line came straight back down, the Galway defence did well under the huge pressure on them. I would disagree however that Tommy Walsh was man of the match, he had a good game but I would have picked Michael Rice. Himself and Fennelly bossed the midfield all day long.

Clash - the game was lost all over the park - lets be honest here. Do you think if your half forwards performed you would have won when you were beat all over the pitch???

Kilkenny have won 7 All-Irelands in the 00s and we are still asking ourselves are they the greatest ever....'00, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009....They are already the best i have ever seen....I believe if they win this year this team could go on to win 7 in a row............if not more..

bocerty wrote:

patrique wrote:Lads/Lasses, joking aside Kilkenny are awesome. I said a while back that Coady was going the direct route this year, Leinster final, all Ireland semi, and Final. Forget the league and Walsh cup and the rest, just peak for three games.

I also said Cork would win Munster and I stick by that, but neither Cork nor Tipp are good enough to beat Kilkenny just yet.

I have also said that I believe Galway to be the biggest threat to kilkenny because they have the talent and they have new talent arriving every year. Maybe that's the fault line, they never allow themselves to get a settled team.

The amount of "wasted" minors in Galway is a tragedy. In the last number of years as the Tribune pointed out yesterday Kilkenny have used the lowest number of players. With Galway it is chop and change, and the same with the manager.

The club scene in Galway is too competitive OFF the field for them to prosper. Should have stuck with Noel Lane as manager.

So the Cats this year, slip up in 2011 when Galway surprise everyone, but Kilkenny return in 2012 for Henry's 9th.

Can you imagine the rubbish papers in September "Henry the Eighth"

Patrique i agree fully with your post however if Kilkenny have used the least number of players does that not mean that loads of talented hurlers down there are not getting a chance either

And this is the scary thing, who knows whose not getting a game down there that would walk onto another county's team. You really do have to admire the whole set up in KK, the hunger to keep on winning is something else. I'd love to have a seat for one of their training matches, must be some games that go on down there.

Kilkennys strength in dept is awesome. To be able to call in players like Fogarty, Hogan, Mulhall, Tennyson. They were in cruise control in most areas of the field
Fennelly and Rice in midfield never looked troubled. Tyrell had Hickey waiting inside on the offchance that Joe got away - which never happended, Delaney and Walsh were always in the right place for any long ball.

Galway looked very sluggish - Considering that they were only playing two in the FF line its surprising how much room that walsh and Delaney had on the 45. Although most of the long balls were hit and hope. On the odd ball that did get to Cannings corner on the right edge of the square on Two occasions Tyrell was 2/3 yards down but made up 4/5 over a 15 yard chase.

Even more frightening is that Kilkenny won this pulling up - There were at least two occasions when a handy point was taken when a man was well placed inside, in a tighter game they would have been more ruthless, They had a few easy wides which is not typical- Shefflin also mishit two frees. Fast Eddie And Larkin were relatively quite but overall KK were well within themselves.

Can't see beyond them this year - The only outside bet is Cork - If Cork can get fired up they do have the talent to match KK in Midfield and the half back line. Outside of Ben O Connor they will struggle on the HF line, But maybe OSaki can cause trouble inside

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

clash-of-da-ash wrote:The game was lost in the half forward line and everything Galway landed down on top of their half back line came straight back down, the Galway defence did well under the huge pressure on them. I would disagree however that Tommy Walsh was man of the match, he had a good game but I would have picked Michael Rice. Himself and Fennelly bossed the midfield all day long.

Clash - the game was lost all over the park - lets be honest here. Do you think if your half forwards performed you would have won when you were beat all over the pitch???

Well the backs performed well and 22 points isn't a bad score to concede especially against Kilkenny, we lost all of our own puck outs in the second half and this put enormous pressure on our backs.

Regan, Kavanagh and Collins were outstanding for the Gaillimh last Sunday. Every ball they cleared came right back at them but their work rate and drive never waned for a second. Joyce, Barry and Ollie all had good games in the circumstances too.
Smith tried but couldn't get a truppence out of Kilkennys half backs. Hayes persevered and was effective in stemming the dominance KK were enjoying in the third quarter. Trouble there was that it left an extra defender back inside and when that extra defender is someone like Jackie Tyrell helping out Noel Hickey, you are well and truly goosed, even if your name is Joe Canning
Tannion is not a corner forward. I think he actually did ok in the circumstances last Sunday but was forced into mistakes by savage KK defending.
Galways D listers on the day were Aonghus, Harte, Cullinane(clearly not match fit), Lynch and Farra who felt the forced absence of David Burke more keenly than anyone.
The sideline too had a serious off day and its haw much they learn from this that will determine if Galway are to have any chance should they encounter Kilkenny again.

I've worked it out that if Clare beat Dublin theres a very good chance Galway will be playing them in the quarter-finals.

clash-of-da-ash wrote:I've worked it out that if Clare beat Dublin theres a very good chance Galway will be playing them in the quarter-finals.

I'd rather get Tipp to be honest. Biggest shower of spoofers since Mayo Galway (both codes) .........

FIXHED ...