Limerick GAA - it's Box Office - Always Has Been, Always Will Be

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9563

Patrick Byrne is likely to be FB on the minor side a tough,tidy hurler from Tipp and Wexford stock.

9564

Absolutle amazing that there’s only one nap player on the extended squad. Quite shocking in fact.

9565

Good mix of clubs there, Limerick needs more clubs to get hurling in county really flying.

9566

Not really, they’ve had very poor underage teams the past few years. This age group is u17 isn’t it?

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9567

We have more imports. Lads with fathers from carlow and kerry in there as well.

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9568

I would not expect us to be that competitive looking at results for this batch the last few years.

9569

Pretty sure that nap group were more than decent maybe I’m a year out. They were giving gsrrtspillane who were probably the best team in land at that age group a right good game of it.

9570

Patrick Kirby is Gary’s son. Cathal O’Neill is a lovely player as is Eoin O’Mahony. I doubt Seamie Hickey has a brother that young?

9571

We have reached peak Na P tbh . Up to the south side clubs now .

9572

I was told that young Hegarty is the best on the panel; by all accounts, a serious operator. Think he’s still U-16 too.

Haven’t seen a whole pile of them, O’Neill from Crecora is a very nice player, also only U-16. Likely to be poached over the next couple of years, I was told. Young Coughlan is another U-16, I have seen him play and he’s very very good. Apparently was also Crecora and tranferred to Ballybrown a few years back.

I don’t know how strong this age group is in comparison to other years, but the 4 games will be good for them, i think. But I think it’s great to see players from a good mix of clubs-having players feature at all at county level these days can be a huge thing for smaller clubs. We have a young fella who was on the U-17 panel last year but didn’t actually start (as far as I can tell, it was bad call)… his skill levels are unbelievable; he scored 10 points from play in a League match the other night, and we were badly understrength. That’s unheard of. The skill levels of the young players these days is way better than 10-15 years ago.

So while Monaleen have no players; Na Piarsaigh, Kilmallock & Mungret, only 1; they’ve all contionuously had big numbers coming through over the past few years.

2 players for Castletown/Ballyagran; 2 for Crecora, 2 for Ballybricken/Bohermore, 2 for Claughaun; those players could really boost those clubs over the next few years.

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9573

The obvious knock on effect is that the standard of club hurling is on the up too. If the county board actually keep investing in the small clubs they’ll see the returns. There will probably be five starters for the senior team from non senior clubs v tipp. That’s very impressive considering limerick clubs have dominated the munster club senior hurling championship in recent seasons.

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9574

Some relation I’d say.

9575

Is jerry Wallace involved in the coaching of this group?

9576

Yes he is.

9577

Probably the best of this minor group are U16 as underlined above. I believe that they have lost a couple of their better older players to injury so they may be building towards a decent team next year. Was a t a recent U16 club game Ballybrown V Soutyside Gaels and there was a young lad full forward for the city team, Cian Casey , for a small lad he was a serious operator.

9578

I take it your talking about Liam Griffin. Some hurler that lad.

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9579

It actually wasn’t Liam, he did end up starting for the 17s (although at corner-back), and didn’t start for the minors.

But that’s my point really- all of these lads coming through, even if not starting at county level, have really good basic skills. And their hurling intelligence tends to be very, they’re very in tune with the game as a whole.

It’s probably different for the biggest clubs, but there’s a few junior & intermediate clubs there who will really benefit from those players coming through, even in the short term.

9580

Fully agree , K/P had 4/5 lads on development panels in recent years and they would be of a very high standard and will benefit K/P in the coming years and probably get them up senior. There is quite a few clubs outside the big names that have good talented youngsters coming through. Hope it proves that you dont have to have a senior team to nurture good young talent

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9581

Cork will be a juggernaut at this level in the coming years tbh .

9582

Coaching at the very young ages, U-8s & U-10s is hugely important though and it’s still an area that gets overlooked. Smaller clubs are absolutely desperate for anybody to get involved; there simply aren’t numbers there and so there are well-meaning parents coaching, who just mightn’t have the coaching skills necessary. I know they’re running Credit Union academies around now with the GDAs and the likes of Ger Downes which are good. If lads have basic skills at those levels, it’s a huge asset. I mean, at 7 or 8 years of age, Kyle Hayes was already head and shoulders over pretty much everyone in the parish in terms of ability.

From our point-of-view; we had 4 lads on the U-17 panel last year; and another young fella on that age who wasn’t has played Championship hurling for us this year, a super back. Then we have young Mason on the minors this year, an excellent goalkeeper and we had 3 fellas in that Celtic Challenge thing (I don’t know whether they really train together much though). We’ve 2 on the 16s and, I think, one on the 15s. And all that’s grand in terms of bringing players through to adult level, county players are being well coached but we can’t let the ball drop in terms of the other players who aren’t on those panels because we do have plenty of fine club players who never played county.

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