Mac :rolleyes:
:lol:
:lol:
Jaysus Dublin haven’t had any luck in the league this year, 2 defeats by and point and a last gasp draw and Waterford beat Galway. Hopefully we are saving all the luck up for the championship. A worrying aspect of the Dublin games is that we seem to go asleep for 10 minutes or so in the middle of the second half. We need to get rid of that before the championship. Maybe Daly is just training them hard now so that they will be flying in the summer.
I don’t whether it is just me but it looks like Rushe is carrying a bit of weight, I thought that when I seen the game against Kilkenny and then again the other night against Tipp.
KK just not running right at the minute. Hard to place your finger on it. JJ was woeful in the first half, improved in the 2nd. Joyce did well. Power very good from frees, deserved to go, dirty stroke pulled, can’t do that. Wadding was woeful though, shite ref. Ruth poor. Richie Hogan missed 4 scorable points. Larkin did okay. Midfield only alright, not too bad. Hogan cb not too bad. Herity saved well in the first half.
Met up with Ron Jones, enjoying his time down on Leeside. He’s taking night classes to bring him up to speed with the local language, fair dues to him for putting in the effort 
Plus we were shoe twins for the day
Who have ye to come back into the team before championship? It is a worrying sign to be so competitive in games but failing to win all these tight battles and sometimes falling to a 1pt defeat. What a catch from Rushe to score the equalizer against those awful tinfoil merchants.
KK were some pile of shite yesterday. They must have missed 5 very scorable chances in a row towards the end.
I wouldn’t be too worried for them as they have a few to come back etc. but the gap is closing. The new guys aren’t as good as the old ones.
Fair play to Cork, they gave a nice show on how to stop KK yesterday. Crowding the backs and the forwards harrying the KK half backs. When KK are under pressure their distribution is the same as anyones. KK forwards weren’t getting a lot of the 50/50 balls yesterday either. TJ Reid was particularly poor. Cork have a few decent young forwards now. I think their lack of depth will be there undoing in the end, a few very average players in the 1st 15, never mind the subs.
Wadding, was all over the KK tactics of slapping the face guard as a man solos through and the other usual stuff and KK gave away a lot of frees as a result.
From the games so far I’d have the pecking order and AI semi finalists (draw permitting) as:
KK
Tipp
Dublin
Cork
Galway are there abouts some days and miles away other days. Any of those 5 could beat each other on the day.
Clare are probably next in line, Waterford are possibly ahead of them if they get themselves together in time.
I’m hoping Limerick are just ignoring the league and going full tilt for the Championship.
Clare/Limerick/Waterford could beat anyone on a good day except KK.
Shaping up to be a great Championship, but KK should have too much when it matters.
Munster is wide open.
I don’t think Limerick or Clare would beat Tipp in a championship match this year all things being equal. Both sides would do well to get within 4 or 5 of Tipp in the summer, neither have the backs to hold Tipp for 70 minutes
Its addimittedly a big IF but if we could get ourselves right we might catch Tipp cold, first day out. Presumably they’ll be aiming to peak later in the year.
How do you fancy your chances against the blaas in the Munster Chewy? Mullane being back will inject a bit of life into them.
From speaking to a few people from home who went to the Limerick v Offaly match we were supposedly quite disappointing and bad in the central positions. Full back and centre back are going to be a problem for us and i’m not sure if Niall Moran is a full forward at this level.
Our problem is right down the middle, FB, CB, MF, CF & FF. I’d love to think Niall Moran could finally fulfill his potential (he is supposedly playing well), but we’ll see.
We have Hickey & Geary to come back to fill some of those gaps, but Hickey is no FB & Geary is getting on. I’d love to see Condon given a go at CB. I think he has all the right tools for there and he is ultimately too dangerous (defending from the front) for the FB line. Leaves an already weak fb line, with another hole though.
Ideally I’d play Geary at FB with Condon Centre & Hickey and Wayne Mac either side. You could be at least confident the runs through the middle would be stopped. That would free up Gavin, Dodge & Ryan for a three man Midfield, with Moran & Downes playing a two man FF line and Hannon, Dowling and Breen filling out the half forwards.
Other options would be Ryan at CF/HF dropping Breen or Downes (moving Hannon in beside Moran). This would give you more scope for winning puckouts if they weren’t going well.
Alternatively you could use Mulcahy as the third midfielder and move Gavin back to corner back to tighten that line up a bit. You could stick Mulcahy in the corner either and play the 6 against 6 but I think we need the third midfielder, to help us win ball & tighten up in the middle.
I’d be forgetting about Geary at this stage tbh. Agree regarding Hickey that he should not be utilised at FB. I think he could be alright CB but people say he is too loose. O’Mahony is another option for CB that should be tried, maybe he is too light but he certainly got stronger over the last year or so and has a good hurling brain and ability.
Assuming you are talking about Cork, I’d agree, even taking into account the fact that two McCarthys and Luke O’Farrell have to come back. We are at least three first team players short of being genuine AI contendors, and three is a lot tbf. Moreover if we get a long term injury to someone like Cadogan or Cronin or even Lehane at this early stage thats the season over. I actually noticed a couple of the KK lads on their site saying ‘Cork were back’ or were going to win an AI in a couple of years - farcical stuff really.
In saying all that, there are a lot of very good young hurlers coming through in a lot of different positions and styles, so JBM has plenty to work with.
Aye, and you couldn’t get away with a lad that slow even at full-back, imagine him marking Power, or Mullane etc. The days of putting a big, strong but slow full-back on the square are long gone.
Ya give em a few years and they’ll be real challengers
Cork are back, let there be no mistake about it. Too big a county to keep down. And with JBM at the healm, sure the sky’s the limit
agreed, and clares possession game will cost them this year against the bigger guns
The big danger for Tipp this year is that the players have no faith in their manager and would prefer if he wasn’t there at all. They may still have too much quality for anyone in Munster but if things do get rough at any stage, the shit they’ll get from the public will turn their dislike for Ryan into outright contempt.
Clare and Limerick have similar problems, especially the lack of outstanding options at 3 and 6.
Wtb jim mc is doing fine, couldnt see Dublin beat KK while Cody is in charge