Best ever defender? Totally different to JJ Delaney. Hayes is most physically dominant half back I have ever seen. He is such an attacking threat, just a physical freak. JJ was the best defender I have seen. Just had it all. I cant ever remember anyone getting the better of him, touch, fielding, blocking,hooking, sniffing out danger. The goat defender.
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Best half back Iād say but they play the position very different tbf.
Half backās primary role is to defend. There is no comparison between Hayes and Delaney in this regard. Hayes has reinvented the position, but he is not in same parish as Delaney, when it comes to actual defending.
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His men donāt be scoring a whole pile.
Hayes is great, but his athleticism is his greatest asset. Thats not a slight on him or to say that he is not a great stickman, but just not in the same league as Delaney imho.
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Kyle is obviously very good going forward, but he is 100% the best defender in Limerickās half-back line.
He pretty much has it all for the position- unbelievable in the air, brilliant deliveries, good at the tight stickpassing too, overlapping runs, ridiculous recovery pace, very strong in the tackle.
Thatās not to say heās definitely better than JJ who was obviously class too. I would rate Tommy as the best of the lot though, just serious skills.
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I would have Sean Finn as best defender on current Limerick team myself.
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Kyle doesnāt always get the credit for his skills because heās such a freak of an athlete. His positional sense is unreal too. Very good reader of the game.
Great discipline record as well. Never gets sent off in championship.
Oh definitely.
I did specifically say half-back line tbf. But the skillsets of the half-back line & full-back line are very different these days. You canāt just be a pure defender in the half-back line really; you have to be able to hurl. You might get away with being less of a hurler in the full-back line if you can snuff out top forwards.
Finn is unbelievable but I would say most full-back line players are better pure defenders than any half-backs about (obviously defending in the full-back line is a very different task to defending in the half-back line aswell).
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Kilkenny had to play 1 or 2 games a year most years.
Teams are fitter, stronger, faster and the game is more skillful than it was 5 years ago let alone 10/15.
You simply canāt compare.
Lols
Bizarre statement for Kyles club mate
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Sure you can. You beat who is in front of you.
21 consecutive wins > 15 consecutive wins
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I meant you canāt really compare eras. No slight on the KK team. Theyāre still the GOATs. Just 
Kyle is very underrated going backwards.
Heās a stride length like sea the stars
Iāve no idea what that means but yes
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How many of those consecutive wins were against the likes of Westmeath, Offaly, Dublin or Wexford?
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Sshhhh!
Okay, letās put this to bed, shall we. And what I find gas that before the Cork game the narrative from the @Limericks was that āoh they owe us nothingā blah blah blah.
Firstly, the current Limerick team are good, very good in fact. 4 AIs out of five is a great return, covid or no covid. But weāre looking at 2018 to 2022, five seasons. With KK itās 1998 to 2016; I include the loosing 98 & 99 teams as they reached finals. So, the same seasons is 5 (five) vās 19 (nineteen). This would mean that on a team of 15 KK would get 11 players and Limerick 4. And Iām not taking into account the way Limerick are not refreshing their team in the last six years, pretty much using the same team as won the 2018 AI.
Iāll pick Kilkenny players only as, apart from maybe Cian Lynch and Kyle Hayes, if a Limerick player passed me on the street I wouldnāt know them, and I include OāDonovan from Oola who Iām distantly related toā¦
- Eoin Murphy - has won it all, multiple times. Great keeper, brave, magnificent shot stopper, plays outfield for the club, 11 points to his name in KK colours. Better than Quaid
- Limerick player
- Noel Hickey - teak tough, no nonsense, pile of AIs won, one of the first names on the teamsheet during the '00s.
- Jackie Tyrell - I might come back to this as Iām putting forward 11 players and Iām on the fence with Jackie. The rest of the players are 9/10 at a minimum, Jackie would be an 8.9/10.
- Tommy - Legend. Brings tears to my eyes thinking about how good he was. Won All Stars on the full back, half back, midfield, and half forward line. Brave, skill, size of him.
- Limerick player - but only just. Pat OāNeill is one of my favourite players and was around in this era but his best time was early 90ās. If we won either 98 or 99 and we didnāt fuck them away, Nailer would be on the team.
- JJ - I met JJ at an underage game above in Danesfort that we brought our team from Cork to a few years ago. Chatted about a game that the Feniens and the Lockes were playing (relegation semi) later that day, got pics with Ben & Jerry and 4th of 5. I had tears in my eyes whilst the kids hadnāt a clue
The greatest player Iāve ever seen and will ever see. - Micheal Fennelly - injuries hampered him but still came out with eight AIs. Even when not fully fit, which was most times, he was a colossus. Nailed on starter.
- Limerick player
- TJ - coming near the end but still has it. Carrying the team now through our barren spell, Reid has six AIs to his name. Record points scorer, has it all.
- Henry - The king, special teams, a leader, a warrior. Gets on the team for his longevity and his scoring record. Cody loved him as a player.
- DJ - The player, not the man he is now. A magician (of a player), small, brave at a time when they didnāt spare the timber. Carried KK for a while, won it all.
- Richie Hogan - I have to put him in, even though Iād have skin in the game with him. A gentleman, he has all the skill in the world, hurler of the year, another leader in the squad. I could see him getting into coaching/management in a few years.
- Eoin Larkin - Just the 8 AIās, he was tough, skillful, went about his business so efficiently youād swear he was barely moving. Peak Larkin was vās Waterford in 2008, Christ he was brilliant that day.
- Eddie Brennan - Just excellent, and proved a lot of doubters, myself included, that he was a brilliant player. Fast Eddie would always get you a score (apart from the first half of the 2004 final, for fuck sake Eddie!!!). Great guy.
I think Iāve only given Limerick three spots. Ye can have Jackie at corner back or DJ as heās a thieving cunt.