A baby sitting service
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The talk seems to be that the knee injury Rodgers picked up last week is relatively serious and good chance he wonât be back til late summer so most likely could see no championship action.
That would be a fairly big blow to Clare.
It would, tough for him too if it comes to pass.
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like a Sigerson team
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I think you are talking absolute rubbish to be honest. You are just throwing names out there who are totally unproven really even though they are now 22-24 years of age.
Kiely, Brennan and Galvin have hardly a championship start between them yet so to say they will all start this year is a stretch. Gearoid OâConnor is a mile off starting for Tipp and Billy Power will be doing well to make a Waterford 26.
OâMara and Connolly are 23 this year with a sum total of 2x National League appearances between them so to say they are âanamoliesâ and would be certain starters is again a stretch.
Concannon and Niland must be 24 now at this stage and ought to be breaking into a Galway team properly by now. 10 years ago a 24 year old was almost considered a veteran.
If you look at that WIT Team from 2014, Paraic Mahony, had been hitting frees for Waterford in Championship 3 years previously⌠Jake Dillon had been around forever and was Waterford Vice Captain by then, Soky was around a few years, Eoin Murphy started for Kilkenny a year previously⌠Gavin OâBrien started for Waterford as a 19 year old one of those years⌠And they werenât even rated really in Fitzgibbon terms at the time coming into it.
A very good club full back but not outstanding in any attribute needed for the position at IC. Speed, man marking, aerial ability, doggedness. He is a hurling full back and a good yoke at club. IC is just too much of a step up. Youâd see him cleaned by nearly all 1st choice 14s at IC.
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Concannon is an automatic choice for a jersey since 2020, when fit.
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Ah here 
Well when you look at 2014 and youâd nearly 20 Under 21âs starting in Inter County Championship alone, and then you look at 2019, 2020 & 2021 and youâd about 5 between a three year span, then I think it speaks for itself.
Is the Mikey Kiely Abbeyside who scored the goal for UL the same Michael Kiely Abbeyside who played 20 minutes at corner forward for Waterford v Laois last weekend?
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Thatâs not talent related necessarily. Players need to be bigger and stronger now to compete with the shaved gorillas in green.
Isnât there two Michael Kielys on the WD panel. One Abbeyside and one Dungarvan?
There is. Michael Kiely Abbeyside is the chap who came on and made a big impression against Tipp in the championship last year.
You can argue about the extent of it but it is clear the standard of young players has dropped in recent years. Maybe there was just a golden generation for a period of about 10 years there though? Limerick, Clare, Waterford and Tipp all had their best underage teams ever around that 10 year span
I never said anything about starting, I just said âwill play Championshipâ and they will, barring injury.
Jake Dillon hadnât been around âforeverâ either, he made his Championship debut in 2013, a year previous. Eoin Murphy had only one year of Championship experience behind him. And I donât think Gavin OâBrien is a great example, how is he any different to Kiely or Brennan really? Being played as a young fella didnât do him any favours tbh.
But I donât think anyone is denying that less 20/21 year olds are breaking into teams, but that is down to S&C rather than talent. Even Kyle, who is an absolute animal, was bullied in his first year of Championship; it takes the bones of 18 months to get up to the level of physicality. But you seem to want to take it to an extreme in saying all young fellas are shit when, it looks as you have rose-tinted glasses.
Do you think itâs a possibility that you just paid more attention to underage & Fitzgibbon hurling back then?
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Hurling should be about skill and not S and C.
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There was a similar barren spell in the early to mid 2000s as well - very few young lads emerged to the manor born from 2003 to 2007 before a glut arrived. These things go in cycles.
Before that you had Eoin Kelly and Andrew Shaughnessey emerging after huge underage careers in the early 2000s and a gang of young Cork hurlers. Come the mid 200s you had the likes of David Collins winning YHOTY and the likes of Cathal Naughton, Niall Healy as the boys of summer who never really did it after early cameos. John Lee even got a nominee for YHOTY in 2007 will tell you about the lack of other options.
The the likes of Canning, Mahers, Richie Hoganâs etc started to emerge from 2008 onwards
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Whatever happened to Mike Fitzgerald? He was another chap who had a solid year in 2007 but that was very much the high point of it for him. Think he started the following year v Clare but canât recall him playing for Limerick again after that point.
Noel Hickey hit him a slap. He never hurled much after that.