Youāre a Limerick Hurling voyeur. But itās OK mate, youāre not alone. Weāre simply Box Office.
Fantastic. 
If Casey is injured for the Tipp match, I think that Downes, Dowling, Nash or Mulcahy would be starting ahead of Barry Murphy. Iāve great time for Murphy but heās very young and still not carrying enough of a scoring threat. Its his first year with the seniors, Iād be hopeful that would come with more physicality and confidence. I actually think that if most players are fit heāll struggle to make 26 man panel for championship. The four I mentioned and Pat Simon would all be seen as more effective impact men from the bench, and you also have O Donovan and Dempsey to come into the recogning for the forwards.
Itās interesting how different players are viewed, I would say Kiely sees Pat Simon now as a guy to be introduced in the second half of a game. When Gillane got hurt in the first minute against Tipp Mulcahy was togged and ready to come on but Gillane recovered. In the second half, when replacing a corner forward, Simon was actually called on before Mulcahy
Word from the camp is that OāDonovan is nailed on to start centre forward if fit, regardless of having missed a few games. Kiely is a big fan apparently
Downes will do well to make the bench. Itāll be either murphy or Casey.
Heās definitely a Kiely favourite. Got the call at 11 for the Munster league and early part of the Allianz League before he got injured.
No coincidence that the likes of him, Tom Morrissey, Hegarty and Hayes consistently get picked when fit - massive work rate from each which is a pre requisite under this manager.
Itāll probably all go belly up in the summer but itās nice to be looking forward to the championship rather than facing into it with dread.
I think Tipp will beat us but weāll beat Corkā¦
Weāll murder Tipp and Cork.
I donāt know if Iād call Donovan a Kiely favourite, he was given very little game time in the league and championship last year until he was parachuted in to start midfield against Kilkenny. He was picking him this year alright until his injury
Apart from Paul Browne being restored to midfield, I would be surprised if there were any changes for May 20th other than Barry Murphy losing out. A lad who had been written off, but is playing himself right back into contention is Graeme Mulcahy, who has racked up 2-04 over about 90 minutes of hurling here and there since coming back from injury.
The matches will come thick and fast after the Tipp game, and with that, further changes.
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Heās had a few runs at half forward, I thought he was out of position there and he is not in a similar mould to any of the three lads chosen for most of the league. I would have thought heād be in contention for Paul Browneās place. In fairness to Kiely he seems to have original views on where to play players, most of the time theyāve worked out. Would have thought with the players available recently and midfield seemingly a problem area that Pat Ryan was a candidate for midfield and a better one than Colin but he didnāt get a look in.
I wonder if Kiely is going to be as rigid in his views of positions players play come summer, the best teams seem to me to be a bit more flexible. Weāve built a good base structure but there are still question marks at the back, we havenāt a second midfielder and our scoring threat up front has been weak. Maybe like John Allenās team the scoring threat is being held in reserve til when the game opens up. Changes will be forced as the summer progresses either way.
Lads, Iām a big, big fan of Barry Murphy and it will be a very good player that keeps him out of the team. Heās well able to take a score if itās on, he wins a lot of frees, he creates chances and his work rate is absolutely superb. Gillaneās second goal against Clare was a result absolutely brilliant work from Murphy.
He hasnāt got massive scores for Limerick seniors but he does get big scores for Doon & did for UL aswell and would have always been seen as a dangerous scoring forward at underage. Obviously this is a different level but I wouldnāt be writing him off just because he hasnāt been taking on that many scoring chances. Sublime finish for a goal against Galway that was ruled out too.
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Our scoring threat has been weak? What year was it better? Weāre creating much more goal chances and scoring more from general play than any other Period since 07. Were creating crazy amount of chances too. Gillane, Flanagan and murphy are very good scoring threats while hayes, Hegarty and tom morrissey are consistently chipping in with scores as is cian lynch. Our scoring threat is far from weak.
Our shot conversion rate appears to me to be very bad. We are currently creating bag loads of chances which is a positive. However, to expect that we will continue to create miles more chances than the teams we play against is unrealistic.
Nobody on subs bar peter Casey would really improve that. I suspect weāll be hitting far less wides come championship.
Your theory can be interpreted 2 ways .
Not going well for the minors.
Johnny Murphy reffing at Liam McCarthy level in 2018. First Limerick ref in a few years. Edit- I see this has been covered in a different thread.
One of the issues in terms of conversion rates is the positions in which we are shooting from. Forget about Byrneās ballooning them. Thatās a different issue. But if you look back over the league, you will see that a lot of diagonal ball went into the corners. Great ball to give in and always gives the corner forward a chance to gain clean possession. The problem arises after possession is gathered. We simply have no-one offering a support option coming up the middle. Thus leaving the forward turning back into the corner back or being forced to shoot from a more difficult angle than if he could lay it off. Assuming Kyle Hayes starts at 11, he really has to provide an option to the two corner forwards.
A lot of that will come wit experience. These lads are only starting out.
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Ah I know. It was just an observation I made during the league. Providing support up the centre makes the backs hesitate. "Do I follow my man "in which case the forward should be able to lay off the pass. Or āDo I watch the space created by the diagonal passā which gives the forward in possession time to readjust his angle for shooting. Shouldnāt be hard to emphasise in training.