Haha I hope he does.
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They may have been, but do you improve by dropping your better performers from a bad game? Run through the changes and which of them strengthen the team. McCarthy had a massive game v kk. Iām a huge fan of hickey but in his last outing at full back his marker, Tippās second choice full forward, got man of the match. Weāll see when the team is named and how they play on the day I suppose.
Itāll be interesting if William o donoghue moves ahead of colin Ryan as midfield sub. I was disappointed in o donoghue the few times Iāve seen him in the past twelve months but apparently he was mom in a recent challenge game v Dublin. Iād perosnally think Malachy is a better half back than paddy o Laughlin so maybe having wod cover midfield is a blessing.
With or without DB we still werenāt good enough last year . I am still unsure if Lk are good enough to finish in top three . I havenāt attended a league game in a good few years and the games I saw Lk looked to be improving . Time will tell .
I have said to you all winter that the utterly insane situation where the club championship not being finished in the calendar year will seriously undermine Na Piarsaighās hurlers chances of making the county team .
Last year in Nowlan Park , Kk made a hero of McCarthy .
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Nickie Quaid
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Sean Finn
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Richie McCarthy
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Mike Casey
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Dan Morrissey
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Declan Hannon
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Seamus Hickey
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Paul Browne
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Darragh OāDonovan
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David Dempsey
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Cian Lynch
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Gearoid Hegarty
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Peter Casey
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Shane Dowling
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Kyle Hayes That was the team v Kilkenny. The fullback line is possibly the only line thatāll be weaker v till Sunday week. Even at that there isnāt much between Casey/English and finn. So itās a head to head v hickey and mccarthy. Casey/dowling/hayes was an awful full forward line. Gillane/Flanagan and either of mul or Murphy offer a lot more.
A lot them were under pressure anyway. Peter Casey was only ever the one guaranteed starter from nap.
Everyone should be under pressure to perform in a county team . There should be no guaranteed starters . Starting positions on any team should be based on form . Unfortunately for Na P , while they were on club duty a lot of Lk hurlers showed decent league form . The team that beat Galway and drew with Clare and Tipp will be hard to displace .
We will have a new thread before throw in Sunday! 
And rightly so. Kiely has shown great faith in some of these lads and theyāve rewarded him.
Yes .
Ah yeah, but to be fair, last summer is no real form to be going off. Lynch was very poor in the Championship last year but has been flying this year; both Morrisseys are hurling way better.
And Dowling had a shocker in the first half, was as bad as Iāve ever seen him. Came into it in a big way after that.
Richie was superb, but he had been caught against Clare. Kilkennyās use of the ball was also septic that day, whereas that is one thing Tipp are generally very good at. Heās still a good full-back and has something to offer, but can be exposed by a very mobile full-forward and I suppose thatās what Kiely is trying to avoid. Is Hickey the answer? He wouldnāt have been mine at 3, simply because he wants to hurl too much; heās always liked a solo run. But thereās no doubting he is excellent in the air and a good man marker.
But itās not really about the personnel, itās more about the roles they can perform; I think thereās about 23 or 24 guys there that Kiely would trust to come in and do particular jobs. If lads are playing badly, they should be replaced because there will be fellas chomping at the bit to come on.
Why did we lose to Kilkenny last summer? We hit an amount of wides (which weāre still doing), but we also hit an amount of ball on top of Cillian Buckley, made him into a hero; gave our forwards no chance. This year weāve been hitting the full-forward line and theyāve been taking their men on. The puckouts are massively improved. The work rate was there last year, but our physicality and effectiveness in the tackle is way better this year. Championship is another level obviously but I can definitely see significant improvements so far (getting blown away by Galway in the semi-final last year was depressing enough).
āCasey Dowling Hayes an awful full forward lineā
Casey was our best forward, Hayes and Dowling played half forward, Dowling had a great game.
The actual full-forward line in the first half was Casey/Hegarty/Dempsey though. Which was a bit mad, coz Hegarty is a million times better at half-forward. Think he still got a couple of nice scores, as did Peter Casey but good ball didnāt go in.
Hannon, Hickey & Casey were very wasteful in particular iirc. So were Kilkenny; but they had TJ and Walter pulling out a couple of big scores.
Dowling has a terrible game in the opening half. Beyond bad. Hayes is a centre back by trade. Heās no business at 15. Gillane/Flanagan and Murphy is a far greater threat to any defense.
Absolutely our physical game has improved alot over the year and more importantly the panel has become more used to Kinnerks coaching style this time around compared to last year with heads up hurling from the backs(Byrnes less so) working the short passing and running game rather than booming the ball 70-80 yards in the hit and hope stuff.
Thereās genuine pace at 14 which is key to the hole system. People donāt realise how crucial Flanagan is to the system. He offers so much.
Count the times Richie has been exposed as an individual in championship when the rest of the team played well. I donāt believe you can look at the games where the whole team has been cleaned out but McCarthyās marker scored a bag of goals and blame McCarthy for that. Again, huge fan of of hickey, I would start him every time, but not at full back, look at the damage Forde did when limerick were mainly on top.om the middle third. How is that an improvement on McCarthy.
Hegarty is like a new player this year. Out of all proportion improved. Having him in the inside line was madness as I said last year, he is huge for us at wing forward now though.
Iād still prefer hayes on the wing and somebody else at 11.