I really hope we either get a Limerick v Kilkenny final - failing that Clare v Galway.
The last thing we need is some sort of Clare/Limerick love in/shit banter between Dalo and Teege/Ciaran Carey Point/Marty standing at a river on the County Bounds etc for 2 weeks.
For once, we more or less disagree. I think WW is most effective at right corner forward, moving around and vacating that space for dangerous deliveries. There is a myth that WW is great in the air. He is not. Will make one great fetch a game but often jumps with his eyes closed or stands crumpled and static under a ball. Here is why PĂĄdraic Maher was well able for him.
Cannot understand why WW has not been coached to stand on the sideline with his back to the crowd, attacking a puckout with the hurl in his left hand as a shield and coming on the sweep. Would be a far more effective puckout gambit if he is to be right half forward, where Brian Cody mostly picks him.
The problem with WW picking up ball out the field? That he is a poor decision maker and hugely predictable in possession. I reckon the poor decision making is related to his grip changing. To operate with consistent effectiveness, WW needs to clear his mind, a demand helped by placing him nearer the opposition goal. Nearer goal, this impulse kicks in. Item: the goal he made for TJ Reid in the 2015 AIF.
Reading that youâd wonder how they beat Wexford up and down âinsert corporation hereâ park before going to sleep and the yellowbellies still needing an oul dig out to scrape a draw at home.
Itâs great to be still hurling all the same.
MK is admirable, in fairness. I was no way advocating for that lineout. We are where we are.
JM, unless he has been going like a demon for the last couple of weeks, is down the pecking order â both as regards this season and as regards his form for the last two seasons. Which is fair enough. Regarding optimum form, I was thinking of his display against Limerick in 2019.
Kilkenny are said to have trained for the last fortnight or so out of their skin, with Richie Hogan especially prominent. Brian Cody said after one session: âThis is how we were training when we were winning All Irelands.â
Well⌠A lot of bizarre things happened over the last five seasons. But all of that stuff was forgotten after the 2022 Leinster Final, I suppose. PW has been ill used in those seasons. Full back� Huw Lawlor, 21 in 2017, had played brilliantly in 2016 Senior County Final on TJ Reid.
Heard similar from a KK man at the weekend said they were in Johnstown house the weekend before last and the word was the training was off the charts, also had the same about Richie Hogan
The panel are a bit taken aback by the standard of training over the last fortnight or so. Blew up out of almost nowhere. Two players said same, separately, to a friend of mine about Johnstown House.
Kilkenny also played 40 minutes of hurling, in ten minute segments, last Saturday evening in Nowlan Park. The same two players said they had never seen hurling in training like it.
I think Kilkenny have a decent chance, if these showings spool out of the training ground.